Comm 205 Study Guide (Part 8)

Message System Analysis

Annual textual analysis assessment of TV program content.

CULTURAL INDICATORS RESEARCH PROJECT

George Gerbner and colleagues conducted ongoing television research since 1967. Research applies several research methods to relate recurrent features of the television world to media policy and to viewer conceptions of reality. Results provide strong argument for public attention to and participation in the cultural production process. Three primary research methods of analysis are used: Message System Analysis Institutional Policy Analysis Cultivation Analysis

Gerbner: The Stories We Tell

Stories animate our cultural environment, have three distinct functions: Reveal how things work Describe what things are Tell us what to do about it

Mean World Syndrome

World perceptions in heavy TV viewers that reflect the common, repeated patterns of the television world as a violent, mean and scary place. Liberating alternative to violence formula is public participation, citizen involvement in decision making about cultural investment, policy & creative freedom. Children have a right to be born into a "free fair diverse and non-threatening cultural environment".

The Mean World Syndrome: Media Violence and the Cultivation of Fear

Written & directed by Jeremy Earp; produced by Scott Morris. Gerbner, George. Featuring Michael Morgan and George Gerbner (1925-2005) "Debate has raged about the effect of violence on our behavior" MM. Does media violence make us violent? Decades of research has affirmed media violence is not likely to cause us to imitate violence but "likely to make us more scared of violence being done to us." MM. "As a citizen, I would consider a matter of grave concern that a society in which most or many people expect a high degree of victimization, sooner or later they are going to get it violence" GG testimony to Congress George Gerbner fled facism in Hungary, worked in OS US Army in WWII. After spent his life studying "how media violence affected our consciousness and behavior in the real world" MM As Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Gerbner and others conducted extensive longitudinal research since 1967, the Cultural Indicators Research Project. Gerbner researched media violence and how it functions in society with the premise that "Commercial media have eclipsed religion, art, oral traditions and the family as the great story telling engine of our time" MM A Tidal Wave of Violence Global media "conglomerates own and control he telling of all the stories over the world" ... "have global marketing formulas that are imposed on the creative people in Hollywood ... get told every day 'put in more action, cut out complicated solutions' ...apply this formula because it travels well in the global market, need no translation, image driven, speak action in any language...leading element of that formula is violence ...Tidal wave of images of violence, inundating every home with expertly choreographed brutality such as the world has never seen...mass production and introduction to every home... a relentless pervasive exposure to violence and brutality many times every day" GG. The formulaic, cultural difference transcendent language of violence draws on the powerful persuasive power of fear to appeal to global audiences. "American children see 8000 murders by elementary school and over 200, 000 violent acts by age of 18" MM. "Violence is a legitimate artistic and journalistic feature...and it is necessary to show sometimes...Most of violence is ... 'happy violence'... Violence is thrilling, glamorous, spectacular ...and they always lead to a happy ending...sugar coated with humor. "Humor makes the pill (of power) easier to swallow...who can get away with what against who?" GG What matters most about media violence ..."is not simply the quantity of violence that saturates the media landscape, but how it all adds up to tell a story...that reinforces and normalizes a certain view of the world... the meaning has the greatest effect" MM. "Its like the fish in the water" Does it create more violence? Research says "contribution of TV violence into the actual committing of violence is 'practically negligible' compared to poverty and other factors...." GG. Payne Fund Studies 1929-1932 found media effect of violence, raised interesting questions. Most interesting example is "War of the Worlds" October 30, 1938 radio broadcast- drama. The vast majority of listeners did not respond in panic but understood the fictional nature of the radio program. Magic Bullet Theory explained media effects as direct and powerful, and viewers as passive but it was wrong! These cause and effect arguments were wrong and not scientifically verified "...Its like fish in water, a pervasive environment is always beyond perception..." GG Gerbner's Cultural Indicators Research Project (CIP) research found very limited effects of TV violence on increasing violent behavior effects, primary effect was increase of fear in heavy viewers. This longitudinal research project affirmed what Gerbner called: "Cultivation - a stable system of messages and images that shapes our conception of the world and of ourselves, life society and power." (GG, in MEF, 2010) CIP used survey methodology and response analysis to measure what TV violence and other content elements would cultivate in audiences. Response analysis would take age, gender, ethnicity and light or heavy viewing characteristics into account. This methodology has become known as cultivation analysis. ... The Mean World Syndrome Television media content ranges between "banality" and "extreme violence. News sensationalism is " constant and intense". Cultivation analysis shows anxiety and fear of victimization increase with heavy TV viewing. In 2010, violent crime continued to drop but arms sales continued to increase. CIP scientific research showed a causal relationship between the rising fear and anxiety in audiences and their heavy viewing of TV content inundated with violence. Mean People Research also found that fear and anxiety, were disproportionally attributed to those represented in TV as violent. Content analysis research affirms that TV still over-represents people of color in criminal or violent action or as deserving of violent response in TV content. These representation patterns dehumanize and contrast the actual crime and violence statistics. These "meanest representations reinforce a siege mentality, and cultivate irrational, fear and anger. The Fallout What lies ahead in the world of increasingly violent media? Can we look forward to a media landscape where more respect for human diversity and dignity can coexist with images of conflict?

Cultivation Analysis

assessment of the long range consequences of exposure to the television system of messages, through longtitudinal TV audience media effects research. Results affirm that television images are a pervasive influence on thoughts and actions and TV "cultivates and confirms stable conceptions about life" that reflect TV reality. social science research.

Institutional Policy Analysis

examines the economic and political basis of media decision-making. qualitative.

Violence Results (Gerbner)

heavy viewers show greater apprehension and vulnerability, fear of crime, assume crime is rising, purchase locks, watchdogs and guns for protection. Ownership Concentration in the media industry impedes access to new entries and alternative perspectives. Violence is common media element, which requires no translation and fits any culture in the global multilingual market.

Gerbner

initiated the Cultural Indicators Research Project from University of Pennsylvania in 1967 to examine TV messages, media effects and institutional policies with regard to violence and other common message patterns. This research developed cultivation theory and the concepts of Mean World Syndrome to explain findings that heavy television viewing helps cultivate a view of the reality that reflects the TV reality, with a disproportionate incidence of violence. Gerbner and Morgan analyze Mean World Syndrome and explain the meaning of their extensive research on TV and other media violence. Jackson Katz examines the media role in construction of masculine identity in relation to violence in Tough Guise.