Television and its Viewers

Abstract

Television and its Viewers reviews 'cultivation' research, which investigates the relationship between exposure to television and beliefs about the world. James Shanahan and Michael Morgan, both distinguished researchers in this field, scrutinize cultivation through detailed theoretical and historical explication, critical assessments of methodology, and a comprehensive 'meta-analysis' of twenty years of empirical results. They present a sweeping historical view of television as a technology and as an institution. Shanahan and Morgan's study looks forward as well as back, to the development of cultivation research in a new media environment. They argue that cultivation theory offers a unique and valuable perspective on the role of television in twentieth-century social life. Television and its Viewers, the first book-length study of its type, will be of interest to students and scholars in communication, sociology, political science and psychology and contains an introduction by the seminal figure in this field, George Gerbner.

Benchmarking the cultivation approach to video game effects: a comparison of the correlates of TV viewing and game play

“…Stated most simply, the central hypothesis guiding cultivation research, developed by George Gerbner and his associates of the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, is that heavy viewers are more likely to perceive the real world in ways that reflect the television world (Shanahan & Morgan, 1999).…”

Fiction as Autobiography

“…And thirdly, consuming fictional content for such purposes does not necessarily detract from their potential effects: one can still learn facts from low-brow sources, and such work can still move people's perceptions of the world (i.e. cultivation theory; Shanahan & Morgan, 1999).…”

Sports Draped in the American Flag: Impact of the 2014 Winter Olympic Telecast on Nationalized Attitudes

“…Considering that ''sport and nationalism are arguably two of the most emotive issues in the modern world'' (Bairner, 2001, p. xi), such classifications are easier to create within international sporting events: There is an ''us'' defined by a national flag and a ''them'' that includes any other athlete or team competing under a differing flag, attempting to thwart the success of the in-group. Indeed, Roessner's (2014) work highlights how the Olympics have always been conveyed with an undercurrent of politicization, which underscores how the majority of images, events, and discourse(s) surrounding the Games are embedded with tinged nationalistic notions of an implied ''us'' and an antagonistic ''them.' ' The potential for cultivation effects (see Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli, & Shanahan, 2002) then comes to the forefront of these classifications, because ''people simply internalize content from a medium with which they spend so much time'' (Shanahan & Morgan, 1999, p. 173).…”