George Gerbner

George Gerbner (August 8, 1919 – December 24, 2005) was a professor of communication and the founder of cultivation theory. He taught at Temple University, Villanova University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Personal life

Early life and education Gerbner was born on August 8, 1919, in Budapest, Hungary.

Being of Jewish descent, he fled to Paris in 1939 (after Kristallnacht) to avoid conscription into the Hungarian army, which was under a government allied with Nazi Germany. Initially, Gerbner was unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States, where his half-brother László Benedek

Military service Gerbner became a U.S. citizen in 1943.

Graduate studies and political activity After World War II, Gerbner worked as a freelance writer and publicist. Searching for employment upon his return to Los Angeles, he volunteered as a newspaper editor for the Independent Progressive Party and the Progressive Citizens of America in 1947. was held periodically in Budapest in honor of the late Dr. Gerbner. The conference was co-organized by Dr. Jolán Róka of Budapest Metropolitan University and Dr. Rebecca M. Chory, currently of Frostburg State University.

Career and work In 1956, he became a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign's Institute of Communication Research (1956–64),

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In 1968, Gerbner established and headed the Cultural Indicators Project (CIP) to document trends in television programming and how these changes affect viewers' perceptions of society. The project—as Gerbner's most famous and influential contribution to the field of journalism—held a database of over 3,000 television programs and 35,000 characters. For the CIP, he coined the phrase mean world syndrome to describe the fact that people who watch large amounts of television are more likely to perceive the world as a dangerous and frightening place. In a 1987 article titled "Science on Television: How It Affects Public Conceptions", Gerbner touched on the fact that prime time television has an abundance of professionals being portrayed. Of all of the professionals, scientists seemed to be portrayed in a slightly more negative light. Scientists tended to be portrayed as “smarter and stronger than other professionals;" while these may not be bad things, they tend to be unbecoming characteristics that could shed a negative light on the entire profession. Although Gerbner does mention that TV did not invent the negative perception of science, it does marginalize the field.

Honours

Selected publications

Articles and essays

1976. "Living with Television: The Violence Profile," with Larry Gross. Journal of Communication 26(2):172–99. 1985. "Mass Media Discourse: Message System Analysis as a Component of Cultural Indicators." Pp. 13–25 in Discourse and Communication, edited by T. A. van Dijk. New York: Walter de Gruyter Berlin. 1985. "Children's Television: A National Disgrace." Pediatric Annals 14(12):822–23 and 826–27. 1986. “Living with Television: The Dynamics of the Cultivation Process,” with Michael Morgan and Nancy Signorielli. Pp. 17–40 in Perspectives on Media Effects, edited by J. Bryant and D. Zillmann. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (2007). 1986. "The Symbolic Context of Action and Communication." Pp. 251–68 in Contextualism and Understanding in Behavioral Science, edited by R. L. Rosnow and M. Georgoudi. New York: Praeger Publisher. 1987. "Research on Violence and Terrorism in the Mass Media: An Annotated Bibliography," with Nancy Signorielli. pg. 1–163. 1987. "Television's Populist Brew: The Three Bs." Et Cetera 44(1):3–7. 1988. "Telling Stories in the Information Age." Pp. 3–12 in Information and Behavior, edited by B. D. Ruben. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. 1988. "Continuity and Change: Cross Cultural Communications Research in the Age of Telecommunications." Pp. 220–31 in The World Community in Post-Industrial Society 2, edited by C. Academy. Seol: Wooseok Publishing Co. 1991. "The Image of Russians in American Media and The 'New Epoch'." Pp. 31–35 in Beyond the Cold War: Soviet and American Media Images, edited by E. E. Dennis, G. Gerbner, and Y. N. Zassoursky. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications. 1994. "Growing Up with Television: The Cultivation Perspective, with Larry Gross, Michael Morgan, and Nancy Signorielli." Pp. 17–41 in Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, edited by J. Bryant and D. Zillmann. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Books 1988. Violence and Terror in the Mass Media: An Annotated Bibliography, with Nancy Signorelli. New York: Greenwood Press. Preview. 1989. The Information Gap: How Computers and Other New Communication Technologies Affect the Social Distribution of Power, with Marsha Siefert and Janice Fisher. Oxford University Press. 1991. Beyond the Cold War: Soviet and American Media Images, with Everette E. Dennis and Yassen N. Zassoursky. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications. 1992. Triumph of the Image: The Media's War in the Persian Gulf, A Global Perspective, with Hamid Mowlana and Herbert L. Schiller. Avalon Publishing. Preview. 1993. The Global Media Debate, with Mowlana and Kaarle Nordenstreng. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Preview. 1996. Invisible Crises: What Conglomerate Control of Media Means for America and the World, with Mowlana and Schiller. New York: Routledge. Preview. 2002. Against the Mainstream: The Selected Works of George Gerbner, edited by Michael Morgan. New York: Peter Lang. Book review.

Testimonies

1950. On Gerbner's alleged association with communist groups— California Senate Investigating Committee on Education 1992. On violence in television — Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice (House Judiciary Committee) 1998. On violence in television — Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 1998–1999. As a trial expert — trial of Michael Carneal 1999–2000. As a trial expert — Pacitti vs. Macy