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DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE MSU Is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution c:\circ\dateduernfn3-p.t IMAGES OF LIFE IN AMERICA: THE RELATIONSHIPS 0F KOREAN ADOLESCENTS' U.S. TELEVISION VIEWING AND PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN REALITY BY Yun Ahn A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department Of Telecommunication l 990 ABSTRACT IMAGES OF LIFE IN AMERICA: THE RELATIONSHIPS 0F KOREAN ADOLESCENTS' U.S. TELEVISION VIEWING AND PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN REALITY by Yun Ahn The present study examines whether viewing American television programming could be significantly associated with several chosen areas of perceptions about American society among Korean adolescents - violence, affluence, advanced technologies, family life, and minorities in the United States. Several sets of hypotheses were tested in a survey among 705 Korean adolescents. The impact of overall US. television viewing on perceptions of American reality was partially supported; while the perceptions of personal-level of affluence, harmonious family interaction, advanced technologies, negative images of Blacks, and minorities demography were correlated with US. television viewing, the perceptions of liberal family roles and Black characteristics were not. The hypothesis that specific media content would have better predictibility for a certain perceptual area than aggregate viewing was not supported. The perceptual impact of US. television viewing was more prominent among Korean adolescents with nonmediated experience than among those with mediated experience only. Accepted by the faculty of the Department of Telecommunication, College of Communication Arts and Science, Michigan State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree. Director of Thesis To my mother and father, with all my love and gratitude iv To my mother and father, with all my love and gratitude iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am much indebted to many people during my undergraduate and graduate studies at Michigan State University. First of all, my deepest and most sincere gratitude goes to Dr. Bradley Greenberg, who gave me continuous support and invaluable academic advice. Without his guidance and understanding, l may have never completed this thesis. Special thanks is due Dr. Joseph Straubhaar, another gracious mentor, who provided me insight into international telecommunication through his intellectual discussions. I also extend my appreciation to Dr. Thomas Baldwin for his invaluable time and assistance. I would like to thank my two younger brothers, Jung-Ho and Ji-Ho, for their warm smile and consistent support. My heart-felt gratitude goes to Young-J00 Moon, who always gives me encouragement and precious love. Since we met at Michigan State University, he has been a source of sharing joy and anxiety of overseas studies. Finally, but not the least, my special recognition is owed to my parents, Kyung Choong and Sung Joo, for their deepest love and faith in me. This small work is dedicated to the two most important people in my life. mliiwbs‘éfil’nv [3m 9n! WU!) .2; ' ail ' _-- .‘ ._:,"I_:;:‘. ht'IE- T.'-"-l1-'=I_h':\ ="fi 'r- 1'i: _ TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ----¥ ---------------------------------------------- viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ----------------------------------------- 1 CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE ------------------------------ 7 REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION IMPORTS ------- 7 CULTIVATION HYPOTHESIS -------------------------------------- l4 REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON TELEVISION'S INFLUENCE ON SOCIAL REALITY CONSTRUCTION ------------------------------------------------ 3 I PREDICTIONS IN THE STUDY ------------------------------------- 34 CHAPTER III. METHODS -------------------------------------------- 39 SAMPLES ----------------------------------------------------- 39 MEASUREMENT ------------------------------------------------ 4i Independent Measures -------------------------------------- 4i Dependent Measures ---------------------------------------- 42 Control Measures ------------------------------------------ 44 Data Analysis --------------------------------------------- 44 CHAPTER IV. RESULTS -------------------------------------------- 4S PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ----------------------------------------- 45 Sample Characteristics ------------------------------------ 45 Construction of Variable Index ----------------------------- 45 FINDINGS OF IMPACT OF AMERICAN TV VIEWING ON PERCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN REALITY -------------------------------------------- 52 Findings on Violent US. Perceptions ------------------------ S2 Findings on Affluent U.S. Perceptions ----------------------- S7 Findings on Technology-Advanced US. Perceptions ----------- 64 Findings on US. Family Life Perceptions -------------------- 68 Findings on American Minorities Perceptions ---------------- 68 vi CHAPTER V. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ---------------------------- 83 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ----------------------------------------- 83 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND SUGGESTION FOR FUTURE STUDY --- 86 APPENDIX: Questionnaire in English ----------------------------------- 90 REFERENCES ------------------------------------------------------ I O I VII LIST OF TABLES TABLE I: IMPACT OF IMPORTED TV VIEWING ON INDIGENOUS AUDIENCE ------------------------------------------------- IS TABLE 2: RATINGS OF US. TELEVISION PROGRAMS ON KOREAN TV --------- 40 TABLE 3: FACTOR LOADINGS OF 8 MEASURES FOR PERCEIVED VIOLENCE IN THE US. ------------------------------------------------- 47 TABLE 4: FACTOR LOADINGS OF 6 MEASURES FOR PERCEIVED AFFLUENCE IN THE US. ------------------------------------------------- 47 TABLE 5: FACTOR LOADINGS OF 5 MEASURES FOR PERCEIVED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN THE US. ----------------------------------- 47 TABLE 6: FACTOR LOADINGS OF 9 MEASURES FOR PERCEIVED FAMILY LIFE IN THE US. -------------------------------------------- 47 TABLE 7: FACTOR LOADINGSOF 8 MEASURES FOR PERCEIVED AMERICAN MINORITIES IN THE US. -------------------------------------- 47 TABLE 8: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED VIOLENCE IN THE US. --------------------------------------- 53 TABLE 9: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VIEWING DIFFERENT US. TV PROGRAM TYPES AND PERCEIVED VIOLENCE IN THE US. ------------------- 55 TABLE IO: CORRELATIONS: US. Tv VIEWING AND PERCEIVED VIOLENCE IN THE US. AS A FUNCTION OF EXPERIENCE MODALITY ABOUT THE US. -------------------------------------------------- 58 TABLE I l: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED AFFLUENCE IN THE US, ————————————————————————————————————— 6i TABLE I2: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VIEWING DIFFERENT US. TV PROGRAM TYPES AND PERCEIVED AFFLUENCE IN THE US. ----------------- 62 viii TABLE I3: CORRELATIONS: US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED AFFLUENCE IN THE US. AS A FUNCTION OF EXPERIENCE MODALITY ABOUT THE US. -------------------------------------------------- 63 TABLE I4: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN THE US. ----------------------- 65 TABLE IS: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VIEWING DIFFERENT US. TV PROGRAM TYPES AND PERCEIVED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN THE US. --- 66 TABLE I6: CORRELATIONS: US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN THE US. AS A FUNCTION OF EXPERIENCE MODALITY ABOUT THE US. ---------------------------------- 67 TABLE I7: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED FAMILY LIFE IN THE US. ----------------------------------- 69 TABLE I8: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VIEWING DIFFERENT US. TV PROGRAM TYPES AND PERCEIVED FAMILY LIFE IN THE US. --------------- 7I TABLE I9: CORRELATIONS: US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEIVED FAMILY LIFE IN THE US. AS A FUNCTION OF EXPERIENCE MODALITY ABOUT THE US. ------------------------------------------- 73 TABLE 20: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN US. Tv VIEWING AND PERCEIVED AMERICAN MINORITIES IN THE US. ——————————————————————————— 76 TABLE 21: CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VIEWING DIFFERENT US. TV PROGRAM TYPES AND PERCEIVED AMERICAN MINORITIES IN THE US. ------ 78 TABLE 22: CORRELATIONS: US. TV VIEWING AND PERCEI VED AMERICAN MINORITIES IN THE US. AS A FUNCTION OF EXPERIENCE MODALITY ABOUT THE US. ------------------------------------------- 80 TABLE 23; A SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS ----------------------------- 84 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The rather ubiquitous presence of US. entertainment television programming in many developing nations has been a subject of considerable discussion. A vast literature accumulated during the last two decades on the issue of international television program flows has demonstrated the unbalanced flow of global television programming from a few developed countries, mainly the United States, to developing nations. Together with such findings on structural aspects of international information flow, communication researchers have attempted to analyze this skewed distribution and the impact of those imported programs on the indigenous Viewers. Subsequently, the so-called "media imperialism" proponents claimed that the influx of cultural content from a few Western centers, mainly the United States, might result in the dominance of alien values, molding the minds of Third World individuals to ideals, opinions, and ways of life that are generated by the United States' capitalistic interests (Beltran, 1978; Hamelink, I983; Lee, I980; Nordenstreng and Varis, 1974; Schiller, 1969, I976,- Tunstall, I977). Although the media imperialism theory has contributed to providing a useful framework to understand the skewed global media flow in terms of international relationships, relatively little empirical data has been provided for its claims which suggest various undesirable effects or foreign television programming on the indigenous Viewers' psychological orientations. Furthermore, the scarce existing studies have provided mixed findings. Some studies suggested a null to minimal impact of imported TV viewing, while others revealed a moderate impact of such Viewing. Some of the discrepancies In these studies may reflect the different dependent variables used, different types of viewers tested and various research settingsEven though these complicating factors make It difficult to isolate any generalizable effects of American television on importing countries, more research is deemed necessary to establish firmly a groundwork of cross-cultural media impact. What is the most promising approach we can start with to Investigate the cultural influence of foreign media? It is less obvious that imported television programs will affect attitudes and behavior In the same way and to a similar extent as they would affect viewers in the country of their origin. The indigenous audience, for example, might discount the more overt messages of the US. television programs since they can identify the values and symbols of the culture as different from their own. However, imported television may have a stronger impact on viewers‘ attitudes and beliefs about what the US. is like. Most viewers, lacking direct experience with the US. and Americans, may form their opinions about the US. at least partially from the imported television programming that they watch. In line with this thought, the present study is primarily concerned with the following inquiry: Whether viewing American television programming could be significantly associated with several Chosen areas of perceptions about American society and culture among Korean adolescents. Korea presents a somewhat different picture in comparison to many other developing countries regarding the share and popularity of American television programs. Only 12% of the total broadcasting hours are devoted to imported TV programs, including 7% for US. situation comedies, drama series and feature films (Korean Ministry of Culture and Information, I988). Also, the Korean people generally prefer domestic TV programs to the imported ones (Lee's PR and Research LTD, I989). Despite local preference for Korean TV programs, American TV shows have outperformed the domestic ones in attracting Korean adolescents. For example, "McGyver", "Cosby Show", "Knight Rider”, and "Max Headroom" gained respectively 76.6%, 55.8%, 48. I %, and 42.9% ratings among male adolescents and 76.6%, 64.9%, 40.3%, and 22. I % ratings among female adolescents during the survey-conducted period. For adolescents, these years are important because the majority of their beliefs about social realities are still being formed, and are thus more amenable to outside influences (Hawkins and Pingree, l98l). Also, there has become almost a communicaton research "truism" that media effects are greater without competition from other sources and Dre-existing knowledge. In this vein, the sample of this study was drawn from a population of Korean adolescents, who are less likely to have direct experience with the US. While the study starts out with primary concerns for the cultural effects of US. television programs in global communication flow, it also provides an interesting opportunity to test the cultivation hypothesis in a cross-cultural setting. Emerging out of national attention to various effects of television violence during the I96OS and 19708, the Cultural Indicators Group, led by George Gerbner, has sought to depict an overall picture of TV violence. Based on the annual content analyses, so-called "message system analyses“, they revealed an overdose of violence on network TV in a series of Violence Profiles (Gerbner et al., l976,l977, 1978, 1979, 1980). Beyond reporting a descriptive assessment of television dramatic programming, these investigators have argued that the television world of aggregate stories and images plays a major role in setting the public agenda and shaping socially pervasive norms, thus cultivating the dominant perspectives of society (Signorielli, Gross, &Morgan, 1982). As a result, they hypothesized that an overemphasls of violence on TV leads to an exaggrated perception of crime in society and fears of crime in their neighborhoods among heavy viewers. In support of this cultivation hypothesis these researchers have furnished a large volume of modest, but statistically reliable, correlational evidence. While it was on crime and interpersonal mistrust perception of society that Gerbner and his associates have been concerned with, several other researchers have released studies with regard to such impacts upon perception of various aspects in social life: aging, sex roles, affluence, minorities, occupational images, images of family life and so forth (Fox & Philllber, I978; Haney & Manzolati, I980; Robertson et al., 1979,- Volgy & Schwarz, 1980). The present study also tests five different perceptual areas of media impact - affluence, violence, advanced technology, family life and minorities. These five aspects were elicited based on the prevailing and consistent themes and values portrayed by American shows aired on Korean TV. Unlike the conventional cultivation research by the Cultural indicators Group, some interesting attempts were made In this study. The Cultural Indicators Group assumed that television audiences view commercial TV, whose nature is uniform and contains interrelated symbolic messages, and that their viewing is largely habitual and unselective. Thus, all viewers get the same or very similar symbolic messages, and the only variable is the amount of exposure to these messages. However, some researchers argued that such assumptions should be tested instead of being taken for granted. Hawkins and Plngree (1982) suggested that specifying television content may be an important issue for identifying a more precise picture of the phenomenon. For example, should there be a significant relationship between TV viewing and constructing certain social perceptions, a researcher must be interested in isolating the program type most responsible for the association. Therefore, viewing specificity must be viewed as a variable rather than an assumption in the realm of cultivation research. Based upon this reasoning, an attempt was made to see if exposure to certain types of US. imported programming rather than US. programs in aggregate would better predict perceptions of US. society. Yet another unique aspect of the present study can be noted in that it specifically tests how the possibly unique and independent influence of information conveyed by a certain type of American TV program is associated with perceptions of the US. society within different kinds of experience modes - direct, interpersonal, or mediated. It is true that real-life experiences may confirm or disconfirm television messages, thus increasing or decreasing the television cultivation potential (Hawkins and Pingree, I982). Gerbner et al.