ABSTRACT
IN forming perceptions about the social world, individuals can draw on different types of experience for information to be used in making judgments. This information may come directly from personal experience or indirectly through communication with friends and contact with the mass media. Recently, social scientists have been interested in determining the extent to which media experiences alone can contribute to these social perceptions (see Hawkins & Pingree, 1982). Investigations have attempted to link media exposure to family values (Pingree, Starrett, & Hawkins, 1979), racial concerns (Vogly & Schwarz, 1980), attitudes about the elderly (Gerbner & Signorielli, 1979), and perceptions about home health care programs (Tyler, Cook, & Gordon, 1981). Most research in this area, however, has concentrated on the impact of television exposure on judgments about crime and safety (e.g., Doob & Macdonald, 1979; Gerbner & Gross, 1976a, 1976b). The purpose of this inquiry is to look more closely at this relation, building, in part, on an experimental investigation of this issue conducted by Bryant, Carveth, and Brown (1981). In particular, this study is concerned with two issues: (1) At what level (personal versus societal) does television exposure affect perceptions? (2) What is the duration of any such effect?
