Media Effect on Image

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MEDIA EFFECTS ON IMAGE

The Case of Tibet

Julien Mercille

University of California, USA

Abstract: Using media effects research as a theoretical framework, this paper examinesempirically the impact of media representationssuch as movies, guidebooks, and maga-zineson destination image. Past research has focused on either representations or image,but rarely on both. Based on a systematic comparison of the former with the latter, it isargued that the impact of media representations on image falls between a strong andnegotiated influence. The analysis is based on data collected from tourists in Lhasa, Tibet.The paper documents tourism issues in a renowned but little studied destination. Keywords:media effects, destination image, movies and other media, Tibet, popular cul-ture. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resume: Effets mediatiques sur limage: le cas du Tibet. Employant comme cadre theori-que la recherche sur les effets mediatiques, cet article examine empiriquement limpactdes representations mediatiques (comme les films, magazines et guides touristiques) surles images de destination. Jusqua maintenant, la recherche a ete concentree sur les represen-tations ou limage, mais rarement sur les deux a la fois. En les comparant systematiquement,il est avance que limpact des representations mediatiques sur limage se situe entre une influ-ence forte et negociee. Lanalyse sappuie sur des donnees recueillies aupres de touristes aLhassa au Tibet. Larticle decrit des questions de tourisme a une destination renommee maispeu etudiee. Mots-cles: effets mediatiques, image de destination, films et autres medias,Tibet, culture populaire. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Researchers have identified several factors shaping the images thattourists hold of destinations. Gartner (1993), building on the workof others (Gunn 1988; Phelps 1986), has provided a useful typologysummarizing the various formation agents influencing destinationimage. Those range from traditional forms of advertising and popularculture to friends advice and actual visitation. This article focuses onpopular culture mediaan autonomous agent under Gartners(1993) terminologyand its impact on destination image. The study will analyze the effect of the visual and written content of movies,

guidebooks and magazines on the imagination that tourists have of a

Julien Mercille (Department of Geography, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524 USA. Email ) studies mass media issues, asrelated to tourism and to US politics. Previously, he worked as a cultural and ecotourismadvisor in Tanzania, more specifically with the Masai people. He is now pursuing adissertation on the US military-industrial complex.

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 10391055, 2005 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Printed in Great Britain0160-7383/$30.00

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2005.02.001www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures

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destination; the term representation will be used throughout torefer to such content.

It has been recognized that popular culture and other forms of imag-ery have a significant impact on destination image. For instance, in the

social sciences literature, Urry argued that the tourist gaze is con-structed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices, suchas film, TV, literature, magazines, records and videos (1990:3; see alsoMorgan and Pritchard 1998). In the marketing literature, researchersmaintain that representations shape image, having described this pro-cess through several typologies (Butler 1990; Gartner 1993; Gunn 1988;Phelps 1986). However (and paradoxically), there have been few at-tempts to study empirically this phenomenon. Such an analysis isaccomplished in this paper through a comparison of specific massmedia artifacts (movies, books, and magazines reaching a wide

audience) about Tibet and tourists images. Questionnaires are usedto describe the latter, which is then compared to the mass mediaproductions tourists had consulted.

The overall theoretical framework underpinning this study is that ofmass media effects research. Effects research analyzes the impact andinfluence of the media on audiences ranging from individuals to soci-eties, and is an important body of literature in communications studies,encompassing a wide range of methodologies. Its principal tradi-tions range from empiricist to critical (including Marxism and literarycriticism), to uses and gratifications approaches (Rosengren, Wenner and Palmgreen 1985), to reception analysis ( Ang 1985;Morley 1986) and cultural studies (Kellner 1995). For reviews ofapproaches, see Jensen and Rosengren (1990), McQuail (1984) andWolton (1993).