‘s (1980) "resonance“ reasoning is an example of the real-life confirmation of television messages. When dealing with a foreign audience exposed to American television programming, variables pertaining to the experience factor may become all the more significant. Given the largely limited real-life experiences in an American social milieu among Korean adolescents, it may be worthwhile to ask whether other relevant experiences such as having travelled to the US. (direct) or being told about the US. by family members travelling to the US. (interpersonal) would generate different cultivation results than would having no real-life experiences at all (mediated only). The focus of the present study may seem narrow, especially with regard to the rather macroscopic and normative research interests advocated by many critical investigators In the area of global communication f lows. However, supportive evidence here could be used as a foundation for further research on whether the perceptual impact verified is associated with subsequent attitudinal or behavioral inclinations, with regard to the aspects of US. life studied. ‘ Chapter II will examine a theoretical perspective used in the study, and research reviews regarding the psychological level of effects stemming from the foreign television programming influx, and the impact of TV on social reality perceptions. CHAPTER I I THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE Review of Research on the Impact of Television Imports The field of international mass communication research has been centered on a systematic and structural level of analysis concerning global communication flows (e.g., imperialism and diffusionism). Such research trends, however, have resulted in an unbalanced research emphasis which reflects the almost total lack of concrete evidence to justify the value-laden claims of specific psychological impacts of international television program flows. The research oriented towards psychological influences examines operationalizable theoretical constructs such as the cultivation of beliefs, values, ideologies, attitudes and behaviors. At the same time, the approach, focusing on psychological impact of froelgn mdeia, can function to fill the gap between the structural analysis and the process/effects analysis of international mass communication research (Hur, 1982). In this respect, the present study can be regarded as an attempt to bridge this gap. In 1961, the United States Information Agency (USIA) examined the subject of foreign reaction to American commercial television programs, concluding that: The wide popular favor American commercial TV enjoys, and the belief that wholesale exposure of foreign audiences to impressions of America is on balance a blessing, however mixed, leads to the verdict that American commercial TV showings currently are more helpful than harmful in creating favorable attitudes toward the US. Limited survey results available appear to support this conclusion. (USIA, 1961) Perhaps the first formal empirical verification about imported TV programs' impact on foreign viewers may date back tol968, when Browne (I968) claimed from a small-scale international survey that US. television programs, more often than not, gave foreign viewers a favorable impression of life in the United States. This was done mainly through the portrayal of "harmonious family life, a high standard of living, and a general sense of freedom and equality for and among Americans in programming" ( pp 315-316 ). Also reported in the study was that violence and "unreality of presentation" were the preponderant negative impressions, with bad taste as to "immorality, brashness and excessive emphasis on sex" coming in a very distant third. In terms of US. images conveyed by American TV programming, Beltran (1978) attempted to combine several Latin American research findings. In his extensive review of dependency studies, he suggested that imported television In Latin America "is attempting to induce in its audience an adherence to a number of beliefs about human life and destiny (p. 75). After eliciting what he called as "basic images" depicted by the Latin American television world, including both local and imported programs, he classified these images into two distinctive categories: positive and negative stimulations. Among those which might have been promoted by American television programs were: adventurism, elitism, racism, materialism, aggressiveness for positive stimulations, and self-defeatism, conformism, conservatism for negative stimulations. While these two empirical reports furnished comprehensive ideas about the impact of American TV programs abroad, other researchers examined more specific impacts on attitudes and beliefs among the receiving country audiences. In a field experiment among Formosan children, Tsai (I970) hypothesized that the children viewing American shows on Taiwan TV would have a more favorable attitude toward elements of American culture and a less favorable attitude toward their own culture than their non-viewing counterparts. Some findings suggested that TV viewing is likely to influence Formosan children's "specific" attitudes toward American culture, whereas little impact was found on their fundamental outlook on their own culture. Limited media effects in a crosscultural setting also can be found in Sparkes‘ (1977) study. He noticed that little could be observed in the Canadian population which would indicate an attitudinal difference between heavy and light viewers of US. television news. Also, there was little agenda-setting effects of US. television news viewing, at either the intrapersonal or Interpersonal agenda level. In a test of the cultural imperialism hypothesis among Icelandic children, Payne and Peake (1977) again provided data to support little impact from US. television. He reported that for non-farm Icelanders ages 11-14, US. television had a minimal effect in creating favorable attitudes about the US, and no effect in increasing political information about the US, or in generating attitudes of fear, anger, or sadness which Icelanders usually associated with US. culture. In a later synthesis of three studies among the Icelandic population, however, Payne (1978) carefully concluded that, in spite of minor differences among the studies, ”there appears to be a 10 very slight direct relationship between TV viewing and knowledge of political figures occasionally covered on US. TV" (p. 180). There were several other studies with some verifications of moderate effects of imported television program viewing. A study among Canadian college students (Barnett & McPhail, 1980), utilizing a metric multidimensional scaling method, demonstrated a substantional impact from US. television program viewing on perceptions of national identity. For instance, the more US. television was viewed by Canadians, the less they perceived of themselves as Canadian and the more they perceived of themselves like Americans. Moreover, extremely heavy viewers of American TV were found to identify significantly closer to the United States than to Canada. In an eight-year longitudinal investigation among Algonquin Indians of Central Canada, Granzberg (1982) reported a comparable finding that, after the arrival of television mostly full of American programs, "outgroup identity" and stress had increased among Algonquin children. For example, in a role-playing simulation situation, television viewing appeared to retard the tendency for Algonquins to choose members of their in-group as role models, especially for the role of the "good" person. Also, an increase of purchases made of outgroup products was documented after the introduction of TV. In terms of the impact of US. television viewing on consumption of attitudes, a similar result was reported in Oliveira's (1985) research. In this study conducted in the Central American nation of Belize, he found that the more US. television was viewed by respondents, the more favorable the attitude toward consumption of US. products was. In addition, US. l 1 television viewing was negatively associated with attitudes toward consumption of Central American products. More recently, Tan, Tan and Tan (1987) conducted a survey to determine whether exposure to American television programs in the Philippines had influenced the value systems and aspirations of Filipino high school students. The "enculturation" potential of US. television viewing, that an influx of American TV programming may displace native cultures and accelerate the adoption of foreign values, life styles and behavioral patterns, was somewhat supported in this study. Some erosion of traditional Filipino values was found among heavy viewers of American TV programs. For Instance, heavy viewers of American TV were more likely than light viewers to regard "pleasure", which was emphasized in US. television, as an important value, while at the same time they tended to rate ”salvation", "wisdom" and "forgiving" to be relatively unimportant. In a similar study among Korean college students, however, Kang & Morgan (1988) reported mixed findings. They examined the impact of American Forces Korean Network Television's programs broadcasted in English instead of imported US. programs dubbed into Korean for Korean viewers. While some values presented no relationship to viewing of AFKN-TV at all, heavy viewers of AFKN-TV programs were more likely to endorse less traditional viewpoints on some topics but, more traditional viewpoints on others. They also suggested that the contribution of US. television programs abroad was not likely to be uniform across the population when considering that the effects of AFKN-TV viewing varied considerably for male and female subgroups. They concluded that the sharply divergent patterns provided some support for the enculturation of values 12 by US. television viewing, but a hypodermic-needle model of media imperialism was inadequate to explain the results. In a step going beyond the realm of national identity or value orientations influenced by foreign media, Boyd (1984) investigated some of reasons for the uses and subsequent results of using imported television programs in less developed countries. An intereSting point he raised was related to what he called the "Jenus effect" of the imported television program viewing; which comprised: l) the perceptions by the viewer of the originating country,- and 2) any new perceptions of the viewer‘s own country in light of the imported programming. He pointed out: This puts the viewer in the position of looking two ways at once, and hence the Jenus effect referred to in the title... it is of interest to ask if the viewer in what is commonly called a developing country, but which have had a culture anteceding that of the United States, sees his or her culture as being superior, inferior, or perhaps too traditional and not progressive enough. (p.380) While the studies reviewed above were generally concerned with the cognitive and attitudinal impacts of US. television viewing across different cultures, another interesting examination came from the area of "cultivation" research. Originally, developed by Gerbner and his collegues (Gerbner & Gross, 1976), the cultivation hypothesis suggested a strong and consistent impact of television on viewers‘ construction of social reality (a detailed explication of the hypothesis follows shortly in this chapter). In the study applying the postulates and methodologies of the cultivation hypothesis, Pingree and Hawkins (1981) found that for 13 Australian children, amount of exposure to U. 8. television programs was correlated with both perceptions of violence and interpersonal mistrust in Australian society, though not in American society. In addition, the most consistent and strongest correlate of television-biased answers to questions about social reality was found in one specific type of US. program: crime-adventure programs. Such specification of crime and adventure programs as the chief cultivators of beliefs is related to the greater prevalence of this sort of symbolic message of violence in these programs. The relationships sustained their significance even after simultaneous controls for demographic and other media variables. They concluded that the impacts of television viewing on conceptions of social reality Indeed extended beyond the culture that created the programming. Additional support for the possibility of cross-cultural cultivation by imported television programs also came from two sample surveys among young Israelis (Weimann, 1984). The study demonstrated that heavy viewers of Israeli TV dominated by American programs had a strong and consistent tendency to overestimate the affluence of America, thus painting a rosier picture of American life. Furthermore, he attempted to make inferences among levels of overestimation, amount of TV viewing and demographic variables, using different kinds of causal models. The empirical data revealed that the level of overestimation was directly determined by the amount of TV viewing, and demographic variables - age and parental education - affected the amount of TV viewing. In summary, it is clear that the question of the impact of imported television programming on the viewers' psychological orientations has been incompletely answered. Some studies provided a null to minimal impact of l4 imported television viewing (e.g., Tsai, I970; Sparks, I977; Payne & Peake, 1977), while other studies suggested at best a moderate Impact of such viewing (e.g., Barnett & McPhile, 1980, Granzberg, 1982; Pingree & Hawkins, 1982; Welmann, I984; Oliveira, 1985; Tan et al., 1987; Kang & Morgan, 1988). It is apparent from the studies that a "bullet theory“ or "hypodermic-needle model" of cross-cultural media impacts was not firmly established. With a minimal-to-moderate degree of foreign media impacts found in some of the studies, however, more research is essential to justify the contentions regarding various psychological impacts resulting from the influx of foreign media products. The present study contributes to this intense debate by exploring the perception of American social reality among Korean adolescents. The following summary table will help in understanding the various results of previous research on the impact of imported television viewing. W The announcer, still focusing on MacArthur and the other participating persons, took the opportunity to review the ceremony about to take place. . . The camera followed and the announcer described the ceremony in detail. . . . The camera focused directly on the General, showing a close- up. . There was no shots of the crowds during this period. But the announcer filled in. “A great cheer goes up at the Bataan Bridge,where the General has just placed a wreath In honor of the American boys who died at Bataan and ..... " (TV perspective, Lang & Lang, I952, p.9) It was difficult to see any of them. MacArthur moved swiftly up the steps and immediately shook hands with people on the platform waiting to greet him. There was 15 Table 1: Impact of Imported TV Viewing on Indigenous Audience mu: AUTHOR SAMPLE ”MfigapsELNEgENT FINDINGS The American D.R. Browne Buenos Aires 1. general 1.American TV programs image as (N=482) impression have given foreign viewer presented Caracas of America a favorable impression of abroads by (N=450) 2. good aspects of life in the US. Us. Sao Paulo American life I. Harmonious family life, television (N=467) shown by a high standard of living, Japan American and a general sense of (N=972) TV shows freedom were the main Great Britain 3. bad aspects of good aspects portrayed by (N=412) American life TV shows. France shown by 3. Violence and unreality of (N=139) American presentation were the Italy TV shows (N=328) Germany (N=l48) Fifth—grab l. the attitude 