Two Decades of Cultivation Research: An Appraisal and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

This chapter presents a theoretical review and meta-analysis of cultivation research. The authors examine the roots of cultivation analysis, as developed by George Gerbner and colleagues, and review the progress made in cultivation research since its inception in the 1970s. They also review some of the critiques that have been made of cultivation theory over the years and provide their own critical review and responses. They then offer a meta-analysis of empirical findings from 20 years of cultivation research. This meta-analysis shows an average cultivation effect of .09. Much, but not all, of the variation in cultivation findings reported in the literature can be attributed to sampling error alone. Yet, although the authors tested a variety of hypothetical moderator variables, they found no specific moderator variables. The analysis suggests that many theoretical arguments tend to fade into the background when the corpus of cultivation findings is viewed from a meta-analytic perspective.

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