Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


kent1209070096.pdf (448.43 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Rural America: The Last Field of Dreams for Regional Cultivation?

Baggs, Susan Anne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1209070096

Abstract Details

2008, MA, Kent State University, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies.
As a nation with a strong connection to the frontier, the U.S. is filled with images and perceptions about rurality, and media images may influence viewers about the less-inhabited regions of their nation. This study applied cultivation theory to examine how television use may be linked to perceptions of American rurality. Respondents (N = 325) completed surveys measuring rural stereotypes and evaluations, as well as television viewing habits and motives, perceived reality, ethnocentrism, and exposure to rurality. Overall television viewing was negatively linked to perceptions that funding for farms was a serious problem for rural America. Viewing of specific programming genres was linked to certain evaluations of rural people and/or places. When viewer variables and television exposure were analyzed, only ethnocentrism emerged as a significant (negative) predictor of rural stereotypes.
Paul Haridakis, PhD (Advisor)
Janet Meyer, PhD (Committee Member)
Stanley Wearden, PhD (Committee Member)
Gracie Lawson-Borders, PhD (Committee Member)
100 p.
Communication; Sociology
cultivation theory; rural; geographic identity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Baggs, S. A. (2008). Rural America: The Last Field of Dreams for Regional Cultivation? [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1209070096

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Baggs, Susan. Rural America: The Last Field of Dreams for Regional Cultivation? 2008. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1209070096.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Baggs, Susan. "Rural America: The Last Field of Dreams for Regional Cultivation?" Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1209070096

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1209070096
536
© 2008, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.