Sample+Studies



** __The Studie﻿s:__ **

Cultural Indicators Project 1967-1968 : George Gerbner

In the Cultural Indicators Project, Gerbner focused on the consequences of living in an age where television is the dominant source of message sharing. His approach included gathering information on the policies enforced in the broadcasting industry, an analysis of a week's worth of network television programs, and then analysis of the responses given by members of society (with varied exposure times to these types of programming) when asked a series of questions regarding social aspects of life. This lengthy research project attempts to compliment classic approaches to measuring the effects of media on society, focusing on constant patterns of information disbursed into communities.

Virtual Cultivation 2006: Williams, D.

Dmitri Williams tested whether or not exposure to video games, namely "MMRPGs", leads to cultivation effects. The experiment also focused on whether cultivation effects work through "spreading activation" rather than remain constrained to a whatever is explicitly shown on screen. What the experiment found was that playing video games, like watching television, lead to cultivation effects but did not extent outside the realm of whatever is shown on screen. Essentially a series of questions asking the probability that an individual would encounter a specific type of violence at some point in their lives were asked to a control group and the treatment group. The only noticeable difference arose when members of the treatment group reported a significantly higher probability that an individual is likely to encounter the type of violence they played out in the video game as opposed to the three other types where the control group and the treatment group answered relatively the same because of the fact that neither of the last three scenarios arose during game play.

Acculturation, ﻿cultivation, and daytime TV talk shows 2003: Woo, H., & Dominick, J.

In this study, the researchers looked at the way international students who were not accustomed to American culture were affected by the viewing of day time talk shows.They proposed that the less accustomed they were to the culture, the more inferences they would make about American society through watching day time talk shows. The researchers found that international students took the attitudes and perceptions displayed in the show and cultivated the belief that these were common in society, but did not believe that the undesirable behaviors depicted in the show (infidelity, transsexualism) were as prevalent as they were made to seem in the talk shows.

Exposure to television makeover programs and perceptions of self 2007 : Kubic, K., & Chory, R.

This study on the cultivation theory examines the viewing of television makeover programs and self image. It discusses the idea that people want to emulate what they see on television: mainly thin, beautiful people. They proposed that heavy viewers of makeover shows would have lower self esteem. The researchers found that heavy viewing of makeover shows was negatively correlated with low self esteem, and viewers were more likely to consider plastic surgery.

Underrepresented Topics & Overrepresented Topics 2008 : Hetsroni, A.

This study explores the idea that the amount various topics are shown on television effect people’s perceptions of reality. This study consisted of content analysis of TV programming with values that indicate the likelihood of different occurrences on television followed by a survey where respondents were asked to estimate the frequency of these occurrences in the real world. Respondents who viewed the various television programming with either overrepresented topics or underrepresented topics were then surveyed on the amount they watch TV and how often these occurrences happened in real life. Heavy viewers gave TV answers more frequently than medium viewers, and medium viewers gave TV answers more frequently than light viewers. In general, there was a positive relationship between the amount of television viewing and people’s tendency to provide answers consistent with TV content.

Childhood Television Viewing 2009 : Riddle, K. E.

In this study, researchers explore whether television viewing levels during childhood affects accessibility and social reality beliefs in adulthood. Using long-term memory theory and research, a scale was developed to measure past and present exposure to violent television. The study found that exposure to fictional violent television during childhood was not related to either social reality beliefs or accessibility in adulthood. However, results suggest that television viewing during childhood can in fact impact social reality beliefs later in life when it comes to exposure to the news.



__Analysis:__

All of the studies conducted on cultivation seem to have similar results. The more of a "heavy viewer" of television a particular person is, the more information and knowledge they have cultivated from this action of seeing and absorbing behaviors and implications portrayed through television programming. Cultivation cannot be measured with a "before and after" approach, since televisions are a commodity that is present in almost every home in society. Because of this, researchers try to examine the myriad of programs in existence, and the similar morals or values embedded within all of them that are being adopted by viewers. Content is also important when attempting to measure cultivation effects. In Dmitri Williams experiment on virtual cultivation we found that people were only effected by what was shown on screen which leads us to believe that people's imaginations do not run as wild as some of the previous research on the Cultivation Theory has shown. Based on these studies we believe the cultivation theory needs refinement as it always will due to the nature of the ever-changing technological landscape of which we consume.