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Contemporary Communication Theories

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Biographies (U of Texas journalism students) Cultivation theory (analysis by D. Chandler, U of Wales, Aberystwyth) ... It's all about TV: 'the cumulative ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Contemporary Communication Theories


1
Contemporary Communication Theories
  • A. Goldrick-Jones
  • Centre for Academic Writing
  • 786-9324 rm 3G08

2
Week 11 Mass Media
  • George Gerbner (b. 1919 fled from Hungary in
    1939) cultivation theory

3
Week 11 Mass Media
  • George Gerbner quick links
  • Biographies (U of Texas journalism students)
  • Cultivation theory (analysis by D. Chandler, U of
    Wales, Aberystwyth)
  • Reclaiming Our Cultural Mythology by Gerbner
    himself

4
Week 11 Mass Media
  • George Gerbners cultivation theory
  • Its all about TV the cumulative process by
    which television fosters beliefs about social
    reality (Wood, p. 244).
  • Television has long-term effects which are
    small, gradual, indirect but cumulative and
    significant (Chandler).

5
Week 11 Mass Media
  • Assumptions of cultivation theory
  • TV constructs synthetic reality through

mainstreaming
resonance
(Wood pp. 248-9)
4
6
Week 11 Mass Media
  • Mainstreaming When groups who are initially
    divergent in their worldviews come to hold
    similar views with greater television exposure
    (Harrison, 2003).

7
Week 11 Mass Media
  • Resonance when a symbolic portrayal is
    repeated on a regular basis, and in turn, the
    viewer replays real-life experience in his/her
    mind over and over again (Sarin, 1996).

8
Week 11 Mass Media
  • Assumptions of cultivation theory
  • TV is
  • uniquely accessible/ubiquitous
  • cultivates broad assumptions
  • is a conservative socializing agent
  • extended/expanded by new technologies
  • engenders a mean world view.

4
9
Week 11 Mass Media
  • The mean world syndrome a perception of the
    world as an overly dangerous place (Wood, p. 251).

4
10
Week 11 Mass Media
  • The mean world syndrome Gerbner
  • comments in this video preview on the

relationship between violence and the
media. (Click on the image RealPlayer
required.)
4
11
Week 11 Mass Media
  • Some major criticisms of cultivation theory
  • oversimplification
  • faulty cause-and-effect assumptions
  • wrong variables used as controls
  • viewer estimations as crude measures
  • does not consider different viewer
    interpretations (Chandler, 1995)

4
12
Mass Media Computers
  • Neil Postman (1931-2003) on technopoly

13
Mass Media Computers
  • Neil Postman
  • Amusing Ourselves to Death (1987)

14
Mass Media Computers
  • Neil Postman Technopoly (1993) a critical review

15
Mass Media Computers
  • Neil Postman
  • Neil Postman Ponders High Tech (1996) there is
    a limit to the promise of new technology. . .it
    cannot be a substitute for human values.

16
Mass Media Computers
  • Neil Postman
  • Informing Ourselves to Death (1990)
  • . . . There can be no disputing that the
    computer has increased the power of large-scale
    organizations like military establishments or
    airline companies or banks or tax collecting
    agencies. But to what extent has computer
    technology been an advantage to the masses of
    people?

17
Mass Media Computers
  • One last thought should online teaching
    displace/replace/supplement face-to-face
    teaching? Click on the photo for a recent
    assessment from the U of Edinburgh
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