The Cultivation, Mainstreaming, and Cognitive Processing of Environmentalists Watching Television

The State of Cultivation

“…Good (2007Good ( , 2009 found that the (negative) relationship between television viewing and environmental concern is explained by television's cultivation of materialism and distorted perceptions of affluence, rather than solely by the invisibility of the environment as an issue. Unlike most studies in this area, Holbert, Kwak, and Shah (2003) did not find overall viewing related to environmental apathy, but found viewing television news and nature documentaries positively related to environmental concern and contributed to environmental behaviors.…”

Television, Sustainability and Subjective Wellbeing in Peru

“…The first hypothesis concerns the direct relationship between television consumption, sustainable attitudes and wellbeing. In line with studies based on US data (Good 2007(Good ,2009Shanahan and McComas 1999), the relationship between TV viewing and proenvironmental attitudes should be expected to be negative, as the content of television in Peru does not seem to differ much from that in other countries as regards the presentation of environmentally related topics and the prevalence of consumerism (CONCORTV 2013(CONCORTV , 2016Mateus, 2008). However, and in line with Kataria and Regner's (2010) study using WVS data, the negative relationship to subjective wellbeing found in other samples will not necessarily apply where alternative forms of information and entertainment are not widely available -as in certain areas of Peru.…”

“…1 The pervasiveness and influence of television on attitudes, values and behaviours has made the study of its impact on quality of life a prominent research topic, with most studies indicating a negative relationship between television consumption and wellbeing 2 (Stanca, 2016). Further, with the continuing promotion of material affluence and luxury in TV programmes and advertisements, together with scanty environmental content, heavy viewing has been found to correlate with reduced concern about the natural environment, lower pro-environmental attitudes and lack of engagement in proenvironmental behaviours (Good, 2009;Shanahan and McComas, 1999).…”

Explaining Public Participation in Environmental Governance in China

“…A study using comparable data from the US and China found that breadth of media use associated positively with local and global environmental concern and willingness to sacrifice for the environment in China, and with local concern and willingness to sacrifice in the US (Zhao 2012: 150f). Other studies in the US looking at the relationship between intensity of television watching and environmental concern and willingness to sacrifice for the environment find a negative relationship (Shanahan, Morgan et al 1997;Good 2007;Good 2009). The present study thus corroborates the finding that breadth of media use is a positive influence but watching television is a negative influence, and underlines, again, that Chinese citizens are not that different from their US counterparts.…”