Glossary

Successful collaboration begins with a shared language, hence the need for a glossary. This joint effort of contributors from several teams ensures, on the one hand, terminological and conceptual coherence across not only our theoretical approaches, but also the qualitative case studies and quantitative research conducted in OPPORTUNITIES. On the other hand, our glossary facilitates communication between the academic side of the project and the fieldwork conducted by NGOs, uniting our teams working from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Mauritania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Senegal.

For more information about the Structure and Objectives of the Glossary, click here...)

Cultivation theory

Research on the cultivation theory established by George Gerbner and Larry Gross (1976) proves that repeated exposure to media ‘cultivates’ or shapes individuals’ attitudes. A classic example of the theory of Gerbner is the “Mean World Syndrome.” Heavy television viewers see a lot of killings on television, hence they overestimate the amount of killings in the real world. In Page 16 the OPPORTUNITIES survey, we measure how often people watch television (and other media), and how positive or negative their views on immigration are. The hypothesis is that people who watch more television hold more negative attitudes towards immigration, since television representations of immigration tend to be negative (see Van der Linden and Jacobs 2017).

⇢ see also: Quantitative media studies, Representation of migration, Survey analysis

References and further reading:

Gerbner, George, and Larry Gross. 1976. “The Scary World of TV’s Heavy Viewer.” In Psychology Today. 9.11: 41–45.

Van der Linden, Meta, and Laura Jacobs. 2017. “The Impact of Cultural, Economic, and Safety Issues in Flemish Television News Coverage (2003–13) of North African Immigrants on Perceptions of Intergroup Threat.” In Ethnic and Racial Studies. 40.15: 2823–2841.

Category: A

Work Package: 2, 4

[DC / LH / SM]

 

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