Cultivation research has identified several misrepresentations on television and has shown that the more people watch television, the more their beliefs correspond to the television world. In recent years, experimental research has demonstrated that fictional narratives are powerful means to change audience beliefs. Theories on the narrative structure of fictional narratives and disposition-based theories of media enjoyment suggest that televised fictional narratives tend to portray the world as a just place. We propose that the amount of fiction watched on television predicts the belief in a just world (BJW). Further, we assume this effect to be compatible with the television use/meanworld relationship expressed by cultivation theory. Two cross-sectional studies with N = 128 participants (German sample) and N = 387 (Austrian sample) corroborate our assumptions. The self-reported frequency of watching fiction on television was positively related to the BJW, whereas the general amount of television viewing was positively related to mean- and scary-world beliefs. In the German sample, mean-world beliefs were also affected by viewing tabloid-style (infotainment) television news. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00374.x The relationship between the reality depicted by the media and the worldviews held by the audience is a fundamental question of mass communication research. Starting from cultivation theory, we posit that watching fictional narratives on television goes along with an increased belief in a just world (BJW), whereas general television use and watching infotainment nonfiction are related to the belief in a mean world. After introducing relevant theory and research, we present two cross-sectional studies that corroborate our assumptions. Cultivation of beliefs Cultivation theory assumes that the ‘‘television world’’ differs from our daily experiences, which leads heavy viewers to believe in the television world rather than real-world statistics. Most prominently, the more people watch television, the more they overestimate crime-related incidents and believe in a mean and scary world

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Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film

Fictional Narratives Cultivate Just‐World Beliefs

Presenting a concise treatment of the various contemporary ways of interpreting myths and rituals, this book is organized in terms of the most important schools of interpretation and discusses many of the recent approaches that have had widespread influence as well as older approaches that are still viable. While the primary focus is reflective and critical - how the various mythographic approaches have come about, and how they may be characterized and used - the framework of the book also provides a series of questions for contemporary study of particular myths and rituals. Myths and rituals remain important conveyors of cultural values, and the book argues that they form storehouses of significance that must not be omitted as our scientific establishments tend toward more abstract analysis of supposedly objective data. This work represents a wide synoptic view of research not usually considered within a single perspective, or treated as having on-going influences. The book has a unified critical perspective upon a mass of materials and approaches and is designed to function both as a reference work for the historical developments of mythography and as a stimulus to individual studies of specific myths and rituals.

Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals

Empowerment and Mediation: A Narrative Perspective

Interest in storytelling in planning has grown over the last two decades. In this article two strands of research are identified: research that looks at storytelling as a model of the way planning ...

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Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film

Citations

Fictional Narratives Cultivate Just‐World Beliefs

Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals

Empowerment and Mediation: A Narrative Perspective

Storytelling, a model of and a model for planning:

Re-constructing Narrative Theory: A Functional Perspective

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