TNT Subtly Admits Exploitation.

This one isn’t so much a stereotype as a hidden message – only this time it wasn’t so hidden. Gerbners Cultivation theory proposed that violence on TV, although disproportionate to the actual amount of crime in the world, lead viewers to believe over time that TV depicted reality. This meant that viewers began to believe that crime was much higher in the real world than it actually was.

So this is my story – I will try to keep it short. I find myself finally on a plane after a 5 hour delay. Yeah, I know it’s a long delay – I was there. So I am finally on a plane and we all know what happens next (this was a three hour flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta, by the way). I settle in my seat, take a quick nap, read some sky mall that tells me to buy things that nobody needs, and then I again have nothing to do for the rest of the two hours. It is at this point that I turn on the TV on the back seat of the chair in front of me (quite the luxury), and find myself watching an episode of “Bones” on TNT (Hey, don’t blame me, you know how airplane TV’s are). So the episode is starting and then the main character, “Bones,” (I confess I don’t know her character name) begins to argue with her counterpart about why she refuses to consume mainstream media. It is during this argument when she declares what soon became an epiphany to me:

Bones: “Or perhaps I should develop an interest in the mainstream media's exploitation of crimes for their entertainment value.”

            At first I merely think it’s funny because we just talked about the same thing in my communications class, but then it hits me: This is exactly what the series “Bones” does!

            I guess I wasn’t so surprised that TNT exploits the entertainment value of crime in order to drive success of the network, but I was surprised at the gaudiness of confessing the shows ploy during the show itself! Then, to make it worse, I realized that I almost didn’t make the connection myself, and I am sure that most people watching the show never thought twice about the casual statement.

            Really though.

            What I want to know is: What does this mean for our society? Are we really that naïve as to what these TV shows are doing or is it that we don’t care?

Which is worse?

(Please comment. I didn’t mean it as a rhetorical question.)