Those various traditions can be placed on a continuum describingthe strength of the media in shaping an audiences ideas, feelings,and motivations (Ravault 1986). At one end of the continuum are stud-ies arguing that the media are extremely powerful in convincing andindoctrinating the public, conceived of as a mass of passive recep-

tors. This is often referred to as the bullet theory. According to thisparadigm, prominent mainly before and around World War II,

Communication was seen as a magic bullet that transferred ideas orfeelings or knowledge or motivations almost automatically from onemind to another. . .. In the early days of communication study, theaudience was considered relatively passive and defenseless, and com-munication could shoot something into them (Schramm 1971:6).

At the other end of the continuum are studies emphasizing thepower of audiences to make their own meanings and to interpretmedia messages in ways opposed to the intended ones. According to this

perspective, audiences evade social control and manipulation, resistingdomination by powerful media interest groups (Fiske 1989a,b).

Other schools of thought fall between those two extreme points ofview. Hall (1980) presents a synthesis offering a balance betweenmanipulating and popular resistance theories in his seminal paperEncoding/Decoding. He argues that the decoding of media

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messages by audiences can occur in multiple ways, which he groupsinto three hypothetical situations, reflecting the above continuum.First, audiences may decode media messages in terms of the refer-ence code in which [they have] been encoded by producers, the view-

ers operating inside the dominant code; second, a negotiatedposition may arise when audiences interpretation of messages mixesopposition and adaptation to them; and third, audiences may interpretmedia messages in ways totally oppositional to the encoded ones, sub-verting intended meanings.

The theoretical framework of effects research, along with the analyt-ical grid provided by Hall, will guide this papers analyses. Media pro-ductions consulted by tourists prior to their trips will be compared totheir imagination/perceptions of Tibet in order to assess their congru-ence (or lack thereof). A strong congruence would suggest that media

representations have a strong effect on image (Halls first hypothesis);a lack of congruence would support the hypothesis that the media hasno or a very limited effect (Halls third hypothesis); situations betweenthose two extremes would suggest a negotiated relationship betweentourists and media representations (Halls second hypothesis).

Scholars have often assumed, implicitly or explicitly, that representa-tions influence image. However, most research has focused on onlyone or the other, while examinations of both and assessments of theircongruence are lacking. Studies concerned with the former (comingmainly from the social sciences) have documented how destinationsare portrayed in various materials, but neglected to assess touristsactual perceptions. Various types of materials have been examined,including brochures ( Adams 1984; Cohen 1995; Dilley 1986; Selwyn1993; Silver 1993), travelogues (Dann 1996), postcards (Mellinger1994), advertisements (Britton 1979; Goss 1993; Hughes 1992; Prit-chard and Morgan 2000), magazines (Kingsbury and Brunn 2003), lit-erature (Seaton 1998), and movies (Morgan and Pritchard 1998). Suchstudies typically show which aspects of a destination are selected, omit-ted, and distorted in those materials. For example, Silver (1993) dis-

cusses the image of the Third World conveyed in brochures. He writes that most tourists understandings about indigenous peoplesseem to derive most immediately and explicitly from images marketedin travel magazines, advertisements, and brochures (1993:303). How-ever, little empirical evidence is provided to support these claims.Moreover, the readership of the brochures considered is not men-tioned, which would have helped to assess their significance.

Conversely, the destination image literature has measured touristsperceptions, but neglected to analyze representations. Nevertheless,it often assumes that the latter significantly shape the former. This

assumption is most apparent when recommendations are given (in sev-eral marketing studies) about the ways in which the projected image ofa destination should be modified to improve tourists image of thatplace. For example, Baloglu argues that understanding such imagescan be useful in delivering appropriate promotional messages,improving and correcting particular traveler groups relative images,and tailoring promotion strategy to specific groups (1997:231). In

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sum, few studies examine both representations and perceptions empir-ically, an undertaking often incidental to a larger research focus(Herbert 1996; Laxson 1991; Mellinger 1994; OBarr 1994; but seeKim and Richardson 2003).

