Film Effects and Foreign Audiences’ Perceptions of Countries’ Brands: A Systematic Review of Theories and Methods

Abstract

Films are windows into their respective societies of origin. They have the potential to affect or shape foreign audiences’ perceptions of the society they represent or brand. Although evident, this potential to shape foreign audiences’ perceptions has not enjoyed all the scholarly attention it deserved. Indeed, a good number, nay most studies devoted to films’ ability to shape foreign audiences’ perceptions of countries’ brands mainly hinge on speculative methods and/or theories. Only a very limited number of such studies are empirical in nature. In this paper, a systematic review is used to assess the methods and theories that have popularly or dominantly been deployed in the recent scholarly research works on films’ impact on foreign audiences’ perception of countries’ brands. The paper addresses two principal things. In the first place, it provides a critical review of previous studies done on the effects of films on foreign audiences’ perception of countries. In the second place, it critically examines the methodologies and research approaches deployed to research film audiences and film impact on these audiences.