1. The exposure to American students in toward TV programs is not likely Taipei fundamental to influence fundamental television (N=598) elements in outlook; that is the prmrams on Chinese attitUde toward children in culture fundamental element in Formosa 2. the specific Chinese culture. attitude toward 2. TV Is likely to influence American the children's specific culture attitudes toward the American culture. main negative impression. Some effects of American . There is only minimal evidence that watching US. TV is associated with favorable attitudes toward the US. . There is no evidence that US. TV transmits foreign Cultural Children I. favorable Diffusion: ases 1 1-14 attitude the role of in to the US. U.S.TV Reykjavik 2. information in Iceland (N=465) about Akureyri the US. (N= 1 40) 3. attitudes of Vestmann— fear, political information to anger, Icelandic viewers. and sadness '. The viewing of US. TV is not related to expressed attitudes of fear, anger, and sadness. I6 Tablel: Impact of Imported TV Viewing on Indigenous Audience (continued) MAJOR DEPENDENT TITLE AUTHOR SAMPLE VARIABLES FINDINGS TV across the Canadian border: Does it matter? GA. Barnett T.L. Mcphail United States television _ U S S. Pingree programs & R. Hawkins ( 1981) on Australian television: the Cultivation effect Television as story-tel Ie the Algonk ian Indians of Central Canada 6. Granzberg third- Kingston (N=400) Postsdam- Auburn ( N= 1 80) attitudes toward Canada and the US. perception of him/herself as a Canadian students enrolled in a communication course at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada (N= 1 49) mnd- l. perception of fifth- violence in & Austrailia and eight-graders the US. There is very little if any attitudinal difference or effect associated with watching the foreign television signals. There is a substantial impact of US. TV programs viewing on perception of national identity- the more US. TV viewed by Canadian, the less they perceived of themselves like Canadian. Austrailian children are influenced by US. crime-adventure TV programs in their in 2. general meann concepts of social reality Perth, Austrailia (N= I 280) the US. attitudes toward fourth- in-group members & and their own fifth-graders culture from Oxford House, Norway House. Jackhead, Winnipeg, and MacGregor in Austrailia and for their own country. and to a lesser extent for the US. Introduction of TV filled with American shows increased outgroup identity among Algonkian Indians. I7 Table 1: Impact of Imported TV viewing on Indigenous Audience (continued) AUOR DEPENDENT TITLE AUTHOR SAMPLE ,: 5 FINDINGS Images of life 6. Weimann in America: the impact of American TV in Israel Impact of DS. non-domestic Oliveira televisionon (I985) consumer attitudes in Northern Belize American TV AS. Tan, in the Philippines: A test of cultural impact Culture Clash: Impact of US. television in Korea secondary school in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem (N=3 l 0) rural area (N=58) University of Haifa (N=93) perception of "Living In the US. " l. attitudes toward consumption of US. products 2. attitudes toward consumption of Central America products residents in Northern Belize seniors in three Philippine high schools ( N=225) rank of important value Korean coll :- : attitudes toward marriage, family sex—role and etc. Heavy viewer of US. TV shows tended to perceive America as more affluent than light viewer, even when other demographic factors were held constant. 1. The preference for US. products is positively correlated with the number of hours spent watching US. television. 2. The exposure to US. television is negatively associated with attitudes toward consumption of Central American products. Frequent viewing of American television was associated with some erosion of traditional Filipino values. Heavy viewers of AF KN—TV tended to have less traditional attitudes on some topics but more traditional attitudes on others. I8 some cheering when he mounted the platform. He walked north on the platform and did not reappear until some minutes later. In the meantime the crowd was so noisy that it was impossible to understand what was being broadcast. Cheering was spotty and intermittent... (Ceremony observer, Lang & Lang, 1952, p9) As suggested by two different versions of the same set of real events, a classic study presenting how television provides its audience with Interpretations of an event that are far from the actual facts was done by Lang & Lang (1952) during the early days of TV. One body of observers saw the homecoming parade of General Douglas MacArthur in person and gave detailed accounts of the reality that they had experienced. The other body of observers viewed the parade on television and also gave such accounts. The two groups encountered different worlds: Television viewers got the impression of huge, enthusiastic crowds, thus they had an exciting experience. In contrast, those having attended the parade found it rather boring. The Langs concluded that television presents a "unique perspective," selecting scenes and using camera angles carefully so as to maximize the excitement for viewers. While Langs' study represents earlier confirmation that the real world and that presented in the medium may be substantially different in the television era, perhaps a pioneering work In the context of "mediated" communication may date back to Walter Lippmann's classic, Public Qpipipp (1922). From many examples collected through the stormy period witnessing World War I, he suggested that the depictions of the press were often "spurious" in that they were very misleading, creating distorted or even completely false pictures "in people's heads” for the world outside. His I9 work has been treated with great importance in the sense that it is one of the earliest statements of the role of mass communications in the construction of reality. What Lippmann could not anticipate in 1922 was that his formulation would apply equally well to the new medium of television. Among the research agendas or theoretical bases for studying how media content plays a part in the social construction of meaning is what George Gerbner and his associates called the "cultivation hypothesis". The formulation evolved out of the national concern with the effects of televised violence during the 19603 and 1970s Gerbner‘s Cultural Indicator Group contended that television has usurped the role of tribal elders, religion, and formal education in myth-telling (Gerbner et al., 1976, I979, I980). From their perspective, common rituals and mythologies are Important to a society because they function as "agencies of symbolic socialization and control" and, as such, "demonstrate how society works by dramatizing its norms and values" (Gerbner et al., 1976, p.173). In assuming the role and responsibility of premier story-teller in contemporary society, television functions to construct social reality for its viewers, to give the audience a picture of "what exists, what is important, what is related to what, and what is right“ (Gerbner et al., 1976, p.176). Cultural Indicator research consists of two interrelated prongs: message system analysis and cultivation analysis. Message system analysis uses content analysis to locate patterns of action and demographic characteristics of characters that might be viewed as symbolizing some further meaning. While later studies included other forms of behavior shown on television, Gerbner and his collegues have been concerned in 20 particular with delineating an overall picture of television violence. Based on its annual message system analysis, they reported the amount of violence shown on television in a series of Violence Profiles (Gerbner et al., 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980). They have revealed predominance of violence in the world of dramatic television. For example, they reported that, for the 1979 television season, 70 percent of all prime-time programs contained some violence, averaging 5.7 violent acts per show (Gerbner et al., 1980). Going beyond a descriptive assessment of television programs, they also attempted to develop a theoretical framework and an empirical strategy for studying the impact of television content on people's beliefs. Using message system analysis that demonstrated significant discrepancies between TV content and the real world, "cultivation analysis" asks whether viewers have incorporated these "television biases" into their own construction of social reality. These investigators, in other words, have argued that television is ”the predominant conveyor of contemporary cultural images and patterns" in America and through repeated observational or incidental learning, "it shapes the most pervasive norms and cultivates the dominant perspectives of society" (Signorielli, Gross & Morgan, 1982, p.169). Even though the recent Cultural Indicators projects have taken into account a wide range of concerns, Gerbner and his associates“ efforts and extensive literature have focused primarily on how violence shown on television exaggerates the viewer's perceptions of crime in society and fears of crime in their neighborhoods. Based on the content analyses showing pervasive violence and crime on television, Gerbner et al. suggested that this overemphasls of violence creates a TV-biased set of beliefs that 2I correspond more closely with the distorted television world than the actuality of the real world among heavy viewers,- that is, television "cultivates" a misconception of an overly dangerous social reality. To adjust Gerbner and his associates' prevalent metaphor, television Is not merely myth-telling; it creates a new social mythology. To provide empirical evidence, they devised a measuring procedure, called the "cultivation differential," which was essentially a forced-choice method between a television answer and a reality answer. The responses of heavy versus light viewers were then compared to generate the cultivation differential between the two subgroups of television viewers. The statistics used described such aspects of the society as the risk of falling victims to a crime or assault and the proportion of the population engaged in law enforcement occupations. For instance, Gerbner and Gross (1976) surveyed an unspecified sample of adults, obtaining answers to questions relating to law enforcement, trust, and fearfulness. Regardless of education, age, and gender, heavy television viewers (people viewing an average of four or more hours a day) were more likely than light viewers (people viewing an average of two hours a day or less) to overestimate the proportion of people in law enforcement, to answer "can't be too careful" when asked the question, "Can most people be trusted?" and to exaggerate their own chances of being involved in violence. This association between television viewing and "television answers" was further supported in surveys of New Jersey and New York City school children (Gerbner et al., 1977, 1979). A more recent cultivation analysis survey yielded similar outcomes (Gerbner et al., 1980). Furthermore, findings from more detailed 22 investigations of these data as well as reanalyses of previously reported data have been interpreted as providing support for two new and perhaps even more "radical" concepts relating to cultivation: mainstreaming and resonance. The "mainstream" can be thought of as a relative commonality of outlooks that television tends to cultivate. Mainstreaming refers to the sharing of commonality by heavy viewers in these demographic groups whose light viewers hold divergent views (Gerbner et al., 1986, p.30). For example, it is well evidenced that more educated, higher income group have the most diversified patterns of cultural opportunities and activities; therefore, they also tend to be lighter viewers. When they are light viewers, they also tend to be the least imbued with the television view of the world. But the heavy viewers in the higher education/high income groups respond differently. Their responses to the cultivation-related questions are more like those of other heavy viewers, most of whom have less education and income. I Also, the resonance concept explains special cases in which television‘s depiction of reality are congruent with an atypical segment of the population's actual or perceived reality, which purportedly leads to marked enhancement in cultivation effects. For example, city dwellers who live in high-crime neighborhoods demonstrate the strongest association between amount of viewing and expressing fear about their own neighborhoods at night; they resonate most because the portrayal of crime on television should be particularly salient to their lives. Utilizing the cultivation hypothesis as a conceptual tool for the present study, at the most general level, it is reasonalble to assume, that heavy viewers of US. television programs on Korean television would shape 23 their perceptions of American reality, reflecting television's most stable, prevalent, and repetitive portrayals. Just as Gerbner and his colleagues contended that heavy exposure to the predominantly violent fare of prime-time television resulted in greater perceived incidences of "real world" violence, it can be assumed that heavy exposure to pervasive and systematically distorted messages will result in similarly distorted viewer perceptions. Not all scholars are fully convinced by the cultivation reasoning and findings, however, and several criticisms have been leveled against research conducted on the cultivation hypothesis (Doob & Macdonald, 1979; Hirsch, l980a, I98la, I981b; Hughes, 1980; Newcomb, 1978; Wober, 1978). The authors of the critical articles have raised questions about the theoretical bases of cultivation, methods used to test the cultivation hypothesis, and the interpretation and generalizability of results of cultivation analyses. The reanayses of the same data by others (Hughes, 1980; Hirsch, l980a, 1981a, 1981b) yielded little support for cultivation. By introducing simultaneous controls of a number of potential third variables, Hughes (1980) found that the relationship between television viewing and fear of walking alone at night was reduced to nonsignificance. Hughes also examined a few other variables that Gerbner et al. (1978) reported in their analysis of the 1975 National Opinion Research Center (NORC) data and pointed out the cultivation predictions were met by mixed results. For example, the relationship between viewing and a question about America staying out of world affairs was weakened with controls but remained significant. However, for two Anomie questions that Gerbner et '1 " Me ween an: I ' ' - . . null—'03:. Djff," {1,91 aml3.sm 'L’TB SVTESWST}: (ST-3"”? If)" ' "I?" ”s I'.‘ - . ., «mow -. -.