continued: "The World in the Screen: The Impact of Character Representativeness, Society Variability, and Presentation on Audiences' Conceptualization of Cross-cultural Media Images" by Alice Hall
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References
Appendix / Tables

Method
Sample One hundred and fifty-seven people took part in the study. The eligibility criteria were having been born in the US, US citizenship, and having learned English as a first language. Eligibility was defined in these terms because it was felt that the sense of membership and familiarity with other countries that is likely to be associated with having international familial or cultural ties could serve as a form of cross-categorization that would complicate the study. People were recruited to participate in the study from several colleges and universities near a large, northeastern city through classes, news-group postings, and newspaper advertisements.

The data of 18 people who took part in the study as part of a class exercise were excluded because they did not meet the citizenship or language eligibility requirements. The data of 19 participants were excluded because they completed the questionnaire incorrectly, leaving a final sample size of 120. Fifty-nine percent of the sample was women. The average age was 22.18(SD=5.17), with a range from 18 to 44. Eighty-three percent of sample identified themselves as White, 10% identified themselves as African-American, and 5% identified themselves as Asian or Asian American. Five participants, or 4%, identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. Thirty-eight percent felt they spoke two languages "well enough to carry out a routine conversation." Four participants identified themselves as tri-lingual.

This sample had a relatively high exposure rate to movies. Seventy-two percent saw a movie, either in the theaters, on TV or on home video, at least once every 2 weeks. Ninety-two percent saw one a month. However, these participants, like US moviegoers in general, had much less frequent exposure to non-US films. Nine percent of the participants saw a non-US film once a month, and 51% of the participants estimated they saw at least two a year. Many of these films are likely to have come from Great Britain or Australia, as is indicated by the relative rarity of viewing subtitled movies. Six percent saw a subtitled or dubbed film at least once a month, 28% estimated they saw two a year.

In order to increase generalizability, two different film segments from two different societies were used in this study. One was from US film directed by Michael Steinberg called "Bodies, Rest and Motion." The second was from a Taiwanese film directed by Ang Lee titled "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman." The film segments were randomly assigned to screening sessions.

The size of the sample that saw the US film is 59. Five people had seen the film previously. Seven felt they were able to recognize the title or felt that they had heard something about it. On a scale from one to seven, the mean of the participants' agreement with the statement that they were "familiar with the culture in which the film was set" is 3.69(SD=2.12). The mean of their agreement with the statement that the "film was made with people like me in mind as an audience" is 3.17(SD=1.90).

Seventy-two participants saw the Taiwanese film "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman." Only three people had seen all or part of the film. Six felt they were able to recognize the title or that they had heard something about it. On a scale from one to seven, the mean of the participants' agreement with the statement that they were "familiar with the culture in which the film was set" is 2.78(SD=1.80). The mean of their agreement with the statement that the "film was made with people like me in mind as an audience" is 3.77(SD=1.70).

Procedure At the beginning of each session, all the participants were given a sealed questionnaire booklet and a consent form. They were asked to read, sign and pass up the consent forms. The top sheet of the questionnaire booklet contained a set of instructions. The participants were told that they would be watching the opening ten minutes of a mainstream, commercially released motion picture. They were informed that they would only be seeing a short clip of the film. Therefore, the first page of the questionnaire contained a brief summary of the film, like something they would find in a movie guide section of a newspaper. They were asked to read this summary because it would help them complete the questionnaire later. These instructions were repeated orally in all sessions.

Although the instructions were always the same, there were two different priming summaries used for each film. Each was formatted to look like a thumb-nail film review from a newspaper entertainment guide. One version stressed the national origin of the film, whereas the second version emphasized the thematic content of the film (see appendix). The questionnaires were randomly distributed so that half the participants in each session read each version of the questionnaire. When all the participants were ready to move on, they were informed that the clip they would be seeing was from the very beginning of the film, just after the opening credits. They were told where the film was from, the year it came out and, in the case of the Taiwanese film, warned about the subtitles.

After the screening, the participants were asked to open and complete the questionnaire booklet. The booklet began with measures that allowed the participants to rate the representativeness of two characters with the most screen time in the film segment. In the case of "Bodies, Rest, and Motion," they were asked to evaluate one male and one female character, called Nick and Beth, respectively. The participants were asked to estimate the characters' age. Beth was estimated to be 25(SD= 2.41) years old, whereas Nick age was estimated to be 27(SD=2.92). Those who saw the Taiwanese film, "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman," were asked to evaluate two female characters. One, Jia-Ning, was estimated to be 18(SD=2.15) years old. The other, Jia-Chien, was estimated to be 26(SD=3.32) years old.

Participants were then asked to complete a series of questions designed to measure the variability of the society in which the movie was set. Those who watched the Taiwanese film completed measures of their familiarity with Taiwan, whereas those who saw the US film were asked to evaluate the United States. Then both samples were asked "when they first became aware of where the film was made" as a manipulation check. The questionnaire concluded with items measuring their exposure to different kinds of movies and basic demographic questions. After they completed the questionnaire, all participants were debriefed. Participants who were not receiving extra credit were paid and asked to fill out receipts. continued

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References
Appendix / Tables