The case of Tibet reflects those general trends. Several studies dis-cuss how it has been depicted in travel writing (Bishop 1989), cinemaand the media (Bishop 1998, 2000; Norbu 1998; Schell 2000; Scofield1993), literature (Bishop 2001; Hutt 1996), Chinese propaganda(Barnett 2001; Heberer 2001), and discourses of the Tibetan exile com-munity (Barnett 2001; Huber 2001). Those writings show that Tibetand its people have been portrayed as idealized, nonviolent, pristine,religious, and primitive (Barnett 2001; Bishop 1989, 2000, 2001; He-berer 2001; Huber 2001; Hutt 1996; Korom 1997; Lopez 1994; Norbu1998, 2001; Schell 2000). However, tourists perceptions have been

neglected, with one exception found in Minca (1994). This lack ofresearch is paradoxical, since Tibet has long generated endless pas-sions in the West; perhaps this state of affairs can be explained bythe relative difficulty of conducting research in this somewhat closedand remote region.

MEDIA EFFECTS ON DESTINATION IMAGE

In summer 2002 in Lhasa (Tibets capital city), 600 self-administered

questionnaires (in English and Japanese) were collected from interna-tional tourists (including residents of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau,but not mainland China). The data collection took place almost everyday from early June to mid-July, in the high season for tourism.Respondents were asked to participate in the survey on the street, inrestaurants, and in hotel lobbies. Questionnaires included two sets ofopen-ended questions, preferred over structured ones in an effortnot to impose preconceived categories of analysis on answers, a prob-lem in much of the literature (Echtner and Ritchie 1991).

First, tourists were asked through which sources of information theyhad heard or read about Tibet prior to their arrival. Second, they wereasked about their perceptions of the place before arriving, and howthese had changed since their arrival. This second set of questions was broken down into three categories: people of Tibet, natureand environment, and other. Changes in perceptions following ar-rival for the first and second categories were relatively few, and hencecould often not be considered for analysis; however, in this respect, thethird category led to some of the most interesting findings of the study.

The sample used in this article is a subset (N = 397) of the total sam-

ple. Only first-time tourists are considered, as previous visitation caninfluence perceptions of destinations (Fakeye and Crompton 1991).Questionnaires in Japanese had to be removed, as their translationmodified too much the question about the consulted sources of infor-mation. The sample includes 54% females and 46% males, from 13 to77 years old; 28% Americans, 19% Asians, 37% Europeans and 16%from other countries; 40% independent tourists and 60% in tour

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groups. This sample is judged to be representative of the total numberof tourists going to Tibet every year based on official statistics andthe authors survey of Lhasa hotels, with the exceptions that Japaneseare under-represented, as are tour groups (who often did not have

time to complete the questionnaire). Following Reilly (1990) andEchtner and Ritchie (1993), responses were coded into similar catego-ries and frequencies were recorded for each. A number of responsesare idiosyncratic but it is the researchers role to classify them intomeaningful categories. There is no space here for an indepth analysisof the differences between various types of tourists, but such informa-tion will be given where interesting differences occurred, recognizingthat tourists are not homogeneous, even if dominant trends are oftenpresent.

Tourists Image of Tibet

Table 1 shows tourists perceptions. Prior to arrival, the People ofTibet were imagined to be mainly friendly (for 41% of tourists)and religious (32%). Tibetans appear to have a very good reputationabroad, as only 3% mentioned a negative perception prior to theirarrival. Interestingly, as many as 59% of Western backpackers believedTibetans to be friendly prior to arrival, which may reflect the desire of

Table 1. Tourists Perceptions of Tibet (N = 397)

Perceptions Tourists (%)a

People of Tibet (before arrival)

Friendly 41Religious 32Poor 13Negative perception 3

Nature and environment (before arrival)Cold/harsh/dry/barren 30Mountainous 26Beautiful 26Clean/pristine 13

Perception of the Chinese (before arrival)

Neutral 13Negative 15Positive 1Total 29

Surprises following arrivalMore Chinese 20Less Chinese 7More Western/modern 33Less Western/modern 2

a Percentages do not add up to 100%, as a tourist could mention more than one perception.



