The Power of The Right Stuff: A Quasi-Experimental Field Test of the Docudrama Hypothesis

Abstract

HOLLYWOOD produced a major film lionizing the heroics of a presidential candidate at the start of the 1984 campaign. The implications were unprecedented, and as a result, this motion picture-The Right Stuffgenerated great interest among political analysts. The key question was, as the cover of Newsweek put it, "Can a Movie Help Make a President?"For students of political communications, The Right Stuff raised a more enduring issue that went beyond the immediate campaign consequences of the movie. That issue may be referred to as the "docudrama hypothesis," which stipulates that the docudrama, as a hybrid of melodramatic fiction and news documentary, powerfully influences viewers' conceptions of social and political reality. Public images of both distant and recent history are said to be molded by these film and video dramas.Dan Nimmo and James Combs (1983), in a valuable discussion of the genre, maintain that "our political knowledge of the past and present is partially formed by the dramatic fantasies of popular media." They suggest that fictional interpretations of history effectively "yield the illusion that viewers are participating in a recreation of the real event" and in turn shape "much of what we 'know' about the past" (p. 71).Abstract A field test of 966 moviegoers found that a significant number of them were favorably influenced toward John Glenn's candidacy for president by the film The Right Slujf. The docudrama reinforced positive images of Glenn and sustained those impressions for a longer than expected period.

Before and afterthe day after:The unexpected results of a televised drama

“…8 However, the findings of this study of The Day After suggest that too little attention has been paid to oblique or corollary effects. Just because viewers do not accept the exact message or learn the particular lesson predicted by the researcher does not mean that no lessons have been learned.…”

Media Effects, Selective Exposure, andFahrenheit 9/11

“…The second limitation is that the documented effects were for only a short period of time following viewing of the film; it is possible that these effects may not persist over time. In their study of The Right Stuff, Adams et al (1985) did not find any long-term effects; however, this may have been due to other events occurring in the interim. Third, this study looks at exposure in a single instance.…”

“…There are several empirical examples of this type of phenomenon. For example, in their study of the film The Right Stuff, Adams et al (1985) found that individuals developed more favorable attitudes toward John Glenn, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, after exposure to the pro-Glenn film. Kaid (1997) found in her experimental study of the effects of exposure to presidential television advertising that Democrats became more positive toward Clinton after viewing a Clinton advertisement, while Republicans became more positive toward Dole after viewing a Dole advertisement.…”

Polarization and Partisan Selective Exposure

“…Although there are theoretical reasons to predict a link between the selection of likeminded media outlets and polarized attitudes, the empirical evidence to date is inconclusive. First, although a number of studies have found evidence of a link between media exposure and polarization (Adams et al, 1985; Bimber & Davis, 2003; Druckman & Parkin, 2005; Jones, 2002; Lavine, Borgida, & Sullivan, 2000; Mendelsohn & Nadeau, 1996; Stroud, 2007; Taber & Lodge, 2006), there are exceptions where scholars have found no evidence of polarization (see, e.g., Ball‐Rokeach, Grube, & Rokeach, 1981; Paletz, Koon, Whitehead, & Hagens, 1972) or where scholars have raised questions about whether likeminded media exposure enhances polarization (Meffert, Chung, Joiner, Waks, & Garst, 2006). Second, none of the studies to date have attempted to consider people's media exposure patterns comprehensively.…”