Television and the erosion of regional diversity

Abstract

The relationship between heavy television viewing and the reduction in the diversity of traditional regional cultures in the United States was investigated by secondary analysis of six General Social Surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center between 1975 and1983. On a variety of political and social attitudes and opinions, the outlooks of heavy viewers from different geographic regions tended to be more homogeneous compared to those who watched less television. Historically, the United States has reflected a curious mix of both homogeneity and heterogeneity. Traditional American ideology celebrates and extols both diversity and uniformity. The conflicting pressures and constraints of these values play a vital role in defining contemporary American consciousness and exert a significant influence on social beliefs and behavior.The population of the U.S. is unusually heterogeneous. Waves of immigration from numerous "old countries" embedded deeply the idea of diversity in our national psyche. A high level of regional, ethnic, religious, racial, and other intertwined variations have been seen as the fundamental characteristic of the U.S., defining and justifying an ideal of a "New World" pluralistic society. The other side of "E Pluribus Unum," however, is the American Melting Pot: a synthesis, blending, and dissolution of those distinct qualities into the mainstream (Engler, 1964;Glazer & Moynihan, 1970;Powell, 1982).The present study explored the role played by one particular cultural medium, television, in the process of reducing social differentiation. Specifically, it investigated the extent to which television may be associated with a reduction in the impact of geographic region on social and political attitudes and perspectives If, as some argue, the U.S. is losing some of the richness of its regional diversity in favor of homogeneity and cultural standardization, then television, which is the most pervasive source of shared images among otherwise heterogeneous groups in all regions of the country, might well be contributing to that trend. The central hypothesis was that heavy viewers across various geographic regions will show less variance (and more homogeneity) in their attitudes and opinions than will light viewers from those same regions.

Mainstreaming, resonance, and impersonal impact..

“…Part of the reason for a lack of focus on moderating effects such as mainstreaming and resonance may have to do with their relegation to secondary status, as discussed earlier. That is, it is possible that mainstreaming may occur under certain conditions (e.g., for particular dependent variables, such as political orientations and beliefs; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1982, 1984Morgan, 1986) but that resonance may be observed under other conditions (e.g., when dependent variables involve fear, probability, or perceived risk of crime victimization; see Doob & Macdonald, 1979;Morgan, 1986; as well as the results of this study). For example, the two moderating effects, in conjunction with a main cultivation effect, have been accused of effectively making cultivation theory nonfalsifiable (Hirsch, 1981b).…”

Television-World Estimates, Real-World Estimates, and Television Viewing: A New Scheme for Cultivation

“…'' This open-ended question was used in previous cultivation studies to measure total viewing (Carveth & Alexander, 1985;Gerbner et al, 1978;Morgan, 1983Morgan, , 1984Morgan, , 1986O'Keefe, 1984;Signorielli, 1990;Tan, 1982;Volgy & Schwarz, 1980). We also asked about daily viewing of dramatic series and news programs as these shows achieve high ratings in the country where the study took place (Israel Audience Research Board, 2004), and-probably in light of their content-produce significant cultivation effects in violence and crime (Cohen & Weimann, 2000;Romer, Jamieson, & Aday, 2003).…”

Influence of television advertising on adolescents in China: an urban‐rural comparison

“…Gerbner et al, 1982;Morgan, 1986), alienation (e.g. Morgan, 1986), prevalence of violence (Gerbner, 1977;Gerbner and Gross, 1976), and gender stereotypes (Gross and Jeffries-Fox, 1978). Rubin et al (1988) found that the effects of television viewing on perception of social reality were program specific.…”