'It is based on the assumption that mass media have subtle effects on audiences who unknowingly absorb the dominant symbols, images and messages of media'. The above-mentioned communication theory is known by what name and who developed it ?

The theory that mass media have subtle effects, so audiences unknowingly absorb dominant symbols and images, is the Cultivation theory of George Gerbner.

It holds that heavy television viewing gradually shapes a viewer's sense of social reality.

Agenda-setting, credited to Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, instead explains which issues media make people think about.

The uses and gratifications theory, associated with Katz, studies what audiences actively seek from media.

The Soviet communist theory, linked with Wilbur Schramm's press typology, concerns state control of media, not subtle absorption.

Gerbner illustrated cultivation with the mean world syndrome among frequent viewers of violent content.