-.,... tarry-w - . ,. - 24 al. found in the 1977 NORC data(i.e., ”Most public officials are not really interested in the problems of the average man," and "In spite of what some people say, the lot of the average man is getting worse"), the relationship remained significant but appeared curvilinear: medium viewers showed the most agreement with the items. Hirsch‘s reanalysis of NORC data also replicated that of Hughes, utilizing different statistical precedures and adding 10 items unreported by Gerbner (I.e., "Are there any situations you can imagine in which you would approve a man punching an adult male stranger?") to the reanalysis of eight that were reported by Gerbner et al.. Moreover, he attempted to isolate two "tails" of the viewing distribution: Nonviewers (one or less hour per day) were separated from "light" viewers, and "extreme" viewers (more than eight hours per day) were separated from "heavy" viewers. Hirsch presented comparisons of nonviewers versus light viewers and heavy versus extreme viewers and found reversal of the cultivation hypothesis for a substantional majority of 18 relevant questionnaire items. That is, the nonviewers were more likely to be fearful, alienated, and favorable to violence and suicide than the light viewers. Extreme viewers, on the other hand, appeared to perceivea less scary world than heavy viewers. In addition, using multiple controls simultaneously on age, gender, education, and race substantially reduced support for the cultivation predictions. Hirsch concluded that the cultivation hypothesis remained an "interesting but unsupported speculation," and required more replications and a conceptual refinement. This would seem to be a dramatic disconfirmation of cultivation. However, the two extreme viewing categories of the distribution(the4 25 percent nonviewers and the 4 percent extreme viewers) are unusual enough that they probably differ from other groups on possibly relevant third variables; ascribing Hirsch's findings to a failure of the television influence hypothesis seems unreasonable to some (Gerbner et al., 1981, Hawkins & Pingree, 1982). The conceptual inconsistencies and largely mixed empirical findings have also been reported in a few cross-cultural research projects. For instance, the study by Dobb and MacDonald (1979), perhaps the most widely cited piece of disconfirmation of the cultivation, was conducted to test the cultivation hypothesis among Toronto adults living in four areas that varied in amount of real-world crime (two in downtown and two in suburbs, both including a high and low crime areas). Results from data collected from door-to-door surveys revealed that after controlling for the density of crime in a viewer's neighborhood, no relation was found between media use and fear of crime except in high-crime neighborhoods. While this finding later led to conceptual development of the "resonance" (Gerbner et al., 1980a), the persistent impact of TV viewing for 14 of the 25 secondary questions suggested a need for distinguishing between different dimensions of crime fear. Another failure in replicating the cultivation of prevalence of violence was documented from Great Britain when Wober (1978) reported the results from an annual national survey on "Attitudes to Broadcasting." This included two cultivation-related items: one dealt with prevalence of violence manifested in terms of one‘s chances of being a victim of robbery, and the other with Interpersonal mistrust. The two items were combined to form a ”Security Scale," which he claimed to be a more powerful procedure 26 than single-item scales. After comparing security scale scores of heavy viewers with those of light viewers, Wober concluded that there was no evidence for a paranoid effect of television on British viewers. Pingree and Hawkins (1982), however, argued that there were serious problems with Wober's study related to differences in television content and viewing in Great Britain and the United States. In terms of TV viewing of violence, an American heavy viewer saw more than twice as much violence as a British heavy viewer; British heavy viewers exposed themselves to 10.7 violence-containing programs per week, whereas American heavy viewers would watch almost 24 hour-long programs containing violence per week. They contended that such discrepancies between two countries may explain a disconfirmation of the cultivation from Wober‘s study, and lead to a hidden assumption ‘of the cultivation effects: It is not just that exposure to televised violence leads in a linear fashion to construction of a violent social reality. There must be a certain “threshhold” level of social reality content for television influence to occur (Pingree & Hawkins, 1982, p.232). As briefly mentioned earlier in this chapter, a few other cross- cultural studies specifically examining the impact of US. television program imports also brought mixed support for the cultivation hypothesis; some found a moderate support (e.g., Pingree & Hawkins, 1981c, among Australian children; Weimann, 1984, among Israeli adolescents; Tan, Tan, & Tan, 1987, among Filipino high school students), and others reported mixed support (e.g., Kang & Morgan, 1988, among Korean college students). As noted earlier, the separation of the Korean study from the other studies may reflect the fact that Kang and Morgan investigated the impact of "American 27 army forces“ TV programs aired in English instead of US. programs dubbed into Korean for Korean viewers. Although the cultivation formulation thus far has generated a number of critiques, the cultivation process has been a visible and heuristically viable perspective during the past decade. Then, will the cultivation perspective maintain its prominence during the next era of Inquiry into the uses and effects of television? The answer to this question might just depend on the flexibility of "the cultivators.” In an extensive literature review on television's Influence on social reality construction, Hawkins and Pingree (1982) have delineated five processes for cultivation effects. When dealing with foreign populations, each of the processes appears to have more meaningful implications. Since the cultivation mechanisms they identified have a direct bearing on the "elastic" cultivation research of the next generation, and are related to the present inquiry, a brief summary is deemed appropriate. First, individual differences in information processing abilities or cognitive structures may be responsible for differences in the degree of cultivation. Age, educational background, and sociocultural experiences are among the factors involved. Second, the degree of attention paid to television programs and perceived reality of program content may inhibit or facilitate television's cultivation potential. In the research by Pingree, Starrett, and Hawkins (1979), social reality effects were compared for soap opera fans and a random sample of women from the same city. The evidence suggested that "active processing and involvement“ with a program (soap opera fans) inhibited cultivation; while several other studies (e.g., Slater&Elliott, 28 1982; O‘Keefe, 1984) demonstrated that the higher the perceived credibility of the content, the more likely the influence of that content on social reality construction. Third, real-life experiences may confirm or disconfirm television messages, thus amplifying or diminishing television's cultivation potential. First of all, for any given television message, some minimum degree of confirmation from real-world experience, other sources, or even preexisting beliefs about social reality may be necessary to validate the television content. Secondly, message different from those of television coming from a heavily used or depended-on source could provide sufficient disconfirmation that the viewing amount of television becomes less relevant or even irrelevant. Weaver and Wakshlag (1986) reported that the direction and strength of association between perceptions of personal vulnerability to crime and exposure to crime-related primetime telelvision programs were contingent upon the viewer‘s criminal victimization experience modality (mediated, interpersonal, or direct). It appears that social perceptions are formed and reinforced on the basis of the highest order experience available (i.e., direct, interpersonal, or mediated). When direct experience is lacking or highly ambiguous, however, the individual is most susceptible to the suggestion of indirectly obtained information, conveyed either interpersonally or through the mass media (Hawkins & Pingree, 1982; Zillmann, 1979). Based on the reasoning that the experience factor is far more important when examining a foreign population exposed to American television programming, the present study investigated whether having 29 direct or interpersonal experiences about America would generate different levels of the cultivation effects than would having no real-life experiences at all. Fourth, the degree of social interaction and integration may be an intervening variable which counteracts television‘s influence on social reality construction. One study (Rothschild, 1979) indicated the increased social interaction in groups tended to interfere with television's messages by providing a rich set of alternative information. Finally, Hawkins and Pingree (1982) argued that the specific content of television viewing is a better predictor of the cultivation than the total amount of viewing. Also, they demonstrated that viewing of crime-adventure type of programs was the most highly associated with perceptions of violence in society. In the past, cultivation proponents have deemphasized the importance of viewer selectivity and program diversity. In fact, Gerbner et al.'s key assumptions were viewer non-selectivity and ritualistic attendence to television. They pointed out: Television differs from other media in its centralized mass production and ritualistic use of a coherent set of images and messages produced for total populations. Therefore, exposure to the total pattern rather than only to specific genres or programs is what accounts for the historically new and distinct consequences of living with television, namely, the cultivation of shared conceptions of reality among otherwise diverse public. (1986, p.19) However, several studies have also revealed a strong predictive potential of television content specificity: crime-related versus noncrime-related drama ( Hawkins & Pingree, 1980; Weaver & Wakshlag, 1986); 3O justice-depicting versus Injustice-depicting drama (Bryant, Carveth, and Brown, 1981). As noted earlier, the present inquiry investigates the question "whether Korean adolescents' viewing of American television programming could be significantly associated with perceptions about affluence, violence, advanced technology, family life, and minorities in America." Therefore, the current study requires a premise that allows the consideration of the audience member‘s decision to watch American television programs rather than local ones. Furthermore, the present study is interested in testing whether the exposure to specific television contents influences certain types of perceptions. For example, family shows shown in Korea such as "Little House on the Prairie" could be expected to be a strong predictor of the perception of American family life. Then, the cultivation hypothesis in Its original formulation which assumes non-selectivity appears to have limited utility for this study. On the other hand, if one accepts the extended boundaries of the hypothesis, cultivation can be a useful schema. In this regard, the present study supports the contention that if cultivation research is to remain current, it will have to accommodate, rather than subordinate, notions of program diversity and audience-selectivity. In summary, with some refined conceptual modifications, the cultivation hypothesis can be an interesting and even promising effort to pursue a time-honored question of how human beings obtain knowledge and meaning, particularly in the context of mediated communications. Furthermore, the cultivation analysis, when equipped with some extended conceptual boundaries proposed by Hawkins and Pingree (1982), can be 3I viewed as a useful analytic tool in cross~cultural inquiries involving the indigenous viewers' consumption of foreign television program content. R iwo eear iion' I lue on W One of the major features of our current transition into the age of Mass Communications is that increasingly we are in contact with ”mediated representations" of a complex physical and social world rather than only with the objective features of our narrow personal surroundings (Def leur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Communication researchers and theorist have made efforts to develop lines of research and explanation that probe how media content plays a part in the social construction of meaning. For example, the cultivation formulation, as extensively reviewed in the previous section, was developed to understand television's influence on social reality construction. Most of the research regarding relationships between television viewing and shaping of social reality centered on aspects of social reality related to the violent content of television; in addition, large portions of these researches were done by the Cultural Indicators group (Gerbner et al., 1976, 1977, I978, 1979, 1980). The violence, in detail, included fearfulness, interpersonal mistrust, and perceived prevalence of violence. On the other hand, several researchers studied other areas of social reality in the last few years; attitudes about doctors (Volgy & Schwarz, 1980); sex roles (Volgy & Schwarz, 1980); attitudes about criminal justice (Haney & Manzolati, 1980); perceptions of population illness (Robertson et al., 1979); 32 perceptions of affluence (Fox & Philliber, 1978); and old people images (Gerbner et al., 1980a). Fox and Philliber (1978) examined the effects of television on perceptions of the extent of affluence, arguing that television portrays America as a highly affluent society by overrepresentation of middle- and upper-class charaters. Thus, they hypothesized that perceptions of affluence would be positively related to amount of television viewing. An analysis of survey data provided little support for the hypothesis. Their results showed a small but significant positive relationship between television viewing and perceptions of affluence that was eliminated after controlling for income, occupation, and especially education simultaneously. The null television effects on perceptions of society also can be found in Robertson et al.‘s study (1979). They measured the exposure of third, fifth, and seventh graders to medical commercials, and investigated perception-of—population illness with four questions estimating the incidence of symptoms in the population (I.e., how many times a month do people get headaches?) Results indicated no relationship (r=.00) between children's perception of population illness and exposure to medical commercials. There were some other studies with support of moderate television effects on perceptions of social reality. A study by Haney and Manzolati (1980) revealed 21 attitudes about criminal justice as consistent themes in dramatic television programs (e.g., crime is a product of the criminal‘s personality and not of social structures; law violations by police to apprehend criminals are acceptable). For 11 of those 21 items, heavy viewers were more likely than light viewers to agree. Their findings were 33 noteworthy in demonstrating that hypotheses about television influence on value systems can be based more directly on content analyses and not simply on implications derived from content demographics. Volgy and Schwarz (1980) also revealed higher levels of sexism among adults exposed to entertainment programs. In addition, they found significant relationships between viewing medical shows and affect toward doctors and between viewing ethnic shows and concern about racial problems. However, their study did not report anything about their measures or analysis techniques. In analysis of a 1974 Harris Poll, Gerbner et al. (1980a) reported a significant association between television viewing and negative images about older people: "Older people are not open-minded and adaptable, are not bright and alert, and are not good at getting things done. Similarly, they also found that, compared with light viewers, heavy viewers among schoolchildren thought that "people become old" at a younger age. In summary, despite the enormous amount of attention and research focused on the potential cultivation of certain beliefs and perceptions through television viewing, empirical evidence for the hypothesis appears at best mixed, while controversy and conceptual refinement are still under way. The discrepancies among studies may reflect the kinds of social reality with which they were concerned, and of their samples' characteristics. The present study explores the relationship between perceptions of five different areas of American social reality - violence, affluence, family life, advanced technologies, and minorities - and US. television viewing among Korean adolescents, likely lacking in real-life experience and especially vulnerable to outside influences. P i t one in the Stud Derived from the theoretical perspectives presented, some predictions were made. As noted earlier, the scope of predictions regarding the effects of American television on Korean adolescents was confined to several specific areas of media content impact. There were eleven US. weekly shows on air during survey-conducted period - McGyver, Knight Rider, Murder She Wrote, Moonlighting, Max Headroom, Simon & Simon, Miami Vice, Six Million Dollar Man, Hard Boys, Cosby Show, and Little House On the Prairie. This study investigates effects of viewing of these US. television programs on American social reality construction, using the original concepts of the cultivation hypothesis (i.e., total amount of television viewing). Furthermore, a few other hypotheses were drawn from the rationales extending the original cultivation logic (i.e., different types of television programs viewed, and different kinds of modalities experienced). First, the following hypothesis was derived from the initial cultivation inquries on the perceptions of violence in US. society (Gerbner et al., l976b, 1977, 1978). Profiling a heavy emphasis on violence in American television programs, these earlier studies reported that heavier viewers demonstrated more exaggerated perceptions of violence in society. Based on these findings and upon the assumption that nine detective/adventure types of shows out of eleven US. shows on Korean television emphasize violence, the data will be explored to see if heavier US. television viewers demonstrate generally more violent perceptions of American society. 