U.S. Crime Drama Show and the Cultivation Effect

Submitted to Mass communication of International Communication Association in 2007

Introduction

With United States television programs exported around the world and dominating the rating and

program schedules in many countries, there has been concern about the impact of these programs on the

importing society and the picture of the U.S. that may be fostered.

Imported television may have a stronger impact on viewers’ attitudes and beliefs about what the

U.S. is like. Most of the viewers, lacking direct experience with the U.S., will form their attitudes and

beliefs about the U.S. at least partially from the imported programming. Therefore I expected that

television programming from the U.S. will influence viewers’ idea about the U.S.

In one commonly used cultivation analysis technique, researchers attempt to determine whether

television biases appear in the attitudes and opinions of heavy television viewers – that is, whether their

attitudes seem to bear more on the relationship to the world as presented on TV than to the real world or

some other perspective. Thus, in line with this research, this study assumes that people’s amount of

television viewing and their conceptions of social reality will be related, although not necessarily

strongly.

The notion that daily bombardment by mass media images affects our views of the world

has great intuitive appeal. Gerbner and Gross (1976) gave this notion scientific status with their

research on the cultivation hypothesis. Basically, the cultivation hypothesis posits that television

shapes and misshapes the audience’s conceptions of the real world. Frequent exposure to TV

“cultivates” views of the real world that are distorted toward the views of the imaginary world of

TV. On the portion of the TV view of the world that has received substantial attention in regard

to the cultivation hypothesis is criminality.

This study examines the cultivation effects of U.S. television crime show “CSI” in Korea.

The goal of this research is to examine the influence of the U.S. television crime shows viewing

and the impact of perceived reality on the Korean students’ perceptions of crime and

police/crime scene investigator in the U.S.

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Literature Review

Cultivation theory

Cultivation theory is concerned with the socio-cultural outcomes of television's

proliferation into modern society. It views television as a unique mass medium that serves as a

homogenizing agent for what otherwise may be divergent cultures. Through the patterned

repetition of messages and images, television creates a unique but shared symbolic environment

(Gerbner, 1998). This cultivation of a shared symbolic environment pulls divergent cultures and

subgroups toward a "mainstream" culture. This mainstreaming effect on thinking and behavior is

believed to occur over time, regardless of variance in programming and individual content-

selection habits (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli, 1986; 1994).

The central proposition of the cultivation theory is that television cultivates a distorted

worldview in which individuals' perception of social reality resemble the reality portrayed on

television programming (Gerbner & Gross, 1976). Cultivation connotes the consequences of

exposure to the recurrent, stable and homogenous patterns of television stories, images and

messages (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli, 1994).

Since the cultivation theory was first proposed, there have been attempts to challenge,

modify and extend it. Early attempts to improve upon cultivation analysis were the distinction

between different levels at which cultivation can theoretically take place. Various sets of

concepts, such as “first-order belief” vs. “second-order belief” (Hawkins & Pingree, 1990),

“pessimism” vs. “fearfulness” (Comstock, 1982), and “distrust” vs. “fear” (Hughes, 1980) were

proposed to explain why television viewing contributes to certain social reality beliefs but not

others.

As far as television violence and crime is concerned, it is theorized at the cognitive level

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that exposure to mediated violence could lead viewers to consciously hold a mean world outlook,

overestimate the rate of violent crime or the prevalence of law enforcement officials. At the

affective level, it is suggested that exposure to mediated violence could lead viewers to fear

crime and overestimate their own chances of being a victim of crime. Research into this

differentiation has shown that television exposure does cultivate exaggerated perceptions at the

cognitive level, but not at the affective level (Hawkins & Pingree, 1990).

