Cultivation effects of television advertising: An urban-rural comparison

1
Cultivation effects of television
advertising An urban-rural comparison

• Cai, X., Fang, W., and Chan, K.
• Hong Kong Baptist University
• AEJMC Conference Aug.9-12

2
Introduction

• Commercial persuasion appears to influence not
  only our shopping and product use behavior, but
  also the largest domain of our social roles.
• Television advertising is an essential
  socializing agent in China.

3
Introduction

• China has a population of 350 million children
  under age 15.
• 40 urban VS. 60 rural
• In 2005, the per capita annual net household
  income
• 10,0493 yuan urban VS. 3,255 yuan rural
• The foci of present study

4
Literature Review

• Cultivation Theory
• Heavy television viewers tend to adopt the
  televisions reality as their own real-world
  reality.
• By virtue of inexperience, young viewers may
  depend more on television for information than
  other viewers do.

5
Literature Review

• Cultivation Theory
• There are two types of cultivation---mainstreaming
  and resonance.
• Cultivation effects can be measured at two
  different levels----first and second-order
  effects of cultivation.

6
Literature Review

• Materialism
• This study adopts the Richins definition, view
  materialism as the priority a consumer places on
  the acquisition and possession of material
  objects.
• Two directions in empirical research on
  materialism

7
Hypotheses

• H1 Television advertising viewing will have a
  positive correlation with the belief about the
  prevalence of affluence in society among
  adolescents in both urban and rural China.
• H2 Television advertising viewing will have a
  positive correlation with the level of
  materialism among adolescents in both urban and
  rural China.

8
Hypotheses

• H3 The belief about the prevalence of affluence
  in society will have a positive correlation with
  the level of materialism among adolescents in
  both urban and rural China.

9
Method

• A survey of 792 adolescents aged 11 to 17 was
  conducted from October to December 2006.
• The structured questionnaire was
  self-administered.

10
Method

• The urban sub-sample
• 391 respondents in Guangzhou city
• Studying grade 7 and 8
• The mean age was 13.3
• The rural sub-sample
• 401 respondents in Henan Province
• Studying grade 7 to 9
• The mean age was 14.6

11
Results

• There were significant differences in all three
  key variables television advertising viewing,
  the belief about the prevalence of affluence in
  society, and materialism among urban and rural
  respondents.

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Mean S.D. t-value
Materialistic value orientation 5.2
Urban 2.8 0.6
Rural 3.0 0.6
Motivation of viewing television advertising 5.4
Urban 2.1 0.8
Rural 2.4 0.6
Notes plt0.001
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The prevalence of affluence Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z
Please estimate how many families in 100 families that own private cars. 3.8
air conditioners. 5.9
motorcycles. 5.8
cameras. 3.6
personal computers. 7.1
cell phones. 0.3
Notes plt0.001
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Results

• H1 was partially supported for urban respondents
  and not supported for rural respondents.
• Urban (Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistics varied
  from 3.6 for cameras to 7.1 for personal
  computers, all significant at 0.001 level)
• Rural (Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z5.8, plt0.001)

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Results

• H2 was supported for both urban and rural
  respondents.
• Urban (r0.28, plt0.01)
• Rural sub-samples (r0.29, plt0.01)
• H3 was rejected.

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Discussion

• Television advertising viewing was higher among
  rural adolescents than urban adolescents.
• Urban adolescents had higher estimates of
  affluence in society than their rural
  counterparts.
• Rural adolescents endorsed higher level of
  materialism than their urban counterparts.

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Discussion

• Television advertising's cultivation effects on
  the belief about the prevalence of affluence in
  society was not found among rural adolescents.
• There was no correlation between first and
  second-order effects.

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Possible limitations

• A non-probability sample
• Only focus on television advertising
• Not include contextual and personal factors