34 35 Hypothesis- 1: Heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents will demonstrate "more violent" perceptions of American society. Second, based on the conceptual boundary extentions of cultivation logic discussed and on a few other cultivation inquiries regarding non-crime related perceptions, several more cultivation-related hypotheses were developed. If US. crime shows on Korean television could engender relatively exaggerated perceptions of violence in US. society among the Korean adolescents, one can also imagine that other US. programs may promote some salient social beliefs regarding various characteristics of US. society and culture If a researcher were successful in identifying a strong perceptual impact of a specific program type on certain noncrime-related perceptions, then we must acknowledge the usefulness of such an approach as advocated in the present study. While a separate hypothesis is forwarded shortly in this regard (i.e., content specificity), the tests of several noncrime-related perceptions were deemed consistent with the conceptual extension discussed in the previous sections. As exemplary areas, affluence and advanced technologies in US. society were chosen to be investigated in the study. Based on Weimann's (1984) findings among Israeli youth suggesting a positive relationship between US. television viewing and perceptions of American affluence, the following hypothesis was drawn. Hypothesis-2: Heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents will demonstrate a higher degree of affluence perceptions of US. society. 36 In addition, depictions of advanced technologies on US. programs aired on Korean television were another prevalent aspect. Four among the eleven available US. programs - McGyver, Knight Rider, and Max Headroom, and Six Million Dollar Man - often portray superior technologies such as a computerized car, a bionic man, and all kinds of computer equipment. Furthermore, these shows are top rated in popularity among Korean adolescents. From such prevalence and popularity, the following hypothesis will be tested. Hypothesis-3: Heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents will demonstrate a higher degree of advanced technologies perceptions of US. society. Two other areas were selected to be examined in the study; American family life and minorities. Although few studies about these aspects were done in the past, it is worthwhile to investigate them since they are among the social reality aspects which are significantly different between US. and Korean culture and society. Korean adolescents will find how American family members interact with each other in US. television programs - especially in the Cosby show, Little House on the Prairie, and Simon & Simon. Based on the reasoning that these shows depict harmonious American family life, the following hypothesis was developed. Hypothesis-4: Heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents will exhibit more positive images about American family life. In addition, perceived images of minorities, especially Blacks, were 37 tested. Before the "Cosby Show" started to air, there was no American show on Korean television with Black leading persons. The "Cosby Show" also gained second the highest ratings (60%) during the survey-conducted period. Since this show depicts positive images about Blacks, the following hypothesis was elicited. Hypothesis-5: Heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents will exhibit more positive images about American minorities, especially Blacks. Arelatively higher-order hypothesis was conceived with regard to one particular aspect of the extended cultivation logic - namely, the content specificity. Indeed, it cuts across all of the cultivation-related hypotheses indentified so far. While speculating on the processes of potential cultivation for television viewing, Hawkins and Pingree (1982) suggested that specifying television program content may be an important issue for identifying a more precise picture of the phenomenon. For example, Bryant et al. (1981) found that heavy exposure to the world of television action-drama cultivated conceptions of an overly dangerous social reality, especially when adventure drama did not feature the triumph of retributive justice. The present study attempted to see if exposure to certain types of US. television programming would better predict than an aggregate measure of total viewing. For instance, it seemed highly likely that viewing US. television programs containing crime events would be a better predictor for the crime-related perceptions than total US. television viewing. For this purpose, eleven US. television shows were grouped into three categories; 38 family, detective, and adventure shows. While one can intuitively choose certain program types to be more closely related than others to the areas of social perception investigated, a rather exploratory approach was taken to ascertain the potentially diverse patterns. Hypothesis-6: Exposure to specific program content will be a better predictor than total amount of US. television exposure, for the perceptual impact of US. programs investigated In the study among Korean adolescents. A final higher-order hypothesis was derived from the research identifying experience modalities potentially intervening in the relationship proposed in the present study. When dealing with a foreign population exposed to American television programming, variables pertaining to the experience factor may become all the more significant. Given the largely limited direct experiences with the American social environment among Korean adolescents, the sample was divided into two groups; mediated only and direct or interpersonal experience. It is expected that viewers who have no other source of information about the US. (mediated experience modality) would perceive American reality more closely to the depictions of US. television programs than viewers who have been to the US. or told about the US. by family members travelling to the US. (direct or interpersonal experience ). An attempt was made to test this rationale: Hypothesis-7: All of the perceptual impact of U.S.television programs predicted in the study will be more prominent, if any, among Korean adolescents with mediated experience only than among those with nonmediated experience. CHAPTER I I I METHODS 5311101513 Before describing the procedures for the study, a brief introduction of background to the survey seems necessary to justify the appropriateness of the sample and to ascertain the boundary of the study's external validity. The sample in the study was chosen from a population of Korean adolescents between nine and eighteen years old. _ Albeit with local preference for Korean television programs and a relatively small share of American television in broadcasting hours (7%), Korean adolescents have been noted as the heavy viewing group for US. programs. The following table demonstrates which American shows were available on Korean TV, and their relative popularity among Korean adolescents at the time of the survey conducted. As shown in table2, there were 11 American shows were on air, and they have outperformed the domestic ones in attracting Korean adolescents. In addition, for adolescents, these years are significant because the majority of their beliefs about social realities are still being shaped, and they are thus more vulnerable to external influences (Hawkins & Pingree, 1981). Furthermore, based upon a communication research truism that media effects are greater when the information from other sources is absent, Korean adolescents, who are less likely to have direct experiences with the US, can be considered as an important segment of the indigenous audience for testing impacts of US. television. 39 Table 2: Ratings of US. television programs on Korean TV (%) U ‘_ programs lam-“EM- lea-enaaaemeee lawlessnenmame mmwmmnaeeeeann lawleeeaaeaeee Ewanenaannnana mmmweeemeeaeme Immuemnamaawme Ineneeaamaaean lee-anaaeennne Iwwuaaeaeeaeee (Lee's PR & Research LTD, Seoul, June, 1989) 41 A questionnaire was administered in June, 1989, in classroom settings to 707 5th-grade, 8th-grade, and llth-grade students in 12 schools from five different locations in Korea; some schools were located in metropolitan cities (Seoul and Busan), others in fairly small towns (Songtan, Dangsin and Andong). After two incomplete questionnaires were eliminated, the total sample of 705 consisted of 55% males and 45% females. One-third of the respondents were 5th-graders, 8th-graders, and Ilth-graders. Their ages ranged from 9 to 18, with concentration on 10 (11%),11(18%),13(11%),l4(18%),16(22%),andl7(14%). Meaeguement I e e n V ri l M a e The independent variables consisted of experience modalities and exposure to US. television programs. The specfic items are as follow: (1) NQn-mediated experiences with US. (4 items): A combined measure of non-mediated experiences was developed by summing up the scores from the direct and interpersonal experiences measures; "On the average, how often do you personally talk to Americans?" (very often=3; often=2; sometimes=1; never=0), “In the last four weeks, have you talked to any Americans personally?" (yes=l; no=0), "Which family members have been to the US?" (yourself, grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, brother and sister), "After their travel, how often did they talk with you about what America looks like?“ (very often=3; often=2; sometimes=1; never=0) (2) Mediated experiences iny: When a composite score of non-mediated experiences is zero, it means that a respondent has only mediated 42 experiences about the US. (3) Total amount of US. television viewing: A combined measure of total amount of US. television viewing was developed by summing up exposure to the l 1 American weekly shows on Korean TV: "In the last 4 weeks, how many times did you watch these TV shows?" McGyver, Knight Rider, Murder She Wrote, Cosby Show, Miami Vice, Simon & Simon, Six Million Dollar Man, Little House On the Prairie, Max Headroom, Hard Boys, and Moonlighting. (O, 1, 2, 3, 4, more) (4) Total amount of US. adventure television program viewing: In a similar manner, a combined measure of the total amount of US. adventure program viewing was developed by summing up the scores for 5 specific shows; McGyver, Night Rider, Six Million Dollar Man, Max Headroom, and Hard Boys. (5) Total amount of US. detective television program viewing: A combined measure of the total amount of US. detective program viewing was developed by summing up the scores from 4 specific shows; Murder She Wrote, Simon & Simon, Moonlighting, and Miami Vice. (6) Total amount of US. family televieion program viewing: A combined measure of total amount of US. family program viewing was developed by summing up the scores from the remaining two specific shows; Little House On the Prairie and Cosby Show. Dependent Variables Measures The key dependent variables in this study included five different perceived areas of US. society - violence, affluence, advanced technologies, family life, and minorities. The specific items are as follows: (1)Perceived violence in US. society (8items): These items asked 43 respondents to estimate the percentage of “police officers or detectives," “drug users," "violence-involved crimes like murder and assault," “unsolved crimes," ”gun experience to protect self or to hurt others,“ "being robbed, being raped, and ex-convicts." ( all 8 items on a 0% to 100% continuum) (2) Perceived affluence in US. society (6 items): 6 items asked subjects to estimate the percentage of Americans "who have blue collar jobs,“ "who have their own swimming pool," "who can afford to travel to foreign countries," "who do not have enough food to eat," "who do not have a job,” and American teeagers with "their own car." ( all 6 items on a 0% to 100% continuum) (3) Perceived advanced technologies in US. society (6 items): Asking the degree of agreement to " Now, most Americans are using computers for their work," “Soon, the United States will produce a computerized car," "The U. 5. has the most advanced medical technology in the world," "Many American factories are using robots instead of employing people," "The United States has very elaborate technology for creating weapons," and "The Soviet Union has more advanced technology in space science than the United States.” (strongly agree=4; agree=3; disagree=2; strongly disagree=1) (4) Perceived American family life (9 items): Asking the degree of agreement to "American family members help each other to solve family problems," " American children don't show much respect to their parents,“ “In America, a husband often help his wife with chores like cleaning and washing dishes," “In America, most mothers have a job," "American parents respect their children‘s opinions," "Many American husbands and wives are not honest with each other," “Americans keep a close relationship with their relatives," "More and more American children live with a divorced mother or father,” and "American family members argue with each other a lot." (strongly agree=4; agree=3; disagree=2; strongly disagree=l) (5) Perceived images of minorities in US. society (8 items): Asking the degree of agreement to "Black Americans deal with problems very seriously," "Black Americans like to stick together," and "Black Americans are funnier than White Americans." (strongly agree=4; agree=3; disagree=2; strongly disagree=1) Also, the subjects were asked to estimate the percentages of “Black Americans," ”Asian Americans," "Black Americans with a professional job," "Black criminals,” and "poor Blacks.“ ( all 5 items on a 0% to 100% continuum) Control Variables Measures The control variables identified in the study included three demographic factors: gender, age, and area of residence (urban/rural). Also, other US.-related media usage was included: it was measured by combining the viewing of American videotapes, movies, TV feature films, and reading newspaper articles about the US.. Data Analysis The major statistical procedures used for the data analyses consists of: 1) a factor analysis to identify major underlying dimensions of five perceived areas - violence, affluence, advanced technologies, minorities, and family life; 2) zero-order correlations to provide indications of relationships among key factors; 3) first-order correlations to provide indications of relationships among key factors after controlling age, gender, and area of residence. CHAPTER IV RESULTS P 'mI Findi s Sampleflbamctenisflcs The sample (N=705) consisted of 55% males and 45% females, with age ranging from 9 to 18 years old. Sixty percent of the respondents reported that their fathers had finished high school, whereas 75% said their mothers finished high school. In terms of respondents' religion, 36% reported Christianity, 23% Buddhism, and 28% of respondents do not have religion. Forty-five percent of the respondents reported to have only mediated experiences about the US. - that is, those respondents have never talked to Americans, and none of their family members (grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, brother, sister, and him or herself) have been to the US. WM Several attempts were made to logically construct each variable and test the hypotheses mentioned earlier. As described in the previous section, 8 items of violence perceptions, 6 items of affluence perceptions, 6 items of advanced technologies perceptions, 9 items of family life in America, and 8 items of minorities were asked in the questionnaire. To ascertain if the items in each subset measured would combine into a fewer aggregate terms, a principal component factor analysis with varimax rotations was performed. 