Terms and Definitions
Cultivation Theory Crash Course
Television, Media, and You
Impact and Criticism
100

The independent contribution that media viewing and consumption make to people's conception of social reality.

What is cultivation?

100

This theory suggests that mediated messages influence how recipients perceive the world they live in. 

What is cultivation theory?

100

The two types of media consumers. 

What are heavy and light consumers?

100

The result of inaccrate representitions in television and the media.

What is a distorted worldview?

200
A set of beliefs that reflect a generalized fear and distrust.

What is mean world syndrome?

200

This group of consumers is most likely to be influenced by the content of the media they encounter.

What are heavy viewers?

200

Television portrayals over-represent this, contributing to the mean world syndrome. 

What is violence?

200

Two of the areas that cultivation can impact.

What are life domains and behaviors?
300

The effects of media content on recipients immediately following behaviors or judgments.

What is priming? 

300

The two types of influences media consumption can have on individuals.

What are direct and indirect influences?

300

In relation to romantic relationships, media consumption increases the likelihood of this inaccurate perception. 

What is believing that healthy relationships do not entail conflict?

300

These types of inferences are rarely drawn from nonexperimental research in cultivation theory because they do not track change over time and use one-contact surveys. 

What are causal inferences?

400

The notion that individuals form beliefs about phenomena and issues based on instances that they experience directly or witness indirectly, possibly through media depictions.  

What is exemplification?

400

The assumption that specific content types of TV (genres) portray a particular segment of the real world and have an impact on viewers' perceptions. 

What is genre-specific cultivation?

400

A result of viewers processing TV entertainment in a heuristic fashion.

What is an inability to disregard fictional messages as irrelevant?

400

This suggests that causalities between media message consumption and consumer behaviors or attitudes are not well supported by the manifold cultivation research. 

What is the criticism of cultivation theory and research?
500

This model suggests that people base their estimates of the prevalence of a phenomenon on the ease with which they can remember related instances.

What is the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects?

500

The reason why cultivation is a "steady, pervasive process."

What are researchers viewing the process as a change in worldviews in society over time in response to media messages?

500

The key proposition of the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects suggests individuals use this to form estimates of real-world occurrences.

What is the availability heuristic?

500

This proposition of cultivation theory is challenged as a response to increased access to media options and genres. 

What is attending to TV nonselectivly?