Page 65 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

54 GERBNER ET AL.

watched more television were more likely to say they wanted to get mar-
ried, to stay married to the same person for life, and to have children.
Nevertheless, there was a positive relationship between amount of view-
ing and expressing the opinion that one sees so few good or happy mar-
riages that one could question marriage as a way of life.
Many of television’s families do not fit the “traditional nuclear” model,
and single-parent families are overrepresented. Morgan, Leggett, and
Shanahan (1999) found that, beyond all controls, heavy viewers were
more likely than light viewers to accept single parenthood and out-of-
wedlock childbirth. Nevertheless, the single parent on TV bears little
resemblance to single-parent households in reality. On television, the sin-
gle parent typically is a well-off male with full-time, live-in, domestic
help. Heavy viewers may thus be more accepting of a highly fantasized
and luxurious notion of single-parenthood.
Other studies have looked at issues of the cultivation of attitudes
toward science or the environment. For instance, Shanahan, Morgan, and
Stenbjerre (1997) found that heavy viewers are less likely to be knowledge-
able about the environment, less likely to be active on environmental
issues, and more likely to be fearful about specific environmental problems
or issues. A cultivated fearful withdrawal from science issues was ad-
duced, echoing earlier work (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1981)
on the cultivation of images of science (also see Shanahan & McComas,
1999, for a more general treatment of TV and the environment).
Other extrapolations from content patterns have involved political
views. For example, we have argued that as television seeks large and het-
erogeneous audiences, its messages are designed to disturb as few as pos-
sible. Therefore they tend to “balance” opposing perspectives, and to
steer a “middle course” along the supposedly nonideological mainstream.
We have found that heavy viewers are substantially more likely to label
themselves as being “moderate” rather than either “liberal” or “conserva-
tive” (see Gerbner et al., 1982; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli,
1984).
We have observed this finding in over two decades of the General
Social Survey data. GSS data from 1994 through 1998 reveal this pattern
once again, as shown in Table 3.1. Heavy viewers in all subgroups tend to
see themselves as “moderate” and avoid saying they are either “liberal”
or “conservative.” Fig. 3.1 shows the patterns for Democrats, Indepen-
dents, and Republicans. The percentage choosing the “moderate” label is
again substantially higher among heavy viewers, regardless of party;
heavy viewing Democrats are less likely to say they are “liberal,” whereas
heavy viewing Republicans are less likely to call themselves “conserva-
tive.” The general pattern shown in these data has appeared every year
since 1975.