Abstract
Introduction
Literature
Rationale
Methods
Results
Discussion
Authors |
This empirical work was a
pilot study to discover if there is a relationship between Hollywood's portrayal of the
military, and people's perception and opinions of the military. To test this question, an
instrument was created for measuring people's perceptions and opinions about the military,
and what movies with military themes they have seen. The authors created the Armed Forces
Perception Survey. Forty-two undergraduate students (22 female, 20 male) from the
University of Oklahoma completed the survey. Students reported that their overall
impression of the military is positive (M = 2.0476, SD = .6608) and that movie portrayals
of people and life in the military were occasionally to rarely realistic (M = 2.6905, SD =
.5174.) A significant correlation was found between how the students characterize people
in the military with how realistic the respondents thought the movies were, their
enjoyment of movies with a military theme, and how corrupt they thought the military is
based on how the military is portrayed in the movies. Based on the results of this pilot
study, further research needs to done to prove or disprove conclusively if there is indeed
a relationship between Hollywood's portrayal of the military, and people's perception and
opinions of the military. |
