Gerbner - Mainstreaming Violence (part 2)

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

George Gerbner et al.

1. Television is essentially and fundamentally different from other media forms

2. Television as a medium is the “central cultural arm”

3. “the substance of the consciousness cultivated by TV is not so much specific attitudes and opinions as more basic assumptions about the ‘facts’ of life and standards of judgment on which conclusions are based."

4. Television’s major cultural function is to stabilize social patterns, to cultivate resistance to change

5. The observable, measurable, independent contributions of television to the culture are relatively small

INTRODUCTION QUESTIONS

In a given week, what are the chances that you will be involved in some kind of violence?

• About 1 in 10 or• About 1 in 100?

Of all the crimes in the United States, what proportion is violent crime like murder, rape, robbery, and assault? Would you guess15 or 25 percent?

FACT:In the actual world, only about 1 in 200 violent crimes occur among Americans. The Statistical Abstract of the United States reported that, only 10 percent of all crime in the country is violent crime

To scientifically demonstrate their view on television as a culturally influential medium, Cultivation researchers depended on a four-step process

1.Message System Analysis- In cultivation analysis, detailed content analyses of television programming to assess recurring and consistent presentations of images, themes, values and portrayals

2. Formulation of questions about viewers’ social realities

3. Survey the Audience

4. Comparing the social realities of light and heavy viewers

Cultivation occurs in two ways: through mainstreaming and resonance

Mainstreaming – In cultivation analysis, the process, especially for heavy viewers, by which television’s symbols monopolize and dominate other sources of information and ideas about the world

Resonance – In cultivation analysis, when viewers see things on television that are congruent with their own everyday realities

MAINSTREAMING

Mean World Index – In cultivation analysis, a series of questions about the incidence of crime and violence, the answers to which can be used to differentiate heavy and light viewers

Mean World Index

1.Do you believe that most people are just looking out for themselves?

2.Do you think that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people?

3.Do you think that most people would take advantage of you if they got a chance?

In the Mean World Index, Respondents were divided into categories of educational attainment and race

First aspect of Mainstreaming (Mean World Index)

There is a significant relationship between highly educated respondents and the amount of viewing…

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Heavy ViewersLight Viewers

Mean World Index expressing “Mistrust”

Education Subgroups

Gerbner and his colleagues found out that light and heavy viewers give differing responses and the amount of television consumed erase individual distinctions like income and education

Second aspect of Mainstreaming (Mean World Index)

Mainstreaming introduces direct experience as a moderating factor in the cultivation effect. Those with less direct experience with crime should be more affected by television viewing than those who have more direct experience with crime

White Non White05

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Heavy ViewersLight Viewers

Mean World Index expressing “Mistrust”

Race

Those who are most likely to hold a view more extreme than the TV view is “coaxed back” to the mainstream position

RESONANCE

The Gerbner team made use of the five questions from the 1979 ORC survey to form a Perceptions of Danger Index – I.

1.The percentage of respondents overestimating their chances of being involved in violence

2. Percentage agreeing that women are more likely to be victims of crime

3. Percentage saying that their neighbor hoods are only somewhat safe or not safe at all4. Percentage saying that fear of crime is a very serious problem5. Percentage agreeing that crime is rising

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Danger Index-I

•The strongest positive associations between television viewing and fear of crime were among those who live in high crime centers.

•For those urban dwellers who live in high crime centers, television’s violent imagery may be most congruent with their real life perceptions.

•Resonance predicts an interaction

between television viewing and life experience that is essentially opposite to that of mainstreaming.

• Resonance suggests that those people whose life experiences are more congruent with the experiences of television world will be most affected by the television message, rather than least affected as mainstreaming predicts

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LightHeavy

Income Race Sex Residence

Mainstreaming Resonance

Relationship between amount of viewing and percent of respondents saying that “Fear of Crime is a very serious personal problem”

•Although cultivation is a general outcome of television viewing, it is not a universal phenomenon, despite the mainstreaming effect.

• Your interaction with others affects your tendency to accept TV reality

Final Note on Cultivation

Gerbner’s 3 Bs of Television1.Blurs traditional distinctions of people’s views of their world

2.Blends their realities into television’s cultural mainstream

3.Bends that mainstream to the institutional interests of television and its sponsors

SOURCES:•Hanson, Jarice and David J. Maxcy, eds. (1996). Sources: Notable Selections in Mass Media. Guilford, Conn.: Dushkin Publishing Group. • Baran, J. S. & Davis, K. D. (2003). Mass communication theory: foundations, ferment, and future. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.•Littlejohn, Stephen (2008). Theories of Human Communication. California: Wadsworth Group. •Bischack, Valerie and Shrum, L.J. (2001). Mainstreaming, Resonance and Impersonal Impact: Testing Moderators of the Cultivation Effect for estimates of crime risk. (pdf file) •McQuail, Dennis. (2000). Mass Communication Theory. London, Sage Publication.