Early empirical studies of the cultivation theory focused on the effects of television

portrayals of violence, crime and the judicial system. For example, many studies suggested that

the more exposure people have to television, the more likely they will overestimate the crime

rate in real life; the more exposure they have to television, the more likely they will overestimate

the number of people working in law enforcement, and their own chance of being victims (for

example, Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Gerbner, Gross, Eleey, Jackson-Beeck, Jeffries-Fox, &

Signorielli, 1977; Gerbner, Gross, Jackson-Beeck, Jeffries-Fox, & Signorielli, 1978; Gerbner,

Gross, Signorielli, Morgan, & Jackson-Beeck, 1979; Elliott & Slater, 1980). Consequent

cultivation studies have been conducted in a wider field including sex roles, marital and family

difficulties, physical disability, health, attractiveness, age-role stereotypes, science, educational

achievement, politics, religion, and so on, dealing with the relationships between television

viewing and different aspects of viewers’ estimates, perceptions, attitudes, feelings and values

(for example, Morgan, 1986; Perse, 1986; Potter, 1990; Sparks & Ogles, 1990; Morgan &

Shanahan, 1991).

Substantial cultivation studies have been conducted on the public’s perceptions of social

reality. The foci of topics range from perceptions about a mean world, doctors, traditional sex

roles, sexism, American stereotypes, to those about black groups, black self-esteem, black group

identification/mainstream, the black separatist perspective, and so on (Wober, 1978; Volgy &

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Schwarz, 1980; Bryant, Carveth, & Brown, 1981; Tan, 1982; Rouner, 1984; Morgan, 1986;

Allen & Hatchett, 1986; Shrum, 1995). Those studies revealed positive, although minor,

correlation between television viewing and the public’s perceptions. Among them, Gerbner and

his colleagues’ violence profile project might be most far-reaching. Attempts to identify how

television viewing influences social perceptions have also been made.

In the past decades, the cultivation analysis has become more and more sophisticated

conceptually and methodologically; however, there are still many questions open to discussion.

Noticing practical problems involving in the operationalization of the concepts in cultivation

analysis, Potter (1994) pointed out that the cultivation effect should be assumed to be a complex

non-linear relationship that is influenced to differential degrees by different third variables at

different points in the curve. He also suggested that improvement could be made in designing

the measures and analyses once higher level of measurement, continuous distributions in scaling,

and more sophisticated statistical techniques are employed.

International cultivation analysis has been widely carried out. It brings with it significant

opportunities, challenges, and problems (Morgan, 1990). Although the results of cultivation

analysis tend to be less predictable and consistent, empirical studies in various countries have

revealed the extent to which, and the ways to which, each message system contributes to

conceptions of social reality congruent with its most stable and recurrent messages and images

(Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994).

The construct of perceived reality

The concept of perceived reality has received a good deal of attention in the research of

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the television effects literature (Potter, 1986). Perceived reality of media has been recognized as

an interesting characteristic of media for some time (Greenberg & Reeves, 1976; Hawkins, 1977;

Noble, 1973; Reeves, 1978). Perceived reality of a media presentation may influence mental

processing, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior (Potter, 1988), learning and parasocial interaction

(Rubin, 1979; Rubin, Perse, & Powell, 1985), and responses to advertising and public service

announcements (Andsager, Austin, & Pinkleton, 2001). Perceived reality of a media presentation

may act as a filter that enhances critical viewing (Austin & Meili, 1994; Austin, Roberts, & Nass,

1990; Huesmann, Eron, Klein, Brice, & Fisher, 1983).

The definition of perceived reality would be the degree of perceived similarity between

mediated characters and situations and real life characters and situations. Media audience

members are often called upon to decide on the similarity between mediated characters and

situations and real life characters and situations for events with which they may have limited or

no experience.

The perceived reality from the media is actually a more complex concept than it may first

appear (Hawkins, 1977; Potter, 1988). At least three components are involved (Potter, 1988).

The central factor in perceived reality is what has come to be called magic window. This is the

belief in the literal reality of media messages. This reality can either be conveyed at the level of

style or content. The style of news reporting, for example, may convey a message of factual

correctness more strongly than a style of an entertainment program (Altheide, 1976; Lippmann,

1922; Tuchman, 1978). The content of action-adventure shows presenting a world that is very

dangerous may cultivate a view that the world is also like that (Gerbner et al., 1986).

