Mediated Contact and Intergroup Relations: When Koreans Met Americans through U.S. TV Dramas

Abstract

This study tested and compared two structural models (i.e., the mediated and the mediated and direct contact) for examining the relationships between the Korean young adults' (N = 288) consumption of American television dramas and direct contact with an American person and their attitudes toward Americans. Overall, findings have demonstrated that both mediated (e.g., parasocial interaction) and personal contact (e.g., contact quality) had a positive effect on intergroup attitudes, albeit contact frequency was a negative contributor. In addition, results indicated that media had different and stronger influences on participants' intergroup attitudes when they did not have any personal contact with Americans. Furthermore, results revealed that intergroup anxiety was a partial mediator of the contact and attitudes link. Implications of the findings and future research are discussed in light of prior literature on media effects and intercultural communication and in the theoretical domains of the intergroup contact hypothesis and cultivation theory.