"Mean World" Syndrome>Cultivation theory
The "Mean World" Syndrome is one of the main effects of the Cultivation Theory. This occurs when heavy viewers see the world as a much nastier place than do light viewers. This, theorists attribute to the fact that television depicts the world as a mean and violent place and therefore, heavy viewers are overly frightened and too cautious of the real world (Phillips). Gerbner believes this may have something to do with America's policy on capital punishment (Stossel).

"The Double Dose Effect"
-Proponents of the Cultivation Theory attempt to show how television cultivates a homogenous outlook on life, revealing a lack of diversity among heavy viewers. The idea is that heavy viewing, regardless of viewer demographic, creates an assumption in the viewer, that violence is more prevalent than it actually is. Gerbner and other theorists would argue that heavy viewers of violent television come to the assumption that violence is higher in the everyday world, and that one's exposure to this constant imagery blends with their everyday experiences reguardless of viewer demographic. This we refer to as the mainstreaming mechanism (Kenny).
-Another twist at the theory occurs when the viewers' everyday experiences parallel and are consistent with theose they view on television. Here, the cultivation effect is accelerated when viewers amplify their real-life experience by what the view on television. Theorists would argue that the crime "resonates" with them and that they are susceptible to a "double dose" effect where cultivation increases (Pierce). Thus, from this type of symbolic portrayal occuring on television, viewers tend to replay real-experiences over in their minds . In turn, real-life incidents will be reinforced by their viewing experience.

Cultivation theory study
Another cultivation theorist, Leonard Eron, too attempts to prove the effects of television on viewers. By following a group of third graders in suburban New York, he learned that the more violent the tv watched, the more aggressive the children were in school. He returned again when they were nineteen and then again at age thirty. Both times, the previously troubled youngsters revealed problems in marriages and with the law (Phillips). In fact, in a 1993 conference of the National Council for Families and Television, Eron estimated that 10% of violence in the US can be directly attributed to viewing of television (Stossel).

The Cultivation Theory http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Speech/rccs/theory06.htm
George Gerbner"The television set has become a key member of the family, the one who tells most of the stories most of the time."

-Gerbner's initial research on the Cultural Indicators Project in the early 1960's paved the way for an extended career of research implementing his cultivation analysis research method. Gerbner spent time at The Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania where he served as Dean while continuing his research on the social cultivation of television, emphasizing violence and its effects. He retired in 1989.

-The cultivation theory got its start with the cultivation hypothesis, created by George Gerbner, which states attempts to understand how "heavy exposure to cultural imagery will shape a viewer's concept of reality" (Pierce). Stemming directly from his work on the Cultural Indicators Research Project, Gerbner used the cultural analysis research strategy to cumulate his theory on television cultivation.

-Essentially, the theory states that heavy exposure to mass media, namely television, creates and cultivates attitudes more consistent with a media conjured version of reality than with what actual reality is. The cultivation theory asserts that heavy viewers' attitudes are cultivated primarily by what they watch on television. Gerbner views this television world as "not a window on or reflection of the world, but a world in itself" (McQuail 100). This created version of the world entices heavy viewers to make assumptions about violence, people, places, and other fictionalized events which do not hold true to real life events.

-Here, television acts as a socializing agent that educates viewers on a separate version of reality. The concrete base behind the cultivation theory states that viewers tend to have more faith in the television version of reality the more they watch television. We must realize that light viewing of television events tend not to shape an entirely separate reality. Thus, the focus of study is on heavy viewers. Light viewers may have more outlets and sources to influence their version of reality than heavy viewers whose main source of information serves to be the television programming.