Cultivation Differential Analysis
Cultivation differential analysis is the analytic core of cultivation theory: it compares the social-reality beliefs of heavy television viewers with those of light viewers to estimate how much exposure to television's recurrent messages 'cultivates' a worldview. The cultivation differential is the percentage-point gap between heavy and light viewers in endorsing a television-consistent belief, examined net of demographic controls and refined by the concepts of mainstreaming and resonance.
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Sources
- Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 172–199. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01397.x ↗
- Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (1980). The 'mainstreaming' of America: Violence profile no. 11. Journal of Communication, 30(3), 10–29. DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1980.tb01987.x ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Cultivation Differential Analysis of Media Effects. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/communication/cultivation-differential-analysis
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- Cultivation AnalysisCommunication↔ compare
- Media System Dependency AnalysisCommunication↔ compare
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