A second component of perceived reality is sometimes called utility and refers to the

perceived applicability of the media to one’s own life. For example, a viewer with a strong belief

that soap operas present very real-life situations would expect more application to their own life

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than another viewer who felt soap operas present wildly unrealistic and purely escapist content

(Rubin & Perse, 1988).

The third component of perceived reality is identity, which refers to the degree to which a

viewer feels that a character is active in the viewer’s real life. Sometimes a media character

becomes a significant person in the viewer’s life; the involvement with that character is called

personal interaction (Levy, 1982; Rubin & McHugh, 1987; Rubin, Perse, & Powell, 1985).

There are many ways that this perceived reality we infer from the media may be studied

scientifically.

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Research Questions

Cultivation effects might be expected to be greater in the case of heavy viewers of crime

shows because of its high ratings and dependence on crime. Based on cultivation literature, this

study investigates two sets of research questions, one concerning the effects of crime shows

viewing and the other concerning the effects of personal perceived reality of crime shows.

RQ 1: Are there any differences in fear of crime in the U.S. big cities and attitude toward

U.S. police/crime scene investigator between Korean heavy viewers and light viewers of U.S.

television crime shows?

RQ 2: Are there any differences in fear of crime in the U.S. big cities and attitude toward

U.S. police/crime scene investigator between Korean high perceived reality viewers and low

perceived reality viewers of U.S. television crime shows?

RQ 3: What are the relative contributions of crime shows viewing and perceived reality

on the audience’s fear of crime and police/crime scene investigators?

Method

Survey was conducted with 341 respondents in 3 junior high schools in Seoul, Korea.

Measures

The purpose of this study was to examine the cultivation effects of television crime

shows. Three key categories were examined: (1) Crime show viewing, (2) Perceived reality of

crime show, and (3) Perception of reality on crime and police/crime scene investigators.

Crime show viewing was measured by asking participants to indicate whether they watch

crime show program ‘CSI’ often, sometimes, seldom, or never. In regard to crime show viewing,

respondents were categorized as light viewers if they watch the program seldom or never and as

heavy viewers if they watch the program often or sometimes.

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Perceived reality of crime show ‘CSI’ was measured by three components: magic

window, utility, and identity. The perceived reality section included 9 likert-scale items which

measured the three dimensions (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), so that the higher the

score the higher the degree of perceived reality). These items and scales have been used in at

least three other studies and resulted in Cronbach alpha coefficients of .77 to .86 (Potter, 1983).

Perception of reality on crime was measured by asking respondents to indicate the

likelihood that the average person in big cities (Las Vegas, NYC, and Miami) in the U.S. would

have something stolen or would be mugged in a year’s time and to indicate how safe they would

feel out alone on the streets of the big cities at night. Respondents to these items had five levels,

ranging from very unlikely (safe) to very likely (unsafe). All items have been recoded so that a

high score indicates high fear.

Perception of police/crime scene investigator was measured by three semantic differential

scales, anchored by bad-good, negative-positive, and unfavorable-favorable.

Analysis

A series of t-test analysis were conducted for research question 1 and 2. To investigate

research question 3, a series of multiple regression analysis were performed using crime show

viewing and three dimensions of perceived program reality as the independent variables and

perceptions of crime and crime scene investigators as the dependent variables.

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Results

RQ 1: Are there any differences in fear of crime in the U.S. big cities and attitude toward

U.S. police/crime scene investigator between Korean heavy viewers and light viewers of U.S.

television crime shows ?

The results of the comparisons for the two groups, light crime show viewer and heavy

crime show viewer, on the perceptions of crime fear and police/crime scene investigator, are

presented in Table 1.

The results of the t-test indicated that a significant difference existed in the perceptions of

crime fear in the U.S. big cities and the U.S. police/crime scene investigator between the two

groups. According to the comparison of each mean score for five categories between the two

groups, all five categories of perception showed statistical significance at the level of .05.

Therefore, heavy U.S. crime show viewers in Korea had a higher level of perceived fear

in the U.S. big cities and more positive attitude toward the U.S. police and crime scene

investigator.

