by George Gerbner

About the author: Most famous for his research on television violence and “Mean World Syndrome,” George Gerbner is founder and president of the Cultural Environment Movement and the author of numerous books on the media, including The Future of Media: Digital Democracy or More Corporate Control?

Most of what we know, or think we know, we have never personally experienced. We live in a world erected by stories. Stories socialize us into roles of gender, age, class, vocation, and lifestyle, and offer models of conformity or targets for rebellion. They weave the seamless web of our cultural environment. Our stories used to be hand crafted, home made, community inspired. Now they are mostly mass produced and policy driven, the result of a complex manufacturing...