45 Table 3 presents the results with eight measures of violence loaded onto two major underlying dimensions (factors). It was very hard to name these factors in appropriate terms. The items in factor-2 seemed to be less related to types of violence in Korea when compared with items in factor-1. However, it was not enough to define these factors as the "violence common in Korea" and "violence uncommon in Korea." Therefore, these factors was treated as two simple indexes without any more specific labeling. As shown in table 4, six measures of affluence were reduced to two factors. Those highly loaded on factor-1 appeared to tap personal-level perceptions about affluence, while those on factor-2 seemed to represent societal-level of perceptions. Accordingly, factor-l was defined as the "personal-level of affluence," and factor-2 as the "societal-level of affluence. Table 5 presents the results with five out of the six individual advanced technologies measures on one factor; therefore, the one outlying item (the degree of agreement that The Soviet Union has more advanced technology in space science than the United States) left out of the factor discarded. Nine individual measures of American family life were reduced to two major underlying dimensions (Table 6). Those highly loaded on factor-1 were more concerned with interactions among family members, whereas those on factor-2 seemed to represent roles of family members. Consequently, factor-1 was referred to as "family interactions," and factor-2 as "family roles." Table 7 presents three primary factors drawn from eight individual measures Of American minorities. Factor-l appeared to be related to 47 Table 3: Factor Loadings of 8 Measures for Perceived Violence in the US. Individual violence items . factor 1 factor 2 (percentage of In America) people being robbed unsolved crimes people with gun experience to protect themselves or to hurt others violent crimes like murder and assault detectives or police officers people having been in jail drug users people being raped Table4: Factor Loadings of 6 Measures for Perceived Affluence in the US. individual affluence items factor 1 factor 2 (percentage of in America) personal-level societal-level people who can afford to travel to foreign countries people with their own swimming pool teenagers with their own car people who do not have enough food to eat the unemployed blue collar workers 49 Table 5: Factor Loadings of 5 Measures for Perceived Advanced Technologies in the US. individual advanced technologies (degree of agreement to ...) Now, most Americans are using computers for their work Soon, the US. will produce a computerized car The US. has the most advanced medical technology in the world Many American factories are using robots instead of employing people The US. has very elaborate technology for creating weapons 50 Table 6: Factor Loadings of 9 Measures for Perceived Family Life in the US. individual family life items factor 1 (degree of agreement to ...) family interaction American family members argue with each other a lot American family members help each other to solve family problems American children don't show much respect to their parents Americans keep a close relationship with their relatives More and more American childrenlive with a divorced mother or father Many American husbands and wives are not honest with each other In America, a husband often help his wife with chores In America, most mothers have a job American parents respect their children's opinions SI Table 7: Factor Loadings of 8 Measures for Perceived American minorities factor 1 factor 2 negative minorities (percentage of in America) images or demography — individual minorities items Black criminal poor Black Black with a professional job Black population Asian population (degree of agreement to ....) Black Americans deal with problems very seriously Black Americans like to stick together Black Americans are funnier than White Americans 52 negative images of Black American, factor-2 to the demography of minorities, and factor-3 to characteristics of Black Americans. Respectively, these factors were defined as "negative images of Black," "minorities demography," "characteristics of Black.“ iwi Zero-order correlations and partial correlations were used to test the relationship between the amount of US. television viewing among Korean adolescents and their perceptions of violence in the US. (H1). Results are in Table 8. Two indexes showed somewhat mixed relationships. No significant relationship was found in regard to indexl - sum of the first four items. In contrast, a positive, significant association was evident between index2 - sum of second four items - and the amount of US. television viewed (r=.236, p<.001). After introducing age as a controlling variable, the correlation was reduced to r=. 136, but it still remained significant. To identify relative predictibility from specific content types, four different zero-order correlations were provided (Table 9). The hypothesis (H6) that exposure to specific program content would be a better predictor than total amount of US. television exposure for the perceptions of violence in the US. was not supported by the finding. The amount of total US. television viewing in index2 (r=.236 p<.001) was associated most highly with the violence perceptions; compared to detective show viewing (r=. 167), 53 Table 8: Correlations between US. TV Viewing P r f acjn_6uns£19a people being robbed unsolved crimes people with gun experience murder crime Indexl detective or pol Ice people having been in jail drug users and Perceived Violence in the US. zen: W m TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA -.068* .025 -.059 -.064* -.087* -.080* .024 -.O76* -.065* -. I 20* .043 076* .045 .040 .020 .029 064* .029 .032 -.O I 0 -.028 066* -.0 I 9 ‘10 I 9 -.065 .322** .I44** .329** .318** .322** .I85** .I26** .I83** .i64** .189** .I35** 092* .I28** .112* .114* (continued on next page) 54 Table 8: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived Violence in the US. (continued) zeLo; W 9.11% TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA 1193110139931 W people being 083* .058 084* 073* .061 raped Index2 .236** .136** .233** .214**. .216** note: The indexl is the sum of measured percentage of people being robbed, unsolved crimes, people with gun experience, and murder crime in America. The index2 is the sum of measured percentage of detectives, people having been in jail, drug users, and people being raped. * p<.05 ** p<.001 55 Table 9: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Violence in the US. W MEIR people being robbed unsolved crimes people with gun experience murder crime Indexl detective or police people having been in jail drug users TOTAL VIEWING -068* -.080* .043 .029 -028 .322** .185** .I35** (continued on next page) DETECTIVE VIEWING -.024 .015 .056 065* .036 .I85** .II4* .IO6* ADVENTURE VIEWING -.084* -. 100* .034 .023 -043 .303** .I78** .IIO* FAMILY VIEWING -.047 -.IIO* .021 -.038 “.066 .339** .I77** .I43** 56 Table 9: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Violence in the US. (continued) TOTAL DETECTIVE ADVENTURE FAMILY VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING MM “MUM people being 083* 085* 068* .062 raped Index2 .236** .i97** .2I3** .I3I** note: The indexl is the sum of measured percentage of people being robbed, unsolved crimes, people with gun experience, and murder crime in America. The index2 is the sum of measured percentage of detectives, people having been In jail, drug users, and people being raped. * p<.05 ** p<.001 57 adventure show viewing (r=.213), and family show viewing (r=.131). To test experience modalities potentially intervening in the impact of TV viewing on perceptions of violence, separate correlations were provided among respondents with different modes of experience about the US; mediated only, and direct or interpersonal experience. Table 10 demonstrates different pattern of relationships within each modality of experience (H7). Interestingly, among respondents in the mediated experience only mode, a "negative" correlation between US. television viewing and indexl was moderate but significant (r=-.124, p<.05). On the other hand, a "positive" correlation between US. television viewing and index2 was strongest among respondents reporting direct or interpersonal experience about the US. (r=.239, p<.001). Therefore, the expectations that the perceptual impact of US. television viewing would be more prominent among Korean adolescents with only mediated experience than among those with nonmediated experience were not supported. Fl 1 1 W The findings provided mixed support for the hypothesis (H2) that heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents would demonstrate a higher degree of affluence perceptions of US. society (Table II); the results depended on level of affluence tested; personal- or societal-level. A positive correlation between US. television viewing and affluence at personal-level index was relatively strong and significant (r=.348, p<.001). Although the partial correlations were smaller, especially after 58 Table 10: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Violence in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. W .u;UL£unerlca people being robbed unsolved crimes people with gun experience murder crime Indexl detective or police people having been in jail drug users (continued on next page) OVERALL (n=705) -.068* -.080* .043 .029 -028 .322** .185** .I35** mi: MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY OR DIRECT (n=315) (n=390) -095* -055 -. 146* ‘048 ~06O 096* -024 .033 -. I 24* .0 I 4 .3 i 4** .30 l** . I 70* . l 76** .089 . I 29* 59 Table 10: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Violence in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. (continued) x i c OVERALL MED I ATED I NTER PERSONAL ONLY 0R DIRECT W (n=705) (n=315) (n=390) “ADM people being 083* -.014 .l 10** raped Index2 .236** . I 72* .239** note: The indexl is the sum of measured percentage of people being robbed, unsolved crimes, people with gun experience, and murder crime in America. The index2 is the sum of measured percentage of detectives, people having been in jail, drug users, and people being raped. * p<.05 ** p<.001 6O controlling age (r=.l4l, p<.001), than the zero-order correlation, they were still significant. Unlike the expectations of negative correlations between US. television viewing and societal-level of poverty index, the findings showed that moderate but significant positive correlation (r=.257, p<.001). As discussed in the previous section, the contention of "content specificity" was not supported (Table 12). The correlation between adventure show viewing and perceived affluence at personal-level (r=.348, p<.001) and that of family show viewing at societal-level (r=.254, p<.001) were equal to correlation of total viewing (r=.348 p<.001 for affluence at personal-level, r= .257, p<.001 for affluence at societal-level ) . Except these, an association between perceptions of affluence and total amount of US. television viewing was stronger than that of any specific content type As presented in the Table 13, the the positive relationship between the perceptions of affluence at the personal-level and US. television viewing within interpersonal or direct experience modality (r=.351, p<.001) was equal to the overall relationship (r=.348, p<.001) and stronger than the relationship within the mediated only experience modality (r=.268, p<.001). Also, the positive association between the perceived affluence at the societal-level and US. television viewing within interpersonal or direct experience modality (r=.246, p<.001) was a bit weaker than the overall association (r=.257, p<.001) and stronger than the association within the mediated only experience modality (r=.226, p<.001). These results may not support the hypothesis (H7), but suggest that a certain degree of conf/rmat/m from real-world experience strengthens the influence of television messages (Hawkins & Pingree). Confirmation of television's messages about affluence could come from direct exposure 61 Table l 1: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived Affluence in the US. zeLo; centLoJJjngm 9mg: TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA nementagut in Amepiea overseas .223** 085* .228** .215** .195** travellers people with .316** .136** .315** .300** .312** private pool adolescents .272** 094* .275** .262** .255** with their own car Indexl .348** .141** .348** .334** .327** people without .129** .059 124* .l 10* 078* enough food the unemployed .l77** 067* .l72** .161** .168** blue collar .230** .1 19* .227** .221** .197** workers Index2 .257** .121* .252** .233** .218** note: The indexl (affluence at personal-level) is the sum of measured percentage of overseas travellers, people with private pool, and adolescents with their own car. The index2 (affluence at societal-level) is the sum of people without enough food, the unemployed, and blue collar workers. *p<.05 **p<.001 62 Table 12: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Affluence in the US. TOTAL DETECTIVE ADVENTURE FAMILY VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING cementum mJlLAmeLica overseas .223** .1 33** .228** . 190** travellers people with .316** .185** .316** .290** private pool adolescents .272** .l63** .268** .253** with their own car Indexl .348** .206** ‘ .348** .315** people without .l29** 097* .1 1 1* .128* enough food the unemployed .177** .1 17* .162** .l80** blue collar .230** .152** .2l4** .224** workers Index2 .257** .l74** .234** .254** note: The indexl (affluence at personal-level) is the sum of measured percentage of overseas travellers, people with private pool, and adolescents with their own car. The index2 (affluence at societal-level) is the sum of people without enough food, the unemployed, and blue collar workers. *p<.05 **p<.001 63 Table 13: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Affluence in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. 182211051: OVERALL MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY OR DIRECT cementum (n=705) (n=315) (n=390) ...lnAmecisa overseas .223** . 147* .243** travellers people with .316** .219** .333** private pool adolescents .272** .230** .254** with their own car Indexl .348** .268** .351** people without .129** .1 11* .133* enough food the unemployed .177** .144* .177* blue collar .230** .213** .203** workers Index2 .257** .226** .246** note: The indexl (affluence at personal-level) is the sum of measured percentage of overseas travellers, people with private pool, and adolescents with their own car. The index2 (affluence at societal-level) Is the sum of people without enough food, the unemployed, and blue collar workers. *p<.05 **p<.001 64 to or interpersonal communication about a richer US. environment, that might be highlighted when compared to the developing Korean society. Findings on Technologx-Advanced US. Perceptions WM . The findings moderately supported the hypothesis (H3) that heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents would demonstrate a higher degree of advanced technologies perceptions of US. society (r=.104 p<.05). The partial correlation controlling other media usage - US. theatrical movies, TV feature films, videotapes, and newspapers - was close to zero and not significant, however (Table 14). As indicated in Table 15, total US. television viewing outperformed family show viewing and was equal to detective and adventure show viewing in terms of predicting the perceived advanced technologies in the US. Therefore, the hypothsis that exposure to specific program content would be a better predictor than total amount of US. television exposure was not supported. While the moderately positive but significant correlation between US. television viewing among respondents with interpersonal or direct experience about the US. and perceptions of US. advanced technologies was found (r=.147, p<.05), the correlation among those with mediated experience only was small and not significant (Table 16). Again, these findings validate real-world experience confirmation proposed in the previous SGCICIOD. 65 Table I4: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived Advanced Technologies in the US. zero- pontrolling for 9mg: TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA Most Americans 080* 067* 079* .076 .025 are using computers at work Soon, the US. .028 .008 .033 .034 -.034 will produce a computerized car The US. has the .111* .128** .116* .127** 098* most advanced medical technology in the world Robots produce 075* .048 082* 083* .037 goods In the US. factories The US. produces .031 .028 .029 .035 -.026 the most elaborate weapon Index .104* 087* .107* .118* .031 note: The index is the sum of the agreement scores of the statements that most people use computer at work, that the computerized car will be produced soon, that medical technology is the most advanced, that robots produce goods in factories, and that the most elaborate weapon is produced in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 66 Table 15: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Advanced Technologies in the US. TOTAL VIEWING Most Americans 080* are using computers at work Soon, the US. .028 will produce a computerized car The US. has the .l l 1* most advanced medical technology in the world Many American 075* factories are using robots The US. produces .031 the most elaborate weapon Index . 