PUNCTUATING THE CULTURAL history of cultivation theory with contempo rary controversies in recent news, Andy Ruddock situates his account of a dominant idea in mass communication research within a productive framework for connecting to present debates about mediated politics.From Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's attempted kidnapping in 2020 to Elon Musk's support of Donald Trump's deregulatory "free speech" policies in 2024, Ruddock links cultivation theory's history to the "Trumpera chaos" we now endure, suggesting that the current moment is "not an aberration but the prophesied outcome of deeply rooted industry practices" (7).In History, Politics and the Evolution of Cultivation Theory, cultivation analysis is foregrounded, principally, as a social scientific method for understanding political socialization, and cultivation theory is located within the broader notion of media influence such that Ruddock offers insights on how communication and media re searchers might "approach current challenges represented by populism, extremism, and misogyny" (14).Cultivation theory is most famously identified by the "mean world syndrome" concept pioneered by communication professor George Gerbner at the University of Pennsylvania (1964-89).Ruddock compli cates the theory's history with political and social contingencies that impacted its early trajectory at the Annenberg School of Communica tions (ASC) and influenced its later evolution and legacy in the field.Ruddock's work can be read as a case study of a theory's conditions of possibility-that is, as an examination of how the very questions shap ing cultivation analysis came to be-from its inception via Gerbner's early interests in education, democracy, and media policy to post Annenberg feminist and neoMarxist iterations lending to the theory's import in the digital age.The stories told here reveal motivated trajecto ries and "strategic engagement" converging within the conjuncture: the instrumental logic (benefits and costs) of institutionallyfunded research
Sue Collins (Thu,) studied this question.