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many to enter into authentic contact with the visited Other. TheNature and environment were imagined to be beautiful, mountain-ous, cold, harsh, dry and barren (only 6% imagined it to be relatively warm, humid, and with significant vegetation). A few also expected

an environmentally clean and pristine place (13%), a perception thatsupports empirically the suggestion that one image of Tibet that hasdeveloped in recent years is that of a pre-Mao ecological paradise (Lo-pez 1994). In order to attract support for their cause, such an imagehas even been reinforced by Tibetans in exile, and by the Dalai Lamahimself in books and speeches (Barnett 2001; Huber 2001).

The category other arguably revealed the most interesting find-ings. Two main issues were mentioned and discussed: the question ofthe Chinese invasion/presence in Tibet and the level of develop-ment/modernization of the place. A fair number of tourists were aware

that the Chinese were involved in Tibet prior to their arrival (29%, asignificant number considering that several more people were proba-bly also aware of this situation but did not feel it was safe to discuss suchmatters on the questionnaire). Moreover, tourists had overwhelminglynegative views about this situation: 50% of those who addressed theissue saw it in a negative way, as opposed to 3% who were positive aboutit. Interestingly, the Chinese question is mainly a characteristic of West-erners imagination. Indeed, 34% were aware of the Chinese presencein Tibet prior to arrival, compared to only 9% of non-Westerners. Thisseems to reflect the Tibetan government-in-exiles strategy since thelate 80s to lobby Western, rather than non-Western, countries for sup-port in its struggle for autonomy (Barnett 2001).

More can be learned about tourists ideas on Sinification as well asdevelopment and modernization by examining how their perceptionschanged after arrival. Following their arrival, a significant number(20%) were surprised to find even more Chinese influence than theyhad expected (as opposed to 7% who found less influence thanexpected). A correlation test (lower than .000) revealed that thosewho were aware of the Chinese presence in Tibet before arriving were

more likely (than those unaware) to be surprised in such a way by thedegree of Sinification. Therefore, it seems that although tourists areaware of the Chinese involvement in Tibet, and are often negativeabout it, they underestimate its intensity.

Furthermore, 33% found a much higher level of development/mod-ernization/Westernization than expected (this includes infrastructure,transport, facilities, peoples dress, way of life, etc.). This number iscontrasted to the 2% who found, on the contrary, a less modern place(more traditional) than they had imagined. This suggests that a tradi-tional image of Tibet clearly dominates tourists imagination of the

place. One finding worthy of note is that as many as 47% of touristsfrom Hong Kong found more modernization/development thanexpected. This could be explained by the fact that residents of HongKong have been exposed to a greater extent to the Chinese discourseabout Tibet, which asserts, among other things, that it is an underde-veloped, primitive region of China; and thus needs to be modernized,justifying Chinese involvement (Heberer 2001).

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In sum, most tourists imagine Tibet to be a beautiful mountainous,cold, harsh and dry environment where friendly and religious peoplelive. This land and people also face some negative Chinese influence,but it appears that this impact is underestimated. Many are surprised to

see that the place is more developed and modernized than they hadexpected. To what extent do those perceptions correspond to theTibet presented in various media productions consulted by tourists?

Media Representations

Tourists were asked which materials they had consulted prior to theirtrip. This analysis focuses on the most popular ones. The first are aHollywood movie (Seven Years in Tibet, consulted by 43% of

respondents) and a guidebook (Lonely Planet, 27%); next, anotherHollywood movie (Kundun, 11%) and a magazine (NationalGeographic, 10%) (the next most popular was the book Seven Years inTibeton which the film is basedwith 6%, after which no other mate-rial was consulted by more than 3% of tourists). These findings clearlyindicate the importance of the mass media, both visual and written,in exposing the public to images of foreign lands and people.

