To assist you with the assigned readings, I have developed an outline of questions for you to answer. Think about this as a key for what information to pay attention to in the reading. Research shows that students learn and retain information better when they can write it down in their own words.
Try to answer the questions within these guides in your own words rather than copying and pasting the content from readings/lectures. The idea is to see if you can succinctly answer the question in your own words based on the knowledge you gained from your readings/lectures. Try to answer each question within one to three sentences.
1. What was Gerbner’s conceptualization of media? Did he expect there to be differences across different media genres?
2. Briefly describe the three components of cultivation theory?
3. Briefly describe the three key concepts of cultivation theory?
4. Briefly describe the three key propositions of cultivation theory?
5. Briefly describe the three foundational assumptions of cultivation theory?
6. What are the two procedures Gerbner and colleagues used to look for evidence of cultivation effects?
7. What kind of empirical support is there for Gerbner’s cultivation analysis? Are cultivation effects big or small relative to other media effects?
8. What kind of empirical support is there for Gerbner’s claim that cultivation effects are cumulative?
9. Describe the idea behind mainstreaming and resonance?
10. According to the author of your textbook, what is the most serious challenge to cultivation theory? Why?
