Page 69 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

LAWRENCE
GODKIN, EDWIN
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This led him to develop the "cultivation theory," which states that heavy view-
ers of television tend to see the world as it is portrayed on the small screen. By
cultivating fear, television was seen as a vehicle for the possible acceptance of
repression. This contradicted the hitherto accepted theory of limited effects of
media. As editor of the Journal of Communication, Gerbner published much
of his own work on cultivation theory as well as some of the reaction to it. (See
also Cultivation.)

SOURCES: John A. Lent, ed., A Different Road Taken; Profiles in Critical Communi-
cation, 1995; Shearon A. Lowery and Melvin L. DeFleur, Milestones in Mass Commu-
nication Research: Media Effects, third edition, 1995.
Marc Edge

GODKIN, EDWIN LAWRENCE (1831-1902) founded the Nation in 1865 in
a joint-stock arrangement with Carl Schurz and Henry Villard. Godkin was
editor of the Nation from 1865 to 1899 and associate editor of the New York
Evening Post from 1881 to 1899. The Evening Post was also owned by Godkin,
Schurtz and Villard. Neither publication had a very large circulation, but both
were noted for readership among leaders in business, politics, and intellectual
life and for well-written, thoughtful editorials. Godkin's political views were
generally liberal. He supported limited government and construed individual
rights very broadly. The influential Nation was reportedly the target of a Joseph
Pulitzer quip that he was interested in talking "to a nation, not a select com-
mittee." Godkin was a harsh critic of contemporary journalism, and his high
standards for journalism put him at odds with New York Tribune editor Horace
Greeley, whom Godkin saw as a symbol of both personal and professional
lowliness. He called Greeley "ambitious and scheming" and said that as long
as the American press remained a "moral and intellectual dunghill," it would
produce such people as Greeley. He believed journalists and newspapers should
promote public life and cultivate society. His acidic style of journalism was
characterized by one of his attorneys (he was sued several times for libel) in
describing the Post as a "pessimistic, malignant, and malevolent sheet, which
no good citizen ever goes to bed without reading."

SOURCES: William A. Armstrong, E. L. Godkin: A Biography, 1978; Alan P. Grimes,
The Political Liberalism of the New York "Nation," 1953.
Charles Caudill

GRABER, DORIS (1923- ) is a leading researcher in political communication.
Her work has addressed fundamental questions about the role of the media in
the political process. A native of St. Louis, Graber passed the entrance exam at
local Washington University as a high school freshman. She had her M.A. in
political science at age 18, having worked her way through school as a news-
paper reporter. She took her Ph.D. in international law and relations at Columbia