Page 54 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

Chapter 3

Growing Up

with Television:

Cultivation Processes

GEORGE GERBNER
Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania

LARRY GROSS
University of Pennsylvania

MICHAEL MORGAN
University of Massachusetts–Amherst

NANCY SIGNORIELLI
University of Delaware

JAMES SHANAHAN
Cornell University

Television is the source of the most broadly shared images and messages
in history. It is the mainstream of the common symbolic environment into
which our children are born and in which we all live out our lives. Even
though new forms of media seem to sprout up weekly, television’s mass
ritual shows no signs of weakening, as its consequences are increasingly
felt around the globe.
Our research project, Cultural Indicators, is designed to study television
policies, programs, and impacts. Begun in 1967, Cultural Indicators
research tracks the central streams of television’s prime-time and weekend-
daytime dramatic content and explores the consequences of growing up
and living in a cultural environment dominated by television. The proj-
ect has accumulated a large database that we have used to develop and
refine the theoretical approach and the research strategy we call Cultiva-
tion Analysis, which focuses specifically on television’s contributions to

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