Television, Continuity, and Change: A Meta-Analysis of Five Decades of Cultivation Research

This study is a meta-analysis of cultivation research from the 1970s to the present, based on three-level analyses of 3842 effect sizes from 406 independent samples. We found an overall effect size of .107 that varies only within a fairly narrow range across many potential moderators. Cultivation effects remain stable over the decades, implying an enduring relationship between television’s message system and viewers’ conceptions of social reality, despite immense changes in the institutional structure and technology of television. That bolsters a “traditional” perspective on cultivation, which is further corroborated by a stronger positive effect of overall viewing compared with genre viewing. However, this (stronger) effect weakens over time, which provides at least partial support for a “reformist” perspective on cultivation. Moreover, sample size and mode of data collection also moderate cultivation effects, with larger effects in smaller samples and in data collected via questionnaires compared with other methods.