To assist you with the assigned readings, I have developed an outline of questions for you to answer. Think about this as a key for what information to pay attention to in the reading. Research shows that students learn and retain information better when they can write it down in their own words.
Try to answer the questions within these guides in your own words rather than copying and pasting the content from readings/lectures. The idea is to see if you can succinctly answer the question in your own words based on the knowledge you gained from your readings/lectures. Try to answer each question within one to three sentences.
1. What was Gerbner’s conceptualization of media? Did he expect there to be differences across different media genres?
2. Briefly describe the three components of cultivation theory?
3. Briefly describe the three key concepts of cultivation theory?
4. Briefly describe the three key propositions of cultivation theory?
5. Briefly describe the three foundational assumptions of cultivation theory?
6. What are the two procedures Gerbner and colleagues used to look for evidence of cultivation effects?
7. What kind of empirical support is there for Gerbner’s cultivation analysis? Are cultivation effects big or small relative to other media effects?
8. What kind of empirical support is there for Gerbner’s claim that cultivation effects are cumulative?
9. Describe the idea behind mainstreaming and resonance?
10. According to the author of your textbook, what is the most serious challenge to cultivation theory? Why?
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Cultivation Theory Week 4
cul·ti·vate: to foster the growth of
Cultivation Theory
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Cultivation Theory
• Controversial Theory • High scholarly interest, low empirical • Origin
• Based on concern regarding effects of violence on TV • President Johnson’s Commission on the Causes and
Prevention of Violence
• Based on content analytic findings
• Macro level assumptions • Not concerned with any one effect • Not concerned with any one genre • Not concerned with any one medium • Not concerned with immediate effects • Concerned with societal, generalized, long-term
media effects.
Cultivation Theory
• Three components 1. Institutional: media create & transmit a symbolic environment that reflects the society’s
values, norms, culture, preferences, & practices.
2. Message: Similarities in the meaning displayed across all media regardless of genres and medium
3. Effects: Increased media exposure will cultivate beliefs consistent with those represented in the media • Cultivated beliefs: beliefs that reflect patterns and representations in the media rather than objective
reality
Cultivation Theory
• Three components 1. Institutional: media create & transmit a symbolic environment that reflects the society’s values, norms, culture, preferences, & practices. • How do media as institutions do this? Why was this assumption not tested?
2. Message: Similarities in the meaning displayed across all media regardless of genres and medium • Concept of meaning is vague. How do we assess meaning? Lack of integrating findings
from content analyses of different genres
3. Effects: Increased media exposure will cultivate beliefs consistent with those represented in the media • Why does this happen? All the effects were limited to TV but the theory is supposed to
be about all media? Weak effects were found using correlations. Immediate effects were assessed even though the theory is about cumulative effects. No cumulative effects found.
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Theory/Concept creeping
• When an initial concept gets extended, modified, altered, and changed
• Similar to semantic change • Words change meaning over time
• Creeping of cultivation theory • Getting more specific at what kind of content • Testing immediate effects through experimental
designs • Focusing on active rather than passive viewers • Search for why? Cognitive mechanisms/mediators • Examining different comparisons between media and
reality
Cultivation of the mean world belief Nabi & Sullivan, 2001
Increased TV viewingInflated
estimates of crime
Increased "Mean World" perceptions
Engaging in protection behaviors
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Cultivation of the mean world belief Nabi & Sullivan, 2001
• Estimates of crime frequency • During any given week, how many people out of 100 are involved in some
kind of violence?
• If you were to walk by yourself for an hour every night in a park in New York City for a month, what do you think the chances are (on a scale of 1-100) that you would be the victim of a serious crime?
• "Mean world" Item: • Do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got
a chance or would try to be fair?
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Cultivation of the mean world belief Nabi & Sullivan, 2001
• Protective Behaviors Items: • In general, how often do you (never, rarely, sometimes, often, always):
• Carry a means of self-protection
• Walk to your car alone at night
• Worry about being the victim of a crime
• TV viewing questions • How often do you watch TV on a weekly basis?
Cultivation of the mean world belief Nabi & Sullivan, 2001
• TV viewing influenced prevalence estimates which in turn influenced mean world attitudes, and protective behaviors • What was the reason as to why TV viewing → protective
behaviors? • Mediating variables
• Mean world attitudes
• Increased estimates of crime
Cultivation of the mean world belief
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Reel versus real depictions of criminals/victims
• Dixon & Linz, 2000 • Content analysis of TV news programming in Los Angeles and Orange
counties
• Overarching Question • Do TV news programs represent African Americans and Latinos as
criminals and Whites as victims?
