George Gerbner

https://www.mediaed.org/transcripts/Mean-World-Syndrome-Transcript.pdf

“Today, a handful of global conglomerates own and control the telling of all the stories in the world”

“The effect is supposed to be an imitation, a kind of monkey-see-monkey-do effect”

Gerbner’s research took place in the 1950’s/60’s, he primarily looked at television. His theories look at how audiences are PASSIVE.

Cultivation Theory

• Those who consume the media are more susceptible to messages.
• Repeated exposure to the media can subtly manipulate viewers’ perception of reality and influence our perception of the real world.

• If we consume something repeatedly, soon enough we will become assimilated to what we are being ‘fed’ (parallels to the hypodermic needle theory).

Mainstreaming = The idea that, if we all consume the same messages, they become the mainstream ideology. Audiences are passive and become assimilated to the views they are repeatedly told to believe.

Ideology is created by the elite who have power (straight, white, christian men).

Mean World Syndrome (World Mean Index)

• TV programmes are saturated with violent content that generates fear.
• If we continually consume violent/mean content, we will have a narrow view on the world: suggesting it is more violent than it truly is.