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

Abstract

This study proposes a new scheme for cultivation based on measures of television viewing and the relationship between TV-world estimates and real-world estimates as they are examined in three topics-criminality prevalence, the share of violent crimes, and the number of old people. Content analysis of prime-time and off prime-time programming (210 hours) and a survey of viewers (N = 591) form the data set. A model that covers 85% of the respondents, and is composed of five groups of viewers, is suggested. The groups are specified as simple cultivation (when estimation of the real world is biased but does match a correct estimation of the television world), over cultivation (when the real world is seen as a replica of the TV world but estimation of television reality is exaggerated), double distortion (when TV reality and the real world are both exaggeratedly estimated), simple no cultivation (when both the real world and the TV world are correctly estimated), and distorted no cultivation (when estimation of the real world is correct but TV reality is incorrectly estimated). The groups are differentiated by the amount of television viewing as the heaviest viewers are in the overcultivation group, and the lightest viewers are in the distorted no cultivation group. These results hold when demographics and consumption of media other than television are controlled for. Evidence of distortion has been detected in a wide range of topics. Among them are estimates of the rate of crime and violence (Gerbner et al.

The State of Cultivation

“…Other recent work continued to examine methodological issues, such as question format (Hetsroni, 2007), the dependent variables and topics analyzed (Hetsroni, 2008;Jeffres, Atkin, & Neuendorf, 2001), and new ways to think about the relationship between TV-world and real-world estimates (Hetsroni & Tukachinsky, 2006).…”

Watching Each Other: Portrayals of Gender and Ethnicity in Television Advertisements

“…Its function is, in a word, enculturation" (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p. 175). For example, Hetsroni and Tukachinsky (2006) measured the independent contribution of television to consumers' perceptions of crime rates and proportions of the elderly within society. They showed that high consumers of television perceived greater levels of crime and a smaller proportion of elderly people than was representative of the actual proportions in society.…”

Blurred world view: A study on the relationship between television viewing and the perception of the justice system

“…For example, the world presented on television contains more police officers (DeFleur, 1964;Gerbner et al, 1986;Potter, 2014), criminals (Head, 1954;Hetsroni & Tukachinsky, 2006), lawyers (DeFleur, 1964;Gerbner et al, 1986;Potter, 2014), and doctors than in reality (DeFleur, 1964;Potter, 2014). The world of television also contains more danger and crime (Gerbner, Gross, Jackson-Beek, Jeffries-Fox, & Signorielli, 1978;Eschholz, Mallard, & Flynn, 2004;Potter, 2008) along with greater affluence than the real world (O'Guinn & Shrum, 1997).…”