Following Rose (2001), qualitative and quantitative methodologieswill be used to find out what kind of Tibet is depicted by those mediaartifacts. It will be readily apparent that such representations corre-

spond, to a great extent, to tourists images, a congruence on whichthe next section will elaborate. The two movies are analyzed througha description of key scenes and themes as well as running time ofcertain features, with some attention given to their production andreception by scholars and critics.

Seven Years in Tibet (1997, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud) isbased on the true story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain clim-ber who met the Dalai Lama in the 40s after a long trek across theHimalayas and Tibet. The depiction of Tibetans as friendly and reli-gious is central to the movie, its main theme being the lifelong friend-ship that develops between them and foreign adventurers. A synopsisissued by the films production company states that Through theirrelationship, Harrer experiences the kind of selfless love a father feelsfor a child and the emotional transformation which began on his wayto Lhasa is completed in his friendship with the Dalai Lama (Schell2000:108). Moreover, Harrers fellow climber marries a Tibetanwoman.

Seven Years in Tibet also emphasizes religiosity: several colorfulceremonies are shown, and both monks and the laity are depicted asdeeply devout. Tibetan scholar Jamyang Norbu has even deplored thatNearly every Tibetan in the film seems to be a potential dharma tea-cher. At one point, this Buddhist religiosity is merged with environ-mentalism: when Harrer builds the Dalai Lamas movie theater, theTibetan coolies refuse to continue digging the soil because this killsearth worms. The Dalai Lama then informs Harrer that Tibetansbelieve all living creatures were their mothers in a past life. So we



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must. . .never, never harm anything that lives. The picture con-structed here is so strong thatNorbu denounced the scene as proba-bly the most ridiculous in the film (1998:22). The cold, harsh, andmountainous physical landscape is also clearly shown in the film, which

begins with a mountaineering expedition in the high Himalayas, underdifficult conditions. Harrer gets injured, his friend risks his life on acliff, and the team faces a blizzard, a snow storm, and an avalanche,forcing the expedition to abandon the quest for the summit. Overall,mountaineering and trekking scenes occupy 16% of the movies time.

Kundun (1997, directed by Martin Scorsese) is essentially abiography of the Dalai Lama, with heavy emphasis on religion: 74% ofthe films running time displays religiosity (ceremonies, Tibetanspraying, monks) and 52% shows the Dalai Lama himself. The film openswith the words In a wartorn Asia, Tibetans have practiced non-violence

for over a thousand years, and was acclaimed for its cinematography, which presents dry, barren, wide open spaces and snow-cappedmountains.

Both movies were made in part to support Tibetan independence.Kunduns production involved prominent members of the Tibetangovernment in exile, not to mention the personal contribution ofthe Dalai Lama, who met several times with Scorsese to discuss themovie and give advice on the script (Smith 1998). Both productionsemployed an important cast of Tibetans (the Dalai Lamas sister playedin Seven Years in Tibet), many of whom understood the politicalmessage involved (Schell 2000). Accordingly, both give an importantplace to the Chinese invasion of Tibet, juxtaposing peaceful andfriendly Tibetans to ruthless Chinese communists. Seven Years inTibet shows Tibetans using yaks, bows, and arrows against theChinese automatic rifles and heavy artillery, leading to a one-sidedmassacre. The destruction brought about by the Chinese is further dis-played in both movies with the forced killings of monks by their ownpupils and by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, as well as thebombing of monasteries, houses, and villages.

However, the modernization brought to Tibet through Sinification isomitted in both productions. Whereas Seven Years in Tibet andKundun allocated, respectively, 22% and 32% of their time to thequestion of the invasion, they do not show any development, whichin reality, followed immediately. In the 50s, the Lhasa Peoples Hospi-tal was opened and hydroelectric stations, factories, and roads werebuilt. By the early 70s, coal mines, chemical, and machinery plants wereestablished, and most counties had motor vehicle transport (Karan1973). By the early 90s, Lhasa had traffic lights, the entire city hadbeen electrified, an international airport had opened, telecommunica-

tions reached virtually anywhere in the world, and a Holiday Inn (com-plete with CNN and yak burgