Reconceptualizing Cultivation: Implications for Testing Relationships between Fiction Exposure and Self-Reported Alcohol Use Evaluations

The present paper responds to calls for conceptual clarification in the media effects domain by providing a definition for attitudinal cultivation effects. Our definition contains five core characteristics: the (1) linear effects of (2) repeated media exposure on (3) the evaluation as given by memory associations (4) strengthened by and (5) valenced in line with those media messages. We reason that, when accepting this definition, the cultivation hypothesis predicts effects of repeated media use on evaluations to primarily occur at the level of ‘gut evaluations’ given by automatically activated memory associations. Corroborating this logic for the effects of alcohol use portrayals in television fiction, we find the relationship between fiction exposure and self-reported alcohol use evaluations to be (1) moderated by speed of expressing those evaluations, and (2) mediated by responses to self-reports tapping into gut feelings. The implications of these findings for future media effects studies are discussed.

Jaar van publicatie:2018

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:6

CSS-citation score:1

Auteurs:International

Authors from:Higher Education

Toegankelijkheid:Open