main ideas:
- Exposure to television over long periods of time cultivates standardised roles and behaviours.
- Gerbner used content analysis to analyse repeated media messages and values, then found that heavy users of television were more likely, for example, to develop ‘mean world syndrome’ – a cynical, mistrusting attitude towards others – following prolonged exposure to high levels of television violence.
- Gerbner found that heavy TV viewing led to ‘mainstreaming’ – a common outlook on the world based on the images and labels on TV. Mainstreamers would describe themselves as politically moderate.
in other words...
- Gerbner believed that people who watch a lot of television are exposed to negative representations of society and the world.
- Because there is so much violence and crime in the media, people start to think that society is the same as what they see on television. This can warp peoples perspective of what the world is like and can cause irrational fears and paranoia - 'Mean-World Syndrome'.
- The same people will also conform to common views and values promoted in the media and inherit a mainstream outlook and opinion based on what the media 'tell' them to think.
- Political views of mainstreamers remains neutral because mainstream television remains politically neutral (compared to broadsheet or middle-market newspapers for example) to attract advertisers and mass audiences.
applying 'mean world syndrome' to media texts:
Gerbner's theory focuses on television, which in the age of streaming and active audience consumption, makes his theory somewhat outdated. However, the fundamental ideas at the heart of his theory can still be considered, even when analysing other media industries.
for example: newspapers
- What crime, violence or conflict can be found in the media text? Is there fearmongering or exaggeration?
- What representation of ‘the real world’/society is constructed
- What views of society might an audience adopt by what they see?
- Why might the news be more influential in shaping an audience's thoughts and opinions compared to other forms of media?