Mass Communication and Cultivation Theory PDF

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Lecture notes from a presentation on mass society theory and cultivation theory ...

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Mass Communication Theory A. Historical Content a. Term mass communication coined in the 1920s (nationwide radio networks, newspapers, and magazines, circulated among the general public) B. Main function: distribution of information to a wide range of people C. Different definitions: a. Sydney Head (1976): Mass comm. implies five things: i. Relatively large audience ii. Fairy undifferentiated audience composition iii. Some form of message reproduction iv. Rapid distribution and delivery v. Low unit cost to the customers b. Mehta (1979): mass communication is concerned with transmitting information, thoughts and opinions, entertainments, etc. at a time to a large number of audiences of different characteristics. c. Agee, Ault and Emery (1979): as a process of sending a message, thought and attitude through some media to a large number of heterogeneous audiences. d. Barker (1981): Mass communication is the spreading of a message to an extended mass audience through rapid means of reproduction and distribution at a relatively inexpensive cost to the consumer. In each case, a message is transported from its original source to a widespread audience through an intermediary channel such as radio, television or newspaper. e. Dominick (1994): Mass communication refers to the process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at large, heterogeneous audiences. i. Interesting note: definitions remain consistent over time D. How would you define mass communication? Agree with these definitions? Disagree? Is anything missing? E. I’d like to discuss one theory within mass communication – Cultivation Theory a. Reason: I am fascinated by television as a medium. Where some deem audiences as passive, some active, how television is everywhere and what it means to allow and invite different characters, icons and celebrities in your home. Cultivation Theory 1. Overview: a. Cultivation theory helps us understand the impact of growing up and living in a cultural environment dominated by television. b. Cumulative exposure to a system of messages that repeat various images, themes and notions, over time, influences our perceptions of social reality. c. What kind of impact does cumulative exposure to very consistent and similar images and messages have on audiences?

2. Basic Findings: i. Those who spend more time watching TV are more likely to perceive the real world in ways that reflect the most common and reoccurring messages on television. ii. Those who spend more time “living” in the television are more likely to see the “real world” in terms of images, values, portrayals, ideologies. b. Research on cultivation began with topic of violence – expanded to orientation, stereotypes, sex, religion, etc 3. Development of Theory: a. Proposed by George Gerbner in 1977 i. Professor of Communication ii. Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (1964–1989), helped grow Communication Theory in academia. iii. Became the Bell Atlantic Professor of Telecommunication at Temple University in 1997. b. Began the Cultural Indicator research in the 1960’s which led to Cultivation Theory c. Cultivation theory represented a shift from the limited effects paradigm of Paul Lazarsfeld (dominated since 1940s) i. Quick detail on limited effects paradigm d. Conceptual Model by Hawkins and Pingree (1983) 4. Emphasis on television in Cultivation Theory: a. In our heterogeneous population, television is one of the few common things we are all exposed to. i. Primary source of information and socialization; “daily ritual” that people of all characteristics (elites and poor) all share. ii. Continually repeats stories, myths, “facts,” and lessons that define our world and culture. b. Cultivation looks at cumulative exposure. i. Different messages throughout and across many different types of programs and genre; however, there are some heavily dominant messages that are very consistent across all types of messages (consistent images and ideologies) 1. TV designed to serve a very large, broad, diverse audience a. Even new instances of cable, streaming content, etc. have similar messages b. TV in a typical American household is on for over 7 hours a day c. Cultivation looks at overall patterns of programming and its impact over time. i. Individual programs and genres have effects. 1. E.g., reality programs vs. documentaries.

ii. BUT cultivation focuses on long term impact of exposure to the entire system of messages. 1. Each message contributes something that on its own would be meaningless—but over time the seemingly meaningless effects combine into something meaningful. d. Cultivation does not influence everyone equally. i. People with certain social and psychological characteristics (personal experience, viewing motivation, attention level, need for cognition), dispositions, and worldviews and those who have fewer alternatives will be more likely to use television as “their major vehicle of cultural participation.” ii. If television is a large source of their entertainment and information, those messages are more likely to reinforce their perceptions and values. iii. Cultivation is described as a “pull” that influences people differently depending on their characteristics and socialization. 5. Research Findings: a. Violence: i. 40 years of research consistently finds that half or more of television characters are involved in violence each week. ii. Yet FBI statistics suggest that 1% of people are victims of criminal violence each year. iii. Heavy exposure leads to heightened estimates of the number of people involved in violencethis can lead to concern, fear, etc. b. Mean World Syndrome: i. Long term exposure to television can cultivate perceptions of a mean and dangerous world. 1. People that watch a lot of TV are more likely to say that” a. People cannot be trusted. b. People are just looking out for themselves. c. Families: i. Single parent families overrepresented on television. ii. Heavy viewers of television are more likely to approve of single parenthood and children out of wedlock. iii. Depiction of single parents on TV doesn’t match reality: 1. Often single parent on TV is a single male with full time live-in help. 2. Glamorized picture of reality. d. Political views: i. Because television is meant to serve large heterogeneous audiences, messages dealing with political issues tend to be moderate in nature. ii. Compared to light viewers, heavy viewers of television are much more likely to identify themselves as moderate than liberal or conservative.

