The “Mainstreaming” of America: Violence Profile No. 11

Abstract

New findings of the CulturaE Zndicators research project support earlier results and lead to elaboration of the concepts of "mainstreaming" and "resonance. "Television makes specific and measurable contributions to viewers' conceptions of reality. These contributions relate both to the synthetic world television presents and to viewers' real life circumstances. These are the basic findings of our long-range research project called Cultural Indicators, and they have been supported, extended, and refined in a series of studies. Here we shall report new findings and introduce theoretical developments dealing with the dynamics of the cultivation of general concepts of social reality (which we shall call "mainstreaming") and of the amplification of issues particularly salient to certain groups of viewers (which we shall call "resonance").The design of our research consists of two interrelated parts: message system analysis and cultivation analysis. Message system analysis is the annual monitoring of samples of prime-time and weekend daytime network dramatic programming (including series, other plays, comedies, movies, and cartoons). Cultivation analysis is the investigation of viewer conceptions of social reality associated with the most recurrent features of the world of television. Our studies since 1967-68 have traced some conceptual and behavioral correlates of growing up and living with a television world in which men outnumber women three to one, young people comprise one-third and old people one-fifth of their real numbers, professionals and law-enforcers dominate the occupations, and an of methodology and results (25) and "Highlights" containing the most important tabulations are available.

Does watching TV make us happy?

“…Gerbner et al 1980;Signorielli et al 1995 Bruni and Stanca 2006a) and rate their own relative income lower which is related to lower subjective well-being (Layard 2005). …”

The Role of Perceived Peer Norms in the Relationship Between Media Violence Exposure and Adolescents' Aggression

“…In these theories, the concepts of "resonance" (Gerbner et al, 1980) and "context-content convergence" (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013a) predict that stronger media effects may occur among those media users for whom media messages are congruent with their real life. For example, for those adolescents who perceive more peer aggression in their environment, media violence may find more ground, thereby resulting in a stronger effect on aggression.…”

Transmission creep

“…A sampling of work from the most intensive period of cultivation theory-testing (and defending) in the early 1980s indicates that its application requires a lot of caveats. The notion of "mainstreaming," for instance, suggests that heavy television viewing leads to converged outlooks across social groups … while "resonance" suggests nearly the opposite, with different attitudinal effects for different population sub-groups (Gerbner et al 1980). Even the theory's original proponents admitted that effects of television viewing are neither uniform nor universal.…”