Real Communication An Introduction

Appendix B   Understanding Mass and Mediated Communication^545

Cultivation Theory

If you watch a lot of reality TV about cosmetic surgery, are you more likely to be-

lieve that plastic surgery is normal and acceptable? George Gerbner’s cultivation

theory indeed argues that a steady, long-term diet of heavy television viewing

results in perceptions of reality that match the (distorted) view of reality presented

on television (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994). Originally developed

in the 1970s, the theory did not distinguish between different kinds of programs;

it treated the entire TV world as basically the same—dominated by messages

about crime and violence. The theory proposed that the more TV you watch, the

more you will develop a perception of the world as a scary, violent place. Studies

showed that individuals who watch a lot of television were indeed more likely to

be afraid of crime or of walking alone at night, to estimate greater police activity,

and to mistrust other people (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994).

However, the explosion of television channels, genres, and new media has

led to criticism of the idea that all television messages are the same, and research

during the past two decades has largely shifted toward looking at correlations

between attitudes and heavy viewing of certain types of media messages—young

girls who consume a lot of “thin media” messages having poorer body image, for

example (Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Tiggemann, 2005). But critics of cultiva-

tion theory argue not only that the effects are pretty small but also that it is

impossible to determine whether any of the correlations that cultivation studies

find are actually media effects (Nabi, 2009). This is because the causal direc-

tion could arguably be going the other way: girls who have poor body image or

low self-esteem are likely to seek out messages that confirm their views (that is,

by finding thin models to compare themselves to). Similarly, people who are

already accepting of plastic surgery are the very people most likely to want to

watch shows about it. Still, it is important to be aware of our media “diet,” as

this may well be connected to the kinds of stereotypes, attitudes, and perceptions

we are developing or reinforcing.

Agenda Setting

Whether or not media have the ability to cultivate our attitudes about issues,

there is evidence that media do have an impact on what issues we think about in

the first place. Agenda setting is the idea that extensive media coverage of a par-

ticular issue or event, such as health care reform in Washington or a major storm

on the Eastern seaboard, will “set the agenda” for what issues people are thinking

and talking about (see McCombs, 2005). Issues that do not get much coverage

will not seem very important.

Agenda setting is important because we use the issues we are thinking about

to evaluate political leaders and potential policy decisions (Scheufele & Iyengar,

2012). For example, when the troubled launch of the “healthcare.gov” Web site

was getting nonstop news coverage in the fall of 2013, people tended to evaluate

President Obama based on how they thought he was handling health care re-

form (as opposed to how he might have been dealing with other issues). Indeed,

when his ratings dropped on his handling of “Obamacare” (as the Affordable

Care Act is known) and the Web site rollout, his overall approval ratings also

dropped (Blumenthal & Edwards-Levy, 2014). Obama’s decisions to delay

enrollment and employer deadlines and Democrats’ efforts to distance themselves

In what ways have medi-

ated messages shaped your

perceptions of the world?

Do you think your views of

different people (and places)

may have been shaped

by what you have seen

in entertainment or news

media?

AND YOU?

If you consider your mass

media experience as part

of your overall culture and

relational history—as ex-

plained in Chapter 1—it’s

easy to see how your per-

ceptions of co-cultures that

are different from your own

might be shaped by media

messages. But the mass

media can challenge ste-

reotypes as easily as they

can reinforce them. Modern

television shows in particu-

lar feature diverse casts

and story lines and may

help to broaden some indi-

viduals’ cultural horizons.

If you consider yourmass

CONNECT

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