104* DETECTIVE VIEWING .054 .052 .II3* .051 050 .I04* ADVENTURE VIEWING 087* 014 095* 08I* .039 .100* FAMILY VIEWING .047 012 075* .044 -032 .046 note: The index is the sum of the agreement scores of the statements that most people use computer at work, that the computerized car will be produced soon, that medical technology is the most advanced, that robots produce goods in factories, and that the most elaborate weapon is produced in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 67 Table 16: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Advanced technologies in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. experince OVERALL MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY OR DIRECT (n=705) (n=315) (n=390) Most Americans 080* .021 .1 12* are using computers at work Soon, the US. .028 .003 .035 will produce a computerized car The US. has the .111* .030 .181** most advanced medical technology in the world Robots produce 075* .037 .076 goods in the US. The US. produces .031 .001 .051 the most elaborate weapon Index . 104* .020 . 147* note: The index is the sum of the agreement scores of the statements that most people use computer at work, that the computerized car will be produced soon, that medical technology is the most advanced, that robots produce goods in factories, and that the most elaborate weapon is produced in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 68 F' 0U 11 if Pr tins H t 's-4 The hypothesis (H4) that heavier US. television viewers among Korean adolescents would exhibit more positive images about American family life was supported for indexl (Table 17). The amount of US. television viewing was positively related to perceived harmonious American family interaction index (r=.284, p<.001). The partial correlations remained significant, but it was reduced to r=.087 after introducing age as a control variable. In contrast with this significant relationship, correlation between US. television viewing and the liberal family role index was close to zero and not significant. Again, no support for better prediction from "content specificity" was found (Table 18). Total US. television viewing, rather than any specific content type, indicated a positive association with the harmonious family interaction index. That was only matched by amount of viewings of adventure and family shows. In parallel with earlier findings concerning different experience modalities, Table 19 reveals that among respondents in the interpersonal or direct experience modality, the correlation between total US. television viewing and harmonious family interaction index was relatively strong and significant (r=.305, p<.001). Respondents with interpersonal or direct experience about the US. perceived American family interactions as more harmonious than those with mediated only experience did. Wicca W11 69 Table 17: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived Family Life in the US. zero- 91319.1: TOTAL VIEWING American family .059 members argue with each other a lot *** American family .233** members help each other to solve family problems American children 093* don't show much respect to their parents*** Americans keep a .300** close relationship with their relatives More and more .180** American children live with a divorced mother or father*** Many American .133** husbands and wives are not honest with each other*** Indexl .284** (continued on next page) ‘ controlling for AGE GENDER RESIDENCE -.045 066* 066* . 105* .232** .220** .035 .090 090* . I 25* .302** .292** .0I2 .I98** .20I** .063 . 144** . I 44** 087* .286** .28 I ** OTHER MEDIA 079* .234** 094* .267** .i64** .I27* .266** 70 Table 17: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived Family Life in the US. (continued) zepo- eontcolling foe 9mg: TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA In America, -.013 .018 -.017 -021 -.037 a husband often helps his wife with chores In America, most .001 074* -.008 -.016 .025 mothers have a job American parents .007 -.001 -.004 -029 -.006 respect their children's opinions Index2 -.006 .045 -.015 -.016 -.021 note: The indexl (harmonious family interaction) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that family member argue with each other a lot, that family members help each other to solve family problems, that children don‘t show much respect to their parents, that people keep a close relationship with their relatives, that more and more children live with a divorced mother or father, and that many husbands and wives are not honest with each other in America. The index2 (liberal family roles) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that a husband often helps his wife with chores, that most mothers have a job, and that parents respect their children's opinions in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 *** For these items, the scores have been reversed. 7i Table 18: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Family Life in the US. TOTAL VIEWING American family .059 members argue with each other a lot*** American family .233** members help each other to solve family problems American children 093* don‘t show much respect to their parents*** Americans keep a .300** close relationship with their relatives More and more .180** American children live with a divorced mother or father*** Many American .133** husbands and wives are not honest with each other*** Indexl .284** (continued on next page) DETECTIVE VIEWING -.0I7 .150** .050 .I77** 094* .048 .i43** ADVENTURE VIEWING .060 .234** 08I* .300** .200** .I34** .283** FAMILY VIEWING .II7* .I92** .II7* .278** .l34** .i37** .274** 72 Table 18: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived Family Life in the US. (continued) TOTAL DETECTIVE ADVENTURE FAMILY VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING In America, -.013 .021 -039 .009 a husband often helps his wife with chores In America, most .001 .041 -032 .019 mothers have a job American parents .007 .006 .005 .009 respect their children's opinions Index2 ‘006 .029 -037 .0 I 9 note: The indexl (harmonious family interaction) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that family member argue with each other a lot, that family members help each other to solve family problems, that children don‘t show much respect to their parents, that people keep a close relationship with their relatives, that more and more children live with a divorced mother or father, and that many husbands and wives are not honest with each other in America. The index2 (liberal family roles) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that a husband often helps his wife with chores, that most mothers have a job, and that parents respect their children's opinions in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 *** For these items, the scores have been reversed. 73 Table 19: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Family Life in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. American family members argue with each other a lot*** American family members help each other to solve family problems American children don‘t show much respect to their parents*** Americans keep a close relationship with their relatives More and more American children live with a divorced mother or father*** Many American husbands and wives are not honest with each other*** Indexl (continued on next page) OVERALL (n=705) .059 .233** 093* .300** .180** .133** .284** experince MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY 0R DIRECT (n=3I5) (n=390) .019 .072 .195 .233 .004 .123* .207** .329** .161* .176** .137* .128* .208** .305** 74 Table 19: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived Family Life in the US. as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. (continued) m OVERALL MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY OR DIRECT (n=705) (n=315) (n=390) In America, -.013 -.058 -.007 a husband often helps his wife with chores In America, most .001 -.039 .026 mothers have a job American parents .007 -.089 .064 respect their children‘s opinions Index2 -.006 -.090 .034 note: The indexl (harmonious family interaction) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that family member argue with each other a lot, that family members help each other to solve family problems, that children don't show much respect to their parents, that people keep a close relationship with their relatives, that more and more children live with a divorced mother or father, and that many husbands and wives are not honest with each other in America. The index2 (liberal family roles) Is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that a husband often helps his wife with chores, that most mothers have a job, and that parents respect their children's opinions in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 *** For these items, the scores have been reversed. 75 The hypothesis (H5) that heavier US. television viewers among Korea adolescents would exhibit more positive images about Blacks was partially supported by the results (Table 20). The more they watched US. television, the less they voted for negative images of American Blacks (r=-.204, p<.001), however, this significant and negative relationship has disappeared when age was controlled. Also, a positive and significant relationship between US. television viewing and perceived American minorities demography was revealed, and remained significant even after introducing control variables; heavier viewers tend to believe there are more minorities in the US. (r=.295, p<.001). Although total US. television viewing was positively correlated with the items that Black Americans are funnier than White Americans (r=.159, p<.001), no meaningful indications were found in the index of Black characteristics (indexl ). Surprisingly, unlike the earlier findings on "content specificity“, Table 21 shows a higher negative correlation (r=-.253, p<.001) between US. adventure TV program viewing and the perceived negative images of Black than correlation of total viewing with index (r=-.204 p<.001); that is, the more they watched adventure shows, the less negative images of Black they had. In predicting American minorities demography, US. adventure TV programs viewing was as strong as total US. television viewing (r=.295, p<.001). The findings on the relationship between US. television viewing and perceptions of positive images of American Blacks within different experience modalities replicated findings for other reality indices tested earlier. Respondents in interpersonal or direct mode demonstrated the strongest association; r=-.22I, p<.001 for positive images on the 76 Table 20: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived American Minorities Black Americans deal with problems very seriously*** Black Americans like to stick together Black Americans are funnier than White Americans Indexl percentage of in Amerieg Black criminals poor Black Index2 (continued on next page) 191:0; 913191: TOTAL VIEWING -086* -.027 .159** .042 —. I 00* -.260** -.204** C trollin for AGE GENDER RESIDENCE '0 I 3 -080* -068* .014 -017 -.006 086* .I66** .I6l** .053 .050 .059 05i -095* -093* -.06i -.257** -.253** -008 -.203** -. I 99** OTHER MEDIA -076* -037 .lI8* .OII -. I 30* -.299** 1246** 77 Table 20: Correlations between US. TV Viewing and Perceived American Minorities (continued) EEO; WM 911:1: TOTAL AGE GENDER RESIDENCE OTHER VIEWING MEDIA Imminent ...JLAmcEJca Black with a .248** 084* .250** .244** .266** professional job Black population 073* .022 075* 069* 084* Asian population .295** .148** .290** .280** .293** Index3 .295** . 124* .296** .285** .305** note: The indexl (Characteristics of the Black) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that the Black deal with problems very seriously, that the Black like to stick together, and that the Black are funnier than the Whites in America. The index2 (negative images of the Black) is the sum of measured percentage of Blacks among criminals, and the Black among the poor in America. The index3 (American minorities demography) is the sum of measured percentage of the Blacks with professional jobs, the Black population, and Asian population in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 *** For this item, the score has been reversed. 78 Table 21: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived American Minorities TOTAL DETECTIVE ADVENTURE FAMILY VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING Black Americans -.086* -.030 -.090* -.096* deal with problems very seriously*** Black Americans -027 -.001 -.042 -.01 1 like to stick together Black Americans .159** .103* .161** .129** are funnier than White Americans Index 1 .042 .051 .032 .028 WORM ..._i_n_Amefl_ca Black criminals -. 100* -.008 -.150** -.044 poor Black -.260** -.l 14* -.301** -.197** Index2 -.204** -.072* -.253** -.140** (continued on next page) 79 Table 21: Correlations between Viewing Different US. TV Program Types and Perceived American Minorities (continued) TOTAL DETECTIVE ADVENTURE 1 FAMILY VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING VIEWING WORM in Amerjea Black with a .248** .140** .251** .224** professional job Black population 073* 067* .061 062* Asian population .295** .186** .301** .236** Index3 .295** .185** .295** .251** note: The indexl (Characteristics of the Black) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that the Black deal with problems very seriously, that the Black like to stick together, and that the Black are funnier than the Whites in America. The index2 (negative images of the Black) is the sum of measured percentage of Blacks among criminals, and the Black among the poor in America. The index3 (American minorities demography) is the sum of measured percentage of the Blacks with professional jobs, the Black population, and Asian population in America. * p<.05 ** p<.001 *** For this item, the score has been reversed. 80 Table 22: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived American Minorities as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. Black Americans deal with problems very seriously*** Black Americans like to stick together Black Americans are funnier than White Americans Indexl percentage of in America Black criminals poor Black Index2 (continued on next page) OVERALL (n=705) -086* -027 .I59** .042 -. 100* -.260** -.204** ex MEDIATED ONLY (n=315) "084 -.O79 .l27* -009 -054 -.243** -.I7I* inc INTERPERSONAL ‘ OR DIRECT (n=390) -066 .OII .158* .071 -. I 27* -.266** -.22I** 8i Table 22: Correlations: US. TV Viewing and Perceived American Minorities as a Function of Experience Modality about the US. (continued) Elm OVERALL MEDIATED INTERPERSONAL ONLY OR DIRECT percentage pf (n=705) (n=315) (n=390) in Amecjea Black with a .248** .190** .268** professional job Black population 073* .012 097* Asian population .295** .316** 254* Index3 ‘ .295** .248** .299** note: The indexl (Characteristics of the Black) is the sum of agreement scores of the statements that the Black deal with problems very seriously, that the Black like to stick together, and that the Black are funnier than the Whites in America. The index2 (negative images of the Black) is the sum of measured percentage of Blacks among criminals, and the Black among the poor in America. The index3 (American minorities demography) is the sum of measured percentage of the Blacks with professional jobs, the Black population, and Asian population in America. * p<.05 ** p<.OOl *** For this item, the score has been reversed. . confirmed the content depicted by television. CHAPTER V SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION Deriving from the intense debate on the one-way international television program flow and the impact of those imported programs on indigenous viewers, this study started out with an underlying proposition that US. television programs would contribute to conceptions of US. social reality among an indigenous audience. Based on the cultivation hypothesis in a cross-cultural setting, specific predictions were proposed in association with viewership of US. television among Korean adolescents. The present study primarily set out to uncover Korean adolescents“ perceptions of American reality - violence, affluence, advanced technologies, family life, and minorities - through US. television viewing on Korean TV networks, using the postulates of the cultivation analysis. Furthermore, the study shed light on the function of ”content specificity“ and "different experience modes" in a cultivation process. 