America Watches "Amerika:" Television Docudrama and Political Attitudes

This article reports the results of a panel study examining the impact of the 1987 television miniseries "Amerika" on political attitudes and stereotypes. Viewing the docudrama, which ostensibly depicted life in the Midwest ten years after a Soviet takeover of the United States, was associated with significant changes in attitudes concerning Soviet-American relations. These attitudinal changes were consistently in the direction of greater conservatism (for example, viewers became less tolerant of communism, and voiced more support for enhanced U.S. military strength). The moderating impact of perceived realism, education, and ideology, as well as the independent impact of indirect exposure to the series (that is, informal peer discussion and attention to associated media coverage), were also examined. The implications of the results for research on the political impact of entertainment programming are discussed.