6. How Cultivation Happens/ Shrum’s Process Model for Cultivation Effects (cognitive process): a. L.J. Shrum’s work heavily supported to explain how cultivation effects emerge. b. Shrum proposes that people do not typically consider the source of information when making judgments about social reality (e.g., sex, violence, average income). i. E.g., if you ask people how likely the Average American is to be a victim of crime, they will come up with an estimate based on information that they have, but they are unlikely to break down where that information came from and whether it should be used in making the judgment. c. Shurm’s proposed two types: 1. First order: impact on judgments of prevalence, probability. 2. Second order: impact on beliefs, attitudes, values. ii. Model for first order effects: 1. Proposition 1: Television viewing influences Accessibility. a. The more people watch TV, the more accessible constructs become. b. For example: people who watch lots of TV, are able to more easily and quickly make judgments about crime and violence. i. The construct is made accessible through exposure. 2. Proposition 2: Accessibility mediates the cultivation effect. a. Exposure leads to greater accessibility. b. Greater accessibility leads to greater cultivation. c. Note: some people have proposed that greater viewing leads to both accessibility and cultivation independently, but it is truly a mediation effect. 3. Proposition 3: Television exemplars are not discounted. a. We previously discussed the availability heuristic as an explanation for cultivation. i. Examples that are retrieved easily are used to make judgments. ii. TV provides exemplars and they are accessible. b. But in order for this to work, people have to actually rely on these exemplars when making a judgment. c. If they discount them, then they won’t influence people. d. Research suggests that people really don’t consider the source of information when making judgments. i. Thus, they don’t discount information that comes from the media because they don’t tend to consider where the exemplar came from and whether it is legitimate or not. 4. Proposition 4: Motivation to Process Information moderates the cultivation effect. a. If people are motivated to carefully make judgments and decisions, they may end up thinking about where the exemplars came from and whether it is accurate, relevant, trustworthy. b. In these cases, we see cultivation effects minimized.

5. Proposition 5: Ability to process information moderates the cultivation effect. a. Same with ability to process. b. Ability usually has to do with whether people are able to think and scrutinize information carefully or not. c. If they are under time pressure, they don’t tend to do this. d. As ability to process decreases, the impact of media exposure on judgments and perceptions increases. d. TV images tend to be “heuristically” available among those who watch TV heavily. (A cognitive shortcut) i. When they think about their response, they use what’s readily available in memory, and often times it’s information they have from television. Use what is at the surface, do not have to dig deeply for a response. 7. Mainstreaming: a. The basic idea with mainstreaming is that when asked about social reality we would generally expect pretty large differences among those who vary in political, social, demographic, cultural characteristics—but among heavy viewers, these expected differences tend to diminish. b. Television’s status as the primary story teller in society makes this possible. c. Expected differences based on more diversity in worldview, perceptions, beliefs, values emerge among light viewers, but not heavy viewers. d. Mainstreaming = homogenization, a convergence of divergent views and perspectives. Creates a melting pot. 8. Cultivation in the 21st Century: a. Cultivation theory was developed when only three television networks existed (plus a handful of independent and public networks). i. ABC, NBC, CBS, (Fox appeared in the mid 1980s). b. Weren’t many choices, very little diversity in the types of messages out there. c. Today there are many more choices and types of media: i. Traditional television. ii. Internet. iii. On demand. iv. New media/Social media d. Regardless, there is no evidence of any more diversity in the types of message out there. i. One reason is that there is increased concentration in ownership (huge conglomerates exist), results in lack of diversity in messages. ii. Thus: Cultivation effects still alive and well! DISCUSSION:  What are some examples of consistent messages or images in the media that you see across various types of programs? What impact might this have?  Are you concerned about cultivation effects? How might we counter cultivation effects?...