Compare methods

	Cultivation Differential Analysis	Cultivation Analysis
Field	Communication	Communication
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1976	1976
Originator	George Gerbner & Larry Gross	George Gerbner & Larry Gross
Type	Survey-based comparison of heavy versus light television viewers	Two-part method linking media message systems to audience worldviews
Seminal source	Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 172–199.	Gerbner, G., & Gross, L. (1976). Living with television: The violence profile. Journal of Communication, 26(2), 173–199.
Aliases	Cultivation differential, Heavy-light viewer differential analysis, Mainstreaming and resonance analysis, Yetiştirme Farkı Analizi	Cultivation theory analysis, Cultivation research, Mean world / message-system analysis, Kültivasyon Analizi
Related	4	4
Summary	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.	Cultivation analysis is the research method underlying cultivation theory, which holds that long-term, cumulative exposure to television gradually shapes viewers' conceptions of social reality. Developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross in the 1970s as part of the Cultural Indicators project, it combines a systematic content analysis of recurring media messages with survey comparisons of heavy versus light viewers to estimate how much television 'cultivates' a shared, often distorted, view of the world.