Charting the Mainstream: Television's Contributions to Political Orientations

Abstract

Recent findings help refine the Cultural Indicators paradigm and suggest new ways of thinking about television as well as about the formation of political perspectives.Television is part and parcel of our daily life, investing it with particular meanings. This is a report of research on the political significance of these meanings. It is part of our ongoing project called Cultural Indicators' and develops our paradigm of "mainstreaming" first published in this Journal (6).We shall first sketch the theoretical and research context in which we present our findings. Then we shall summarize our theory of television and apply our paradigm to political orientations. We shall use survey data to show television's contributions to political orientations and to attitudes on such issues as minority and civil rights, free speech, government spending, and taxes. The implications of our findings challenge conventional theories of the role of the "press" in the political process, and suggest new ways of thinking about television as well as political research.

Assessing the research base for the policy debate over the effects of food advertising to children

“…This is because the outcomes of interest here (children's food knowledge, preferences and behaviour) are multiply determined, requiring the simultaneous investigation of the effects of multiple interacting factors, preferably under naturalistic conditions. Even more difficult to investigate is the possibility that advertising and promotion serves more to reinforce or sustain existing levels of product awareness or interest than it does to increase them (Gerbner et al 1982).…”

Violence as a Vicious Cycle

“…[51,52] Bir araştırmada televizyonda şiddet içeren programlar seyretmenin çocuklar üze-rindeki en önemli etkisinin, daha şiddet yanlısı olmaları değil de daha korkak olmaları şeklindedir. [53] Farklı bir görüş olarak da, televizyonun şiddet etkisi olmadığı, aksine saldırgan duygulara sahip bireylerin şiddet içerikli programları izleyerek bu duygularından arındıkları (katarsis) ileri sürülmüştür. [54] Aile İçi ve Kadına Yönelik Şiddet Dünya Sağlık Örgütü'nün tanımına göre kadına yönelik şiddet, cinsiyete dayanan, kadını inciten, ona zarar veren, fiziksel, cinsel, ruhsal hasarla sonuç-lanma olasılığı bulunan, toplum içerisinde ya da özel yaşamında ona baskı uygulanması ve özgürlüklerinin keyfi olarak kısıtlanmasına neden olan her türlü davranıştır.…”

The Resourceful Reader: Interpreting Television Characters and Narratives

“…Not only do interpretive processes mediate effects, but different modes of relationships between audience and program also mediate different types of effects. One can suggest that critical readings offer resistance to influence; passive, comprehension-oriented or referential readings encourage reinforcement or consolidation of past effects; active, creative readings allow for the introduction of new ideas or validation of uncertain associations, while mindless viewing may enhance mainstreaming effects (Gerbner et al, 1982). M aybe active viewing is more typical of relatively open texts, where divergence is meaningful, for active processing of closed texts may simply lead to aberrant readings.…”