Environmental Concern, Patterns of Television Viewing, and Pro-Environmental Behaviors.

This study merges insights from extant cultivation research with a media uses and gratifications perspective to examine the relationship between environmental concern, five forms of television viewing, and pro-environmental behaviors. In doing so, we consider a host of variables, including environmental attitudes, that are exogenous television use and environmental behaviors and may motivate certain viewing patterns and social actions. Thus, perspective advanced by this research considers both the direct effects of various forms of television viewing and their potential mediating roles in the relationship between environmental attitudes and behaviors. Analysis of 1999 and 2000 DDB Life Style Study data reveals that television public affairs and nature documentary use, the genres of programming that give tangible and visible form to abstract environmental issues, are predicted by environmental concern and contribute to pro-environmental behaviors, whereas the three forms of entertainment television use are not consistently linked to these variables. Public affairs and nature documentary use were also found to be important mediators of the effects of other exogenous variables on pro-environmental behaviors. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]