Camaj, Lindita2016-09-052016-09-05May 20162016-05http://hdl.handle.net/10657/1527To determine the cultivation effects on the variables of recency, frequency, and vivid memories, this study examines the effects of political drama entertainment television on viewers' political perceptions and aids to the understanding of the psychological information processing of television content as a moderator of media effects. By utilizing the heuristic processing model, this study determines if people with vivid memories for dramatic content are more prone to have stronger views on political institutions. A survey was administered to 254 undergraduate students from a southwestern university in which participants filled out an online questionnaire where they identified television consumption by genre, frequency, recency, personal perceptions of real world politics, and gave a short answer describing a political drama scene which was coded for vividness. Examination into cultivation demonstrated that respondents with a history with viewing political dramas rendered stronger, usually negative, values for political institutions than those who did not.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Cultivation theoryPoliticsMedia EffectsMediaMass communication2016-09-05Thesisborn digital