The types of research used by George Gerbner and his notion of mainstreaming Gerbner’s cultivation theory says that television has become the main source of storytelling in today’s society.  Those who watch four or more hours a day are labelled heavy (heavy viewers constitute ¼ of the population) television viewers and those who view less then four hours per day, according to Gerbner are light viewers.  Heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and therefore are affected by the Mean World Syndrome, an idea that the world is worse than it actually is.  According to Gerbner, the over-consumption of television is creating an identical and fearful populace.—Over half of primetime television contains depictions of violence. — his research found that people are influenced in four ways: chances 1) of involvement with crime, 2) perceived activity of police, 3) fear of walking alone at night, and 4) general mistrust of people. Mainstreaming: example for economic class—television programs such as Everybody Loves Raymond and Family Matters show only middle class people. Most television programs show only middle class people. So heavy viewers see their lives as similar and, no matter what their economic status is, they thing they are middle class.