CULTIVATION ANALYSIS

Research Question = Does violence on TV change the way we view the world?

Independent Variable = TV

• What is the nature of TV in general?
• How is the TV world different than the real world.

Methods

• Content analysis characterizes the "TV World"
• Audience research involves large-scale, national public opinion polls

  Based on this, Cultivation Analysis asks:

• If we ask people a question about the world do they give (1) the TV answer or (2) the real world answer?
• Do people say it is like TV or the actual, real world.
• If people give an answer that it is more like TV, then that shows TV is clearly effecting, in a very profound way, what we think.

Research Model

• Heavy Viewers = 4 or more hours/day
• Medium Viewers = 2-4 hours/day
• Light Viewers = less than 2 hours/day

• Do HEAVY viewers between the age of 20 and 30 have a TV view of the world more than LIGHT viewers of the same age group? If they don't, then TV has no effect. If they do than that suggests that the age variable is overlaid by media use." KEY concept here: Always compare LIKE with LIKE.

The TV World

• 60% of TV shows have violence
• By the end of elementary school, children will have seen 80,000 murders and 100,000 other violent acts on TV

Mean World Syndrome = a perspective encouraged by television which views the world as a mean and scary place, disproportionate to actual threats to personal safety. The more media we consume, the more likely we are to believe the world is a much more violent place than reality.

Mainstreaming = heavy viewers tend to hold homogenized views of the world, overriding factors and influences that would otherwise differentiate their views.

Resonance = when real-world events support the distorted image of reality shown on television, the messages of TV are reinforced - they resonate - and the cultivation effect is amplified.

Criticism of Cultivation Analysis

1. Surveys cannot establish causation

• Do fearful people watch more TV, or does TV watching lead to fear?

2. Neighborhood

• Relationship between exposure to violence on TV and Fear or crime can be explained by the neighborhood viewers live in.
• Those who live in high-crime areas are more likely to stay at home and watch TV, and also to believe that they have a greater chance of being attacked than are those who live in low-crime areas.

3. Genre

• Breakdowns by content type are more useful than measuring total TV viewing.
• With new technologies (VCRs, special cable channels), people are watch TV selectively - challenges assumption that TV is homogenous.

4. Passive audience

• Returns to passive audience, influenced by content with no room for how audiences might interpret TV realities differently.
• Assumes habitual learning
• Violence is assumed to mean the same thing to all people.

5. Social World Dynamics

• Highly individualistic - focusing on the one watching, separated from society.
• Ignores viewing experience (alone, with people)

References & Further Reading:

Cultivation Theory - Daniel Chandler
Cultivation Analysis - Michael Morgan