Overrepresented Topics, Underrepresented Topics, and the Cultivation Effect

Abstract

This study examines whether topics that are underrepresented in TV programming differ from topics that are overrepresented in their capability to cultivate distorted estimations of social reality. A content analysis of prime-time programming (63 hours) was used to detect overrepresented and underrepresented topics in four content domains: criminality, occupations, demography, and sex life. A survey (N = 517) tested the effect of different topics on reality estimation and found no systematic differences between topics that are overrepresented in the programming and topics that are underrepresented. The fact that distorted reality estimation may occur with topics that are not frequently depicted in the programming supports the thesis that cultivation stems from actual learning of facts and figures from the screen.

Keywords:

• Content Analysis
• Cultivation
• Heuristic Processing
• Learning and Construction
• Reality Estimation
• Television

The author thanks L. J. Shrum, J. Burroughs, A. Rindfleisch, W. J. Potter, and J. Shanahan for providing inspiration to this work; two of the journal's anonymous reviewers for constructive feeback on the manuscript; and the editor, Wendy Samter, for insightful editorial recommendations.

Notes

∗Figures obtained from Israeli Police Authority (2005).

†Figures obtained from Central Bureau of Statistics (2005).

‡Figures obtained from Harel (2002).

^§Figures obtained from National Council on the Aging (1998).

“Heavy viewers” are respondents whose viewing time is in the upper third of the sample (more than 3.5 hours per day). “Medium viewers” are respondents whose viewing time is in the central third of the sample (between 2.5 hours and 3.5 hours per day). “Light viewers” are respondents whose time viewing time is in the lower third of the sample (less than 2.5 hours per day).

∗p < .05, †p < .001. ‡Controlling for sex, ethnicity, religiosity, Internet use, and newspaper reading. Positive coefficients denote a tendency to give TV answers more frequently as viewing increases.

The positive relationship between excessive viewing and distorted estimates is termed cultivation first-order effect. It is the effect with which this study deals. The other type of cultivation effect, second-order effect, refers to the correlation between viewing and attitudes expressing fear, conservatism, and sense of anomie (Hawkins & Pingree, 1980). Evidence in support of second-order effects is weaker and far less consistent than evidence supportive of first-order effects (Potter, 1994).

The content analysis literature offers complex methods to muster a sample of weekly programming that is less influenced by sudden changes in programming schedule by sampling days from different weeks. Because the content analysis part in the current study is an aide and not an aim, we have chosen to pursue a simpler sampling method that has been used intensively in cultivation research (see Signorielli, 1990) and sampled seven consecutive days. We made sure that no major changes in the schedule of broadcasts occurred during those days.

For a discussion of the advantage of partial correlations over other techniques in assessing the size of the cultivation effect, see Weimann (1984, pp. 190–193). Details about the application of the biserial coefficient in calculating partial correlations can be found in Kraemer (1981).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amir Hetsroni

Amir Hetsroni (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Communication, Yezreel Valley College, Israel.