Table 1. Comparison between light viewer and heavy viewerLight viewer Heavy viewer Sig.

Theft likelihood 2.64 3.25 p<.05Mugging likelihood 2.33 3.22 p<.05

Fear of streets at night 3.21 3.88 p<.05

Police perception 2.70 2.92 p<.05

CSI perception 3.08 3.14 p<.05

RQ 2: Are there any differences in fear of crime in the U.S. big cities and attitude toward

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U.S. police/crime scene investigator between Korean high perceived reality viewers and low

perceived reality viewers of U.S. television crime shows ?

The results of the comparisons for the two groups, low perceived reality viewer and high

perceived reality viewer, on the perceptions of crime fear and police/crime scene investigator,

are presented in Table 2.

The results of the t-test indicated that a significant difference existed in the perceptions of

crime fear in the U.S. big cities and the U.S. police/crime scene investigator between the two

groups. According to the comparison of each mean score for five categories between the two

groups, all five categories of perception showed statistical significance at the level of .05.

Therefore, high perceived reality Korean viewer for the U.S. crime show had a higher

level of perceived fear in the U.S. big cities and more positive attitude toward the U.S. police and

crime scene investigator.

Table 2. Comparison between low perceived reality and high perceived reality viewerLow perceived reality viewer

High perceived reality viewer Sig.

Theft likelihood 2.29 2.90 p<.05Mugging likelihood

2.55 3.01 p<.05

Fear of streets at night

2.90 3.48 p<.05

Police perception 2.87 3.15 p<.05

CSI perception 3.19 3.58 p<.05

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RQ 3: What are the relative contributions of crime shows viewing and perceived reality

on the audience’s fear of crime and police/crime scene investigators ?

Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test which variables more effectively

predict the degree of fear of crime in the U.S. big cities and perceptions of the U.S. police/crime

scene investigator among Korean middle school students.

As shown in Table 3, the results of crime fear show that 21% of the total variance is

explained by four variables. For participants’ fear of crime in the U.S. big cities, crime show

viewing had a stronger influence (B=.30) than the perceived reality variables.

The results of police/csi perception that 19% of the total variance is explained by four

variables. For participants’ perceptions of the U.S. police/csi, crime show viewing also had a

stronger influence (B=.24) than the perceived reality variables.

Table 3. Regression analysis for fear of crime and police/csi perceptionDependent variable

Independent variable Beta coefficient R2

Fear of crime in U.S. big cities

Crime show viewing .30* .21

Magic window .12*

Utility .08

Identity .14*U.S. Police/CSI

perceptionCrime show

viewing.24* .19

Magic window .13*

Utility .10*

Identity .17*Note: * p < .05

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Discussion

The relationship specified by the cultivation hypothesis was elaborated by using the

television crime show viewing and a concept of perceived reality that included the dimensions of

magic window, utility, and identity. This study reveals that Korean students’ perceptions of

crime fear and police/crime scene investigator in the U.S. are significantly related to the U.S.

crime shows consumption and the level of perceived reality for the U.S. television crime show.

Therefore, it appears that cultivation of beliefs about the U.S., at least in this case of crime and

police/crime scene investigator perceptions, does occur among Korean students, when the

messages are imported from the U.S.

In addition, there are a few limitations with regard to the measures of media

consumption. First, the type of crime show that the respondent is viewing is unknown. This study

just looked at the program ‘CSI’ only. There are numerous types of crime shows in the U.S. that

may focus on different aspects of the criminal. For example, crime shows may focus on police,

courts, private investigators, defense lawyers and sometimes even the criminals. In addition,

some shows are more realistic, while others routinely portray violence, and consistently

misinform viewers about the nature of the criminality. Second, employing television watching

frequency is problematic, since there is no way of determining what type of programs the

respondent is viewing. There are a number of different programs in the U.S. that may or may not

address criminal issues and address them in substantially different ways. Finally, it would be

naive to suggest that respondents are not affected by a number of sources; for example,

respondents who watch the U.S. crime show ‘CSI’ on television may also be affected by

presentations of crime from other sources such as U.S. films and the Internet.

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