Cultivation Theory & Uses and Gratifications

Key Thinkers: Cultivation Theory & Uses and Gratifications

• George Gerbner's cultivation theory examines media's long-term effects on shaping perceptions of reality.
• Gerbner researched media portrayals of violence and their impact on beliefs.
• Elihu Katz, Jay G. Blumler, and Michael Gurevitch developed uses and gratifications theory.
• Uses and gratifications theory posits individuals actively select and interpret media to fulfill needs like entertainment or information.

Key Terms: Cultivation Theory

• Cultivation analysis studies the long-term effects of media exposure on perceptions.
• Cultivation theory emphasizes media's long-term influence on shaping perceptions of reality.
• Heavy viewers, according to Gerbner, watch TV for over four hours daily.
• Institutional process analysis examines media ownership, control, and organizational structure.
• Mainstreaming refers to the homogenization of attitudes due to heavy media exposure.
• The magic bullet/hypodermic needle model suggests media messages directly influence audiences.
• Mean world syndrome is the perception of the world as more violent than it is, developed by heavy TV viewers.
• Message system analysis focuses on recurring patterns in media content.
• Resonance describes how viewers whose real-life experiences mirror TV portrayals are most influenced by that viewing.

Key Terms: Uses and Gratifications

• Parasocial interaction is a one-sided, imaginary relationship with media personalities.
• A parasocial relationship is a sustained connection between a media consumer and a media figure, with feelings of affection.
• Typologies of motives are categories classifying reasons for media exposure.

Key Thinkers: Framing & Agenda-Setting

• Erving Goffman pioneered the concept of framing.
• Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky introduced the propaganda model.
• Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw developed agenda-setting theory in the 1970s.
• Robert M. Entman contributed to framing theory, especially in media and politics.

Key Terms: Framing

• Agenda setting is when media prioritizes issues, influencing public perception of their importance.
• The agenda-setting effect is media coverage's influence on the public's assignment of importance to issues.
• Elaboration provides additional context for a story.
• Emphasis highlights certain aspects of a story over others.
• Exclusion omits certain information from a story.
• Framing is how media presents information to influence perception.
• Gatekeepers control the flow of information.
• The media agenda is the list of issues media outlets consider important.
• Priming activates specific information through repeated media exposure.
• Selection is the process of choosing information to include in a story.

Key Terms: Propaganda Model

• The propaganda model explains how media in capitalist societies serve elite interests.
• Filters maintain the status quo, promote powerful groups' interests, and marginalize dissenting voices.
• Advertising: Media avoids content that could upset advertisers.
• Common enemy: Media focus on a common enemy to divert attention or unite the audience.
• Flak: News self-censors to avoid negative reactions limiting coverage.
• Ownership: Large corporations owning media may lead to biased coverage.
• Sourcing: Dependence on elite sources may result in a narrow portrayal of events.

Key Thinkers: Media Ecology & Media Multiplexity

• Caroline Haythornthwaite developed the theory of media multiplexity.
• Harold Innis studied how media influence the rise and fall of civilizations.
• Marshall McLuhan popularized "global village" and "the medium is the message."
• Mark Granovetter's work on social network theory provides insights for media multiplexity.
• Neil Postman coined media ecology, exploring how communication media shapes human perception.

Key Terms: Media Ecology

• The cybernetic tradition analyzes communication as a system of interacting components.
• McLuhan's tetrad analyzes media effects through enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval, and reversal.
• Enhancement refers to what a medium amplifies in culture.
• Obsolescence refers to what a medium diminishes in prominence.
• Retrieval refers to what a medium retrieves from the past.
• Reversal refers to what a medium becomes when pushed to its limits.

Key Terms: Relationships & Epochs

• The electronic epoch was marked by the telegraph, which revolutionized communication.
• The literate epoch was marked by written language, transforming communication.
• The print epoch was marked by the printing press which revolutionized communication.
• The tribal epoch was marked by emphasis on hearing in communication.
• The global village is interconnectedness facilitated by electronic technologies.
• Media ecology explores how communication media shapes human perception.
• Media multiplexity theory posits social networks are influenced by combined use of communication channels and tie strength is associated with variety.
• Social networks map out relationships and are influenced by media use.

Key Terms: Time & Bias

• Space-biased media eliminate spatial constraints allowing swift information travel.
• Strong ties are relationships with significant time and emotional investment.
• Technological determinism posits society is primarily influenced by technology.
• "The medium is the message" suggests the medium is more important than the content.
• Tie strength describes the intensity of relationships.
• Time-biased media endure for extended periods, shaping societal values.
• Weak ties involve acquaintances and are valuable for accessing diverse information.

Key Thinkers: Intercultural Communication

• Geert Hofstede researched cultural dimensions, highlighting differences in values and communication styles.
• Stella Ting-Toomey is known for face negotiation theory (FNT) and understanding cultural differences in conflict management.

Key Terms: Face Negotiation Theory

• Face refers to one's public image that individuals strive to maintain.
• Face negotiation theory (FNT) explores how individuals from different cultures manage face in interactions.
• Face concern is the importance placed on maintaining one's own face or others'.
• Facework involves communication strategies to maintain face.
• Communication competence techniques are the tools needed for facework.
• Horizontal-based facework emphasizes equality between interactants.
• Vertical-based facework emphasizes hierarchical differences.

