Perceived typicality: American television as seen by Mexicans, Turks, and Americans

Abstract

Interviews with Mexican, Turkish, and American students in the U.S. indicate that non‐American viewers thought U.S. television programming was more typical of Americans before, rather than after, they came to the U.S., and current judgments of typicality by Mexicans and Turks were not very different from those judgments by Americans. This supports the argument that individuals rely on media portrayals to create their understanding of a culture when they lack real‐world experience with that culture. There were also indications of differences in the criteria that viewers from different countries use in making these judgments suggesting that values specific to viewers’ cultures retain a role in media interpretation.