1. 29
Cultivation Theory of George Gerbner

2. Cultivation Theory

3. Slide 3
Cultivation Theory
Gerbner claimed that heavy television users develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world
Regarded television as dominant force in shaping modern society
Power comes from symbolic content of real-life drama
Theory not limited to TV or violence

4. Cultivation Theory Violence, a major staple of the TV world
Slide 4
Cultivation Theory
Violence, a major staple of the TV world
Gerbner concerned that violence affects viewers’ beliefs about the world around them and the feelings connected to those beliefs
Regards all violence as the same (cartoon violence is the same as sports violence and criminal violence) and equally harmful.

5. Institutional Process
Slide 5
Cultivation Theory
Institutional Process
Analysis
Message System
Analysis
Cultivation Process
Analysis

6. Institutional Process Analysis – The First Prong
Slide 6
Institutional Process Analysis – The First Prong
Institutional process analysis: scholarship that penetrates behind the scenes of media organizations in an effort to understand what policies or practices might be lurking there
Media owners concerned with how to export their products globally for maximum profit at minimum cost.

7. Media Ownership

8. Message System Analysis – The Second Prong
Slide 8
Message System Analysis – The Second Prong
Message system analysis: scholarship that involves careful, systematic study of TV content, usually employing content analysis as a research method
Dramatic violence – overt expression or threat of physical force as part of plot
Definition rules out verbal abuse, idle threats, and pie-in-the-face slapstick
Annual index of violence remarkably high and stable

9. Cultivation Analysis – The Third Prong
Slide 9
Cultivation Analysis – The Third Prong
Cultivation analysis: research designed to find support for the notion
that those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to see the eal world through TV lens
Heavy viewers – TV viewers who report they watch at least four hours per day.

10. Mainstreaming: Blurring, Blending, and Bending of Attitudes
Slide 10
Mainstreaming: Blurring, Blending, and Bending of Attitudes
Mainstreaming: blurring, blending, and bending process by which heavy TV viewers from disparate groups
develop a common outlook through constant exposure to the same images and labels.
What appears on TV is perceived as the norm.

11. Maintreaming
What does TV put on primetime?

12. Resonance: The TV World Looks Like My World, So It Must Be True
Slide 12
Resonance: The TV World Looks Like My World, So It Must Be True
Resonance: condition that exists when viewers’ real-life environment is like the world of TV; those viewers are most susceptible to TV’s cultivating power
Viewers who perceive that the world depicted on TV was like their own world get “double dose” of the same message

13. Resonance
How do we learn the “TV answer?”

14. Research on Cultivation Analysis
Slide 14
Research on Cultivation Analysis
Cultivation differential – difference in percent giving the “TV answer” within comparable groups of light and heavy viewers
(There is no before-television condition because TV enters people’s lives in infancy)
Cultivation unfolds gradually through steady accumulation of TV’s messages
Methodology relies on surveys

15. The Major Findings of Cultivation Analysis
Slide 15
The Major Findings of Cultivation Analysis
Research revealed provocative findings
Positive correlation between TV viewing and fear of criminal victimization
Perceived activity of police
General mistrust of people

16. The Major Findings of Cultivation Analysis
Slide 16
The Major Findings of Cultivation Analysis
Mean world syndrome: cynical mindset of general
mistrust of others,
subscribed to by heavy
TV viewers
HOW DO YOU RATE?

17. Critique: How Strong Is the Evidence in Favor of the Theory?
Slide 17
Critique: How Strong Is the Evidence in Favor of the Theory?
Critics have challenged the claim that dramatic television content creates a fearful climate makes sense for most people.
Definition of violence
Programs he selects for content analysis
Non-random methods for selecting respondents
Statistical method of analyzing data
Interpretation of correlational data

18. Critique: Cultivation Theory
Slide 18
Critique: Cultivation Theory
Critics contend Gerbner’s original assumptions no longer valid with expansion of television programming (narrowcasting)
No longitudinal research—lacks testability
Effects sizes are small

19. Cultivation Theory Model
Hawkins & Pingree (1983)
Heavy/light viewer
Resonance
Mainstreaming

20. The reality we create based on the content of the media we consume
Dependent Variables
Media Perceptions
The reality we create based on the content of the media we consume
Source credibility
Victimization/crime
Body image
Minority stereotypes

21. Independent Variables
Resonance
Mainstreaming
Media types
Media usage (heavy/light)
Demographics
NEED OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

22. Operational Definitions
Indicates the precise concrete or physical steps the researcher will take in order to identify the variable.
Let’s look at a few
EXAMPLES ….

23. Operational Definitions
Resonance—how much a subject identifies with the characters in the media he/she consumes Mainstreaming—the network television programing that aires between 7-10pm

24. Activity If using Cultivation Theory, write
Operational definitions for dependent variable
Research questions and/or hypotheses
If using Social Learning Theory, decide on specific type of media exposure (i.e., picture, video, advertisement, blog post, song, etc.)