5 [E' I' To provide clear understanding of a summary review of the results, a separate table was created. As indicated in Table 23, the hypotheses relating overall US. television viewing to several perceptual areas were partially supported by the data. For instance, the perceptions of personal~ level of affluence in the US. was positively correlated to US. television viewing, whereas those at the societal-level of affluence were negatively related to it. Interestingly, this result contrasts with previous research 83 84 Table 23: A Summary of Major Findings epnttolljng fer total specific different viewing age viewing experience mode Violent US, violence indexl Rejected Supported R R violence index2 S S R R Affluent U,S. affluence at S S R R personal-level affluence at R R R R societal-level Technelpgy- S ' S R R am American family ULe harmonious family 5 S R R interaction liberal family R R R R roles American minorities characteristics R R R R of the Black negative images 5 R S R of the Black minorities S S R R demography 85 that suggests that exposure to media is related positively to judgements about crime and violence on the societal level but is unrelated to fear of personal crime victimization (Skogan & Maxfield, 1981; Tyler, 1980). The perceptions of harmonious American family interaction were well predicted by the amount of US. television viewing, while those of liberal family roles were unrelated to such viewing. In contrast with perceptions of negative Images of Blacks and minorities demography, association between US. television viewing and perceptions of Black characteristics was not supported. The items on the Black characteristics were mainly elicited from the "Cosby Show", and this show was on the air once a week. At most, this would be very light exposure to the relevant content, and greater exposure than this is probably necessary for television influence to occur. Table 23 indicates the hypothesis that specific media content would have better predictibility for a certain perceptual area than aggregate viewing (Hypothesis-6) was not supported. This result does force recognition of a hidden assumption: It is not just that exposure to violence leads in a linear fashion to construction of a violent social reality (Hawkins & Pingree, 1982). There must be a certain (fires/10M level of social reality content for television influence to occur. Considering that there were only eleven US. programs tested, three to four programs in each specific category seems to be below a certain threshold level ; greater exposure to the relevant content above threshold level is probably necessary. Therefore, aggregate viewing rather than specific viewing was the better predictor for perceptions of American social reality. In addition, since the contents of detective shows and adventure shows are somewhat similar, combining of 86 these categories together might be better approcah to ”content specific viewing" testing. For the hypothesis that the perceptual impact of US. television viewing would be more prominent among Korean adolescents with mediated experience only than among those with nonmediated experience (Hypothesis-7), the data revealed reverse outcomes. Relationships between the perceptions of American social reality and US. television viewing was strongest among Korean adolescents with interpersonal or direct experience about the US. These findings suggest that real-life experience may confirm television messsages, thus amplifying television‘s cultivation potential. Gerbner et al.‘s (l980a) “resonance" reasoning is another example of the real-life confirmation of television messages. With major findings summarized and interpreted as such, a few limitations of the study must be acknowledged. First, the study has its validity only within a limited range of Korean adolescents who are fans of US. television programs on Korean TV. Considering the preference for local TV programs among Korean adults, their external validity beyond this age segment seems questionable. Second, this study used zero- and first-order correlations to delineate perceptual impacts of US. television viewing. However, it might be necessary to control third variables simultaneously in order to detect possible spurious relationship, when these same controls did not individually affect the significance of the relationships. 87 Third, the range of dependent variables employed in the study was limited to several salient social aspects of the US, in both positive and negative images. The findings on perceptual impacts of US. television viewing might have been more clearly demonstrated if a content analysis of these US. programs was done. An attempt to identify a few more salient characteristics inherent in US. programs on Korean TV might have provided more concrete evidence for the cultivation hypothesis in a cross-cultural settings. Finally, related to content analysis is the issue of pattern frequency. It‘s probable that a certain level of a set of events must be presented for the pattern to influence an individual's social reality (Hawkins & Pingree, 1982). A clear failure to support the content specificity hypotheses seems to be able to be explained by this reasoning: Since the total amount of eleven weekly US. shows viewing is already low in its absolute level of pattern frequency, content specific viewing might be below the minimum level of pattern frequency. Based on the result that correlations have been reduced but remain significant when age was controlled, yet another line of research may be interesting to pursue. Perceived TV reality which has been shown to be linked with age - younger children have higher perceived reality than do older children (Greenberg & Reeves, 1976). It should be interesting to investigate how viewers who believe that US. television programs are real differed from viewers who believe the content is fictional in terms of televison's influence on US. social reality perceptions. Based on these findings, interpretations and related discussion provided above, a few tentative conclusions can be drawn. First, the 88 perceptual impact of foreign television on an indigenous audience was not as strong as warned by many critical scholars in international communication research - for examples, cultural and media imperialism, or electronic colonialism (Schiller, 1969, 1976; Tunstall, 1977). Second, although a media content specificity hypothesis was supported by several studies (e.g., Bryant, Carveth, and Brown, 1981; Hawkins & Pingree, 1980; Weaver & Wakshlag, 1986 ), it was not replicated in this study. Finally, the present study did not appear to be far outside the realm of the minimal-to-moderate effects framework previously established in the area (e.g., Barnett & McPhail, 1980; Granzberg, 1982; Kang & Morgan, 1988; Pingree & Hawkins,1982; Tan et al.,l987; Weimann,1984 ). However, one thing that deserves closer attention from this study is that nonmediated experiences functioned as enhancing factors in television‘s cultivation potential in a cross-cultural setting. Such outcomes, directly opposed to expectations, may be explained by comparative perceptions between their own culture and society and American society. That is, nonmediated experience may actually convince the indigenous population that the US. is more violent, affluent, and technologically advanced, compared with Korea, rather than make them realize the TV depiction is somewhat exaggerated. While starting out with the topic of the uni-directional flow of international television programs, one of the major concerns of macro-level critical perspectives, the present study did not neglect an audience-centered micro-level approach. By combining the two approaches, this study sought to bridge that gap. At the same time, the present inquiry achieved a more promising approach to the area of cross-cultural media 89 impacts by using extended notions of cultivation analysis. In spite of initial dependency on The US, Korean television has achieved a relatively large measure of self-reliance in control of its television system and in the creation of programming (Moon, 1989). Recently, however, the Korean government has made frequent mention of cable television and fourth commercial TV network. .These changing media environment will need a large number of new programs, which are to be produced locally or imported from foreign countries. Accordingly, it is expected that the number of US. television programs on Korean TV will be increased in near future. Therefore, more studies investigating impacts of foreign TV programs on an indigenous audience are much needed. APPEDIX 9O TELEVISION AND MOVIES FROM AMERICA The purpose of this study is to find out what young people in Korea think life in America is like. Your answers to these questions will be very valuable information for this study. Please do not put your name on the booklet, so your answers can be private. Please answer all questions with honesty. Thank you for your cooperation. June, 1989 Department of Telecommunication Michigan State University Yun Ahn 91 First, I want to ask about your watching of American TV shows. 1.In the last 4 weeks, how many times did you watch these TV shows? CIRCLE YOUR ANSWER McGyver ---------------- 0 1 A 2 3 4 more Knight Rider ------------- 0 I 2 3 4 more Murder She Wrote -------- 0 1 2 3 4 more Cosby Show ------------- O 1 2 3 4 more Miami Vice ------------- O l 2 3 4 more Simon & Simon --------- 0 l 2 3 4 more Six Million Dollar Man ~--- 0 1 2 3 4 more Little House On the Prairie - 0 1 2 3 4 more Max Headroom ------------- O 1 2 3 4 more Hard Boys ---------------- O l 2 3 4 more Moonlighting -------------¥ 0 1 2 3 4 more 2. How much do you like these TV shows? CIRCLE YOUR ANSWER McGyver ---------------- very much somewhat little very little DK Knight Rider ------------ very much somewhat little very little DK Murder She Wrote -------- very much somewhat little very little DK Cosby Show ------------- very much somewhat little very little DK Miami Vice ------------- very much somewhat little very little DK Simon & Simon --------- very much somewhat little very little DK Six Million Dollar Man ---- very much somewhat little very little DK Little House On the Prairie- very much somewhat little verylittle DK Max Headroom ------------ very much somewhat little verylittle DK Hard Boys ---------------- very much somewhat little verylittle DK Moonlighting -------------- very much somewhat little verylittle DK 92 Now, we will ask you about American movies you have seen. 3. In the last 2 months, which American movies have you seen at a theater? 4. In the last 2 months, which American movies have you seen on a VCR? 5. In the last month, which American movies have you seen on a regular TV channel? 93 Next, we would like to know about newspaper stories about America you have read. 6. When you read a Korean daily newspaper, how often do you read the stories about events that happen in the US? CIRCLE YOUR ANSWER never sometimes often very often 7. In general, do the newspaper articles seem to be favorable or unfavorable to the US? very favorable favorable unfavorable very unfavorable Now, we will ask you what you think about several aspects of "Living in America'. First of all, we'll ask you about how rich or poor Americans are. Please write your estimate (from O to 100%) to each question] 8. What percent of all Americans are blue collar workers who work in a factory? (from 0 to 100%) -% 9. What percent of all Americans can afford to travel to foreign countries? % 10. What percent of all Americans don't have enough food to eat? % 1 1. What percent of all Americans have their own swimming pool? % 12. What percent of all Americans want to work but can't find ajob? % 94 13. What percent of all American teenagers have their own car? % Now, we want to know what you think about violence in America. Please write your estimate for these questions (from 0-100%). 14. What percent of all Americans who have jobs are police officers or detectives? —% 15. What percent of all Americans use drugs? __% 16. What percent of all crimes in America involve violence, like murder and assault? _% 17. What percent of all crimes are not solved in America?__% 18. What percent of all Americans have ever shot guns to protect themselves or to hurt others? __% 19. What percent of all Americans have ever been robbed ?___.___% 20. What percent of all Americans have ever been in jail? — % 21. What percent of all Americans have ever been raped? —% 95 Here are a few questions about minorities in America. Please indicate your estimate. 22. What percent of all Black Americans have professional jobs like doctor, lawyer, and accountant? % 23. What percent of all Americans are Black? _% 24. What percent of all Americans are Asian? _% 25. What percent of all American criminals are Black? _% 26. What percent of poor people in America are Black? _% Now, please indicate if you agree or disagree. Circle answer. 27. Black Americans deal with problems very seriously. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 28. Black Americans like to stick together. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 29. Black Americans are funnier than White Americans. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 96 Now, what do you think of families in America? Circle answer. 30. American family members help each other to solve family problems. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 31 American children don‘t show much respect to their parents. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 32.:In America, a husband often help his wife with chores like cleaning and washing dishes. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 33. In America, most mothers have a job. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 34. American parents respect their children's opinions. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 35. Many American husbands and wives are not honest with each other. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 36. Americans keep a close relationship with their relatives. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 37. More and more American children live with a divorced mother or father. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 97 38. American family members argue with each other a lot. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree Now, the final questions are about American technology. Please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statements. Circle your answer. 39. Now, most Americans are using computers for their work. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 40. Soon, the United States will produce a computerized car. strongly disgree disagree agree strongly agree 41. The U. S. has the most advanced medical technology in the world. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 42. Many American factories are using robots instead of employing people. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 43. The United States has very elaborate technology for creating weapons. strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree 44. The Soviet Union has more advanced technology in space science than the United States. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 98 Now, we will ask about your personal experience with Americans. Circle your answer. 45. On the average, how often do you personally talk to Americans? never sometimes often very often 46. In the last four weeks, have you talked to anyAmericans personally? yes no 47. In general, did your personal experience give you good or bad impressions about American life? very good good bad very bad 48. Among your family members, has anyone been to the United States? Circle all who have been to America. you grandfather grandmother father mother brother sister 49. After their travel, how often do they talk with you about what America looks like? never sometimes often very often 99 Finally, we have a few questions about yourself. 50. Are you —? male female 51. What is your age? __years old 52. What is your school name? 53. 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