• Utilized Three Indices to Test Hypotheses • Intergroup • Interrole • Interreality
Media and reality comparisons
● Intergroup comparison ● Blacks & Latinos will appear as perpetrators at a higher rate compared to Whites
● Interrole comparison ● Blacks and Latinos will appear as perpetrators of crime on TV at a higher rate than as
victims of crime ● Whites will appear as victims of crime on TV at a higher rate than as perpetrators of
crime.
● Inter reality comparison ● The distribution of perpetrators and victims of crime by race on television news will be
inconsistent with objective data in the real world.
Who are the TV perpetrators? Inter-Group Comparison
Black/White Latino/White
All Perpetrators 69/40 55/40
Felony Perpetrators 64/26 50/26
Black and Latino individuals are more likely to be represented as perpetrators of crime on Tv compared to White individuals
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How do TV portrayals of perpetrators compare with reality?
Inter-Reality Comparisons
Arrest Rate TV Perp. Diff
Black 21% 37% 16
White 28% 21% -7
Latino 47% 29% -18
Other 4% 13% 9
100% 100%
Who are the TV victims of crime? Inter-Group Comparison
Black/White Latino/White
All Victims 53/111 50/111
Homicide Victims 43/79 34/79
• Black and Latino individuals are less likely to be represented as victims of crime on Tv compared to White individuals
How do TV portrayals of victims of crime compare with reality?
Inter-Reality Comparisons
Victim Rate TV Victim Diff
Black 28% 23% ns
White 13% 43% 30
Latino 54% 19% -35
Other 5% 15% 10
100% 100%
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Dixon & Linz, 2000
• Results • Intergroup comparison
• African Americans were more likely to represented as perpetrators of crime on TV compared to White Americans.
• Inter role comparison • African Americans more likely to be represented as perpetrators of crime on TV rather than victims of
crime.
• Representations of White Americans revealed the opposite pattern
• Inter reality comparison • African Americans over represented as criminals on TV compared to reality
• Whites & Latinos under represented as criminals on TV compared to reality
• Whites over represented as victims of crime on TV compared to reality
• Latinos under represented as victims of crime on TV compared to reality
Why worry about these inaccuracies?
Dixon, 2007: Effects of media inaccuracies of crime
• Conducted an experiment designed to determine whether news exposure might contribute to negative stereotypes of African Americans as criminals and positive perceptions of Whites as officers
• Randomly assigned to one of these conditions (3 X 3)
• Perpetrator Race – Black, White, Unidentified • Officer Race – Black, White, Unidentified
• Cultivational differential • Comparison of heavy and low viewers of news
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Dixon, 2007: Hypotheses
• H1: Unidentified suspects will be perceived as likely being Black, and heavy news viewers will be more likely to hold this perception than light news viewers
• H2: Unidentified officers will be perceived as likely being White, and heavy news viewers will be more likely to hold this perception than light news viewers
• H3: Unidentified and White officers will be perceived more positively than Black officers, and heavy news viewers will be more likely than light news viewers to hold this perception
Dixon, 2007: Findings – H1
● Participants exposed to an unidentified perpetrator were more likely to think he was Black as opposed to White.
● The news viewing did not moderate likelihood judgements after exposure to the featured perpetrator ● No support for cultivation differential
more likely to be perceived as Black
Dixon, 2007: Findings – H2
● Participants exposed to an unidentified officer were more likely to think he is White as opposed to Black.
● Heavy news viewers were more likely to think this ● Support for cultivation differential
more likely to be perceived as White by heavy news viewers
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Dixon, 2007: Findings – H3
● Experimental manipulation has no effect on positive perceptions of the officer
● Heavy viewers were less likely than light news viewers to perceive the officer in a positive manner when he was depicted as Black. ● Support for cultivation differential
Cultivation Theory
• Cultivation research today • Getting more specific at what kind of content
• TV violence rather than general TV consumption
• Testing immediate effects through experimental designs • Not relying on cross-sectional studies
• Focusing on active rather than passive viewers • Different interpretations of different audiences
• Search for why? Cognitive mechanisms/mediators • Why does media affect behaviors?
• Examining different comparisons between media and reality • Dixon & Linz, 2000 study