Cultivation and social media: A meta-analysis
Hermann, Morgan and Shanahan meta-analyse a large set of effect sizes from many independent samples that compare social media use with a variety of attitudes and beliefs, from the perspective of cultivation theory. The overall effect is small, with several significant moderators. Effects were higher for studies of exposure to specific types of content than for general social media use, for younger samples and for Asian samples, and lower when active use was measured. They discuss how well cultivation theory applies to social media.
Hermann, Morgan and Shanahan meta-analyse a large set of effect sizes from many independent samples that compare social media use with a variety of attitudes and beliefs, from the perspective of cultivation theory. The overall effect is small, with several significant moderators. Effects were higher for studies of exposure to specific types of content than for general social media use, for younger samples and for Asian samples, and lower when active use was measured. They discuss how well cultivation theory applies to social media.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-11-04.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Hermann, E., Morgan, M., & Shanahan, J. (2023). Cultivation and social media: A meta-analysis. New Media & Society, 25(9), 2492-2511. doi:10.1177/14614448231180257.