Since the 1960s social scientists have demonstrated that exposure to television programming correlates with certain beliefs about the world that differ from statistical measures that define reality. Much of this research on the role of television in socialization, known as media cultivation, was conducted during a time in American history when television programming was dominated by three networks and distributed to viewers over the air. Beginning in the 1980s, with the widespread market penetration of broadband coaxial cable, the television industry was transformed from a three-channel national program service characterized by uniformity of content to a cafeteria of narrowly segmented programming distributed to most Americans by cable.
Two surveys were conducted to investigate differences in patterns of media cultivation predicted by exposure to television programming broadcast over the air compared with exposure to television programming distributed only by cable. The results of the first survey, conducted with 77 college students, revealed differences in patterns of correlations indicating media cultivation in the domains of anomie, endorsement of sex-role stereotypes, perceived likelihood of victimization, and endorsement of paranormal beliefs.
The second survey was conducted in a medium-sized Southern city. A random sample of 113 adults was interviewed by telephone. Over-the-air versus cable-only viewing revealed only one difference in media cultivation: time spent viewing over-the-air networks was negatively related to the endorsement of sex-role stereotypes. This negative relationship was not revealed by time spent viewing cable-distributed programming. When groups were divided into heavy and light cable-only viewers, heavy cable viewers reported more fear of victimization. Differences in indicators of media cultivation for heavy and light viewers of over-the-air programming also emerged. Contrary to the cultivation hypothesis, light over-the-air viewers reported higher likelihoods of victimization and were more likely to perceive the world as a mean place.
