Page 69 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

58 GERBNER ET AL.

what cultivation predicts. A speedy response to a question implies that an
answer is more readily accessible, that the general issue is more salient,
that the respondent does not have to dig very deeply to come up with an
answer. Shrum’s cognitive account is highly supportive of cultivation. It
also suggests that television does not necessarily change attitudes, but that
it makes them stronger.

INTERNATIONAL CULTIVATION ANALYSIS

Cultivation analysis is ideally suited to multinational and cross-cultural
comparative study (Gerbner, 1977, 1989; Morgan, 1990). In fact, such a
study is the best test of systemwide similarities and differences across
national boundaries and of the actual significance of national cultural
policies.
Every country’s television system reflects the historical, political, social,
economic, and cultural contexts within which it has developed (Gerbner,
1958, 1969). Although U.S. films and television are a significant presence on
the screens of most countries, they combine with local and other produc-
tions to compose synthetic “worlds” that are culture specific. Other media
systems and policies may or may not project images and portrayals that are
as stable, coherent, and homogeneous as those of U.S. media (as we note
later, we found this, surprisingly, to be the case in the former Soviet Union).
Therefore, they may or may not lend themselves to the type of cultivation
and mainstreaming we find in the United States (see Gerbner, 1990; Mor-
gan, 1990; Morgan & Shanahan, 1995; Tamborini & Choi, 1990).
Pingree and Hawkins (1981) found that exposure to U.S. programs
(especially crime and adventure) was significantly related to Australian
students’ scores on “Mean World” and “Violence in Society” indices con-
cerning Australia, but not the United States. Viewing Australian pro-
grams was unrelated to these conceptions, but those who watched more
U.S. programs were more likely to see Australia as dangerous and mean.
Weimann’s (1984) study of high school and college students in Israel
found that heavy viewers had an idealized, “rosier” image of the standard
of living in the United States.
In England, Wober (1978) found little support for cultivation in terms
of images of violence. (See also Wober, 1984, 1990; Wober & Gunter, 1988.)
But there was little violence in British programs, and U.S. programs only
made up about 15% of British screen time (see also Shanahan & Morgan,
1999). Piepe, Charlton, and Morey (1990) found evidence of political
“homogenization” (mainstreaming) in Britain that was highly congruent
with U.S. findings (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1982), as did
Morgan and Shanahan (1995) in Argentina.