Key Terms: Concepts in Conflict

• Avoiding is evading conflict situations to prioritize harmony.
• Compromising involves negotiation and finding a mutually acceptable solution.
• Domination exerts control over others and may not align with collectivistic values.
• Emotional expression involves openly communicating emotions to address issues.
• Integrating involves collaborative efforts to find a solution.
• Obliging involves giving up individual preferences to prioritize group harmony.
• Passive-aggressive tactics are used for conflict resolution.
• Third-party help seeks intervention from an external mediator to facilitate communication.

Key Terms: Cultural & Social Concepts

• Individualism vs. collectivism describes the extent to which individuals prioritize personal goals versus group harmony.
• Ingroup/outgroup distance influences social identity and intergroup relations.
• Intercultural communication is communication between people from different cultural backgrounds.
• Mindfulness is a mental state characterized by awareness.
• Power distance describes the extent to which less powerful members accept unequal distribution of power.
• Situational role appraisal influences self-construal and communication behavior.

Key Terms: Colonialism, Media & Culture

• Allyship by settler academics and journalists offers insights into decolonial theory.
• CBC Northern Radio Service provides radio content for Indigenous communities.
• Challenge for Change led to the Indian Film Crew, fostering Indigenous filmmaking.
• Cherokee Syllabics led to the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Indigenous-owned newspaper.
• Colonialism involves acquiring control over another country and exploiting it.
• Colonization involves establishing control over a territory.
• Cultural sovereignty is the right of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination.
• Decolonial narratives challenge colonial ideologies and perspectives.
• Decolonization involves dismantling colonial structures and restoring Indigenous sovereignty.
• Denialism is the rejection of facts about injustices faced by Indigenous communities.
• Dewesternization resists Western cultural influences.

Key Terms: Westernization & Rights

• The doctrine of discovery justified European colonial expansion, disregarding Indigenous rights. Consisted of the Papal Bulls.
• Eurocentrism views the world from a European perspective, often marginalizing other cultures or viewpoints.
• Extractivism focuses on extracting natural resources at the expense of sustainability and Indigenous livelihoods.
• Gnaritus Nullius compares the treatment of Indigenous knowledge to Terra Nullius.
• Global publishing bias prioritizes Western perspectives.
• The Indian Act governs Indigenous peoples in Canada and is criticized for oppressive policies.
• The Indian Film Crew began Indigenous-led filmmaking in Canada.
• The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation provides content in Inuktitut.
• Indigenous Peoples are the original inhabitants of a land.
• Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God/Eliot Bible was the first book published in North America, in the Wampanoag language.
• Native Land Digital is a digital resource sharing global perspectives of Indigenous communities.

Key Terms: Politics, Media & Society

• Necropolitics refers to how political power structures exert control over life and death.
• Neocolonization is continuation of colonial-like practices.
• The Oka Crisis was a standoff between Mohawk land defenders and Canadian authorities.
• Pretendianism involves falsely claiming Indigenous identity for personal gain.
• Reattribution redistributes intellectual property rights to Indigenous knowledge keepers.
• Rematriation returns media/objects to their original Indigenous communities. This also includes the return of Indigenous bodies.
• Residential schools were institutions established in Canada to assimilate Indigenous children.
• Westernization involves adopting Western cultural norms.
• "So-called Canada" is used to reject the colonial name for Canada.

Key Thinkers: Africa, Asia & The Caribbean

• Dr. Ifi Amadiume explores pre-colonial matriarchal governance systems.
• Dr. Achille Mbembe is known for "necropolitics."
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o advocates for language revitalization.
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak critiques colonial narratives and legitimization of colonization.
• Dr. Sylvia Wynter critiques Eurocentric male idealism.
• Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist from Martinique.

Key Thinkers: Black America & Europe

• Frederick Douglass used journalism to advocate for emancipation and equality.
• Dr. W.E.B. DuBois critiqued the transatlantic slave trade and founded the NAACP.
• bell hooks coined "Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy."
• Dr. Audre Lorde emphasized intersectionality.
• Malcolm X advocated for Black empowerment and decolonization.
• Antje Glück critiques colonialism and Westernization in journalism/media.
• Elina Helander-Renvall, Rauna Kuokkanen, and May-Britt Öhman are Samí scholars.
• Karl Marx's works addressed anticolonial perspectives.
• Dr. Paul Meighan focuses on decolonial praxis in Gaelic and Anishinaabe contexts.

Key Thinkers: Latin America, Middle East & Polynesia

• Paolo Freire advocated for critical consciousness and liberatory education.
• Aníbal Quijano critiqued Eurocentrism and coloniality.
• Edward Said critiques Western portrayals of Arab peoples.
• Dr. Brendan Hokowhitu advocates for post-Indigenous studies.
• Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith wrote Decolonizing Methodologies.

Key Thinkers: Turtle Island, Denendeh, and Inuit Nunangat

• Dr. Mark Cronlund Anderson & Dr. Carmen L. Robertson explored biases in early newspapers.
• Dr. Brad Clark explored the racialized exclusion of Indigenous Peoples from Canadian media.
• Dr. Patricia W. Elliott authored Decolonizing the Media.
• Dr. Andrea Bear Nicholas addresses Indigenous intellectual property theft.
• Dr. Glen Coulthard is an Indigenous scholar and co-founder of the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning.
• Kayla Lar-Son is known for work on Indigenous intellectual property theft.
• Natasha Ita MacDonald focuses on language revitalization and Indigenous education.
• Elder Albert Marshall is known for "two-eyed-seeing."
• Duncan McCue advocates for decolonizing media.
• Gwen Philips addresses Indigenous intellectual property theft.
• Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a scholar and co-founder of the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning.
• Dr. Gregory Young-Ing introduced "Gnaritus Nullius.”