How Media Cultivates False Reality & a Mean World

We recently have seen a rash of student walk-outs in protest of firearms in the United States with calls for everything from greater gun control to the total removal of the Second Amendment. This has received overwhelming coverage from news media, both local and national and has dominated the news cycle. This preoccupation with a topic has the potential to activate something called cultivation and contribute to perceptions that the world is a dangerous, negative place in an effect called mean world syndrome. In this video i discuss these theories and their potential to effect the public. You can gib shekels on Patreon: References Abramowitz, S. I. (1973). The comparative competence‐adjustment of student left social‐political activists. Journal of Personality, 41(2), 244-260. Elkind, David (1967). Egocentrism in adolescence. Child Development. 38 (4): 1025–1034. Gerbner, G. (1998). Cultivation analysis: An overview. Mass Communication