servation related to single events, or events related by a particular theme, or events of much shorter duration: "(P)eople respond to television, television responds to the world of the viewer, and over time a television 'culture' results" (Littlejohn, 1992, p. 359).
Nancy Signorielli, one of Gerbner's principal associates, is a key researcher in the field of cultivation analysis. In 1991, Signorielli published a secondary analysis of data collected in two surveys, Gerbner's Cultural Indicators project and the 1985 Monitoring the Future Survey conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The Cultural Indicators project is an ongoing annual content analysis of prime-time and weekend-daytime network programming which provides data that "isolate the gross, unambiguous, and commonly understood patterns of portrayal" of American life (p. 124). The Monitoring the Future Survey was administered to high school seniors in 125 public and private high schools across America, and included questions in a wide variety of topics.
Based on student answers to the several questions pertaining to their television viewing habits and their perceptions about marriage and family, Signorielli (pp. 124, 126-127) was able to test two hypotheses: H1) Television viewing is related to respondents' wanting to get married and stay married to the same persons, and; H2) Television viewing is related to respondents' having negative views about (a) the institution of marriage and (b) close interpersonal relationships.
Data from the Cultural Indicators project from 1975 to 1985
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