Chapter 24 – Cultivation Theory
Chapter 24
Cultivation Theory
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Gerbner helped found the worldwide _____ in 1996 to assist people in the struggle against
powerful media institutions.
2. In the _____ of communication, media are seen as central to the maintenance of society.
3. The Violence Index is
4. Which of the following is NOT an assumption of Cultivation Theory?
5. For cultivation theorists, television is unique compared to other mass media because it
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24. Cultivation Theory is concerned with what people do as a result of too much exposure to
violence on television.
25. Second-order effects involve hypotheses about general issues and assumptions that people
make about their environments.
26. Horace Newcomb, an early critic of Cultivation Theory, believed that Gerbner failed to
move his work out of the laboratory into real-world venues.
27. Gerbner believed that the media directly influence people’s behaviors.
28. The goal of the Proportional Representation of Diversity index was to examine the
distortion in representation of various co-cultures “across the demography of the media
landscape.”
29. The three Bs that Gerbner and his colleagues discussed were found in Jeffres, Atkin, and
Neuendorf’s study.
30. The methods employed by Cultivation Theory researchers match the conceptual reach of
the theory.
31. A cultivation differential can be defined as the percentage of difference in response between
light and heavy television viewers.
Essay Questions
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32. Identify and explain the four-step process used by Cultivation Theory researchers.
Answers will vary.
33. Compare and contrast “mainstreaming” and “resonance.”
Answers will vary.
34. What is the “Mean World Index,” and how is it related to Cultivation Theory?
Answers will vary.
35. Using the standard criteria for evaluating communication theories, evaluate Cultivation
Theory.
Answers will vary.
36. Discuss the role of television as a storyteller in society. How does television function as a
way for different groups of people to come together? Using concepts from Cultivation Theory,
what is the consequence of having television serve as a nation’s storyteller?
Answers will vary.
37. Discuss “reality TV” (Survivor, Fear Factor, etc.) and the extent to which cultivation
theorists would analyze these shows. What features of reality television are important to study?
In your opinion, what would Gerbner say about this television programming?
Answers will vary.
38. Do you agree that audiences‘ increased ability to be selective through technology like TiVo
and online streaming makes Cultivation Theory less applicable than it has been in the past?
Explain and justify your answer.
Answers will vary.
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39. Select a particular phenomenon (other than violence) that is portrayed on television, and
describe how you would use the four-step process to analyze its existence and possible
cultivation effects.
Answers will vary.