Murder and Presidential Elections: A Cultivation‐Based Issue‐Ownership Theory of Local Television News and Its Geographic Structure

The theory that television, and in particular television violence, cultivates beliefs, attitudes, and actions in viewers, particularly heavy viewers, has long been a mainstay of media studies. Some critiques of the more recent empirical literature, however, argue that the current literature has lost some connection to the original theoretical formulations. This study attempts to answer some of these critiques by reengaging with the original conceptualization of cultivation analyses (i.e., institutional processes, message systems, and cultivation) as well as reaching out to find broader societal and political effects. Specifically, I argue and demonstrate that the rate of murder as funneled through the local television news cultivates voters in specific media markets, increasingly so in markets of resonance, toward a greater probability of voting for Republican presidential candidates.