Growing up with television

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Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., Signorielli, N., Shanahan, J. (2002) "Growing up with television: Cultivation processes." J Bryant and D Zillmann, eds. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 2nd edition [Erlbaum, 2002], pp,43-67.

Television is scaled more broadly than any other mass medium (43)

  • Cultural Indicators: research project concerned with "growing up" in a tv-dominated environment
  • Cultivation Analysis: esp. televisions contributions to viewers' conceptions of social reality

Contents

Television in society

Television: "a centralized system of storytelling"

  • bring "images and messages into the home" (44)
  • "shared national culture" (but was this ever true? as the shows entered the home, weren't they mutually transformed with the show?)
    • shared equally among elites and non-elites
  • "cultivation of shared conceptions of reality among otherwise diverse publics" (44)
  • "viewing decisions depend on the clock more than the program" (45)

Overal pattern of programming, over time

  • Most likely to cultivate stable and common conceptions of reality (45)
  • Rather than consider the effects of a single program,
    • Cultivation theory concerns long-term exposure to a system of messages "in the aggregate" (45)

Cultural indicators project

Three pronged research strategy:

  • Institutional process analysis, formulation, systemitization of policies re: media messaging + flow
  • Message system analysis, weeklong annual samples of network TV drama seeking "features and trends" in worldview
  • Cultivation analysis, survey regarding "social reality" among different degrees of TV watchers (heavier, lighter)
    • Does it consider other factors of their TV viewing, or just the duration?

Hypothesis: "those who spend more time 'living' in the world of tv are more likely to see the 'real world' in terms of the images, values, portrayals, and ideologies that emerge through the lens of television."

Shift from "effects" to "cultivation"

Three research traditions:

  • Effects: short-term individual change as a measurable result of TV viewing
  • Cultivation: long-term, massive, common exposure of large and heterogenous publics to centrally produced, mass-distributed, and repetitive systems of stories
  • Reception: active viewership, selective watching, viewers construct meanings from texts, can neutralize cultivation process (48)
    • Gerbner, et al argue that this polysemy does not wholly negate cultivation attention to "commonalities and consistencies" (48)

Does polysemy negate cultivation?

  • Not limitless
  • To "glorify the fact of" polysemy risks missing "determinational power" of texts
    • "Renders culture impotent" (only if you see culture AS texts rather than PRACTICES!)

Cultivation insists that there is a "resilient, residual core left over" from the process of popular reception

  • These have a "mainstream"-ing, "gravitational" force (49)

This article sounds like they are adopting the language of reception to cultivation?

  • "Cultivation is thus a continual, dynamic, ongoing proc ess of interaction among messages, audiences, and contexts."

Methods of cultivation analysis

Compare:

  • Message analysis regarding discrepancies between "real" and "tv" worlds
  • Responses to survey questions about "real" world by tv viewers (no questions about tv worlds) (49)

Mainstreaming

Mainstream, "dominant current"

  • "Most general, functional and stable
  • "Representing the broadest dimensions of shared meanings and assumptions" (51)
  • TV is primary channel of mainstream
    • Regional differences are less strong among heavy TV viewers

Findings of cultivation analysis

Most of what we know is a "mixture" of stories from a variety of sources

  • "Facts" about TV worlds inclusive (52)
    • (Is it accurate to call these "lessons" as happens frequently in this article? Doesn't lesson imply pedagogical intent?)

Mean world syndrome

  • Heavy TV viewing linked to inaccurate belief regarding dangers in the "real" world (53)
  • Similar inaccurate beliefs found regarding population age, gender roles, environmental issues, etc.

International cultivation analysis

TV (and film) worlds are regulated by national governments

  • Varying according to culture, industry (58)
  • Transnational cultivation analysis is used to evaluate efficacy of various media policies

In countries with "less repetitive and homogenous" programming

  • Cultivation analysis is less predictable, consistent (60)

Cultivation in the 21st century

Considerable changes to the technological, industrial, content, and social aspects of television since the beginning

  • From 3 networks to cable/satellite
  • Time-shifting w/ VCRs/DVR (61)
  • Picture-in-picture, etc.
  • (Online video??)
  • Industry consolidation

Out-dated analysis of Internet media considers it as a messaging platform rather than an space (62)

  • Long tail effects undermine traffic statistics
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