Media Effects on Russian Students’ Attitudes toward the United States of America

Abstract

Russian students were surveyed to compare media consumption and attitudes toward the United States of America and find relationships between the use of media and the image of the United States. Television and the Internet were the most popular sources of the information about the United States. To get news, students who had never been to the United States used Russian media, mostly television, while those who visited the USA used primarily Web sites from American and international media. Russian students studying in America were more likely to believe that Americans were depicted accurately by American television than Russian students studying in Russia. “Americanized Russians” had more favorable overall attitude toward the United States than “Russian Russians.” Standard regressions showed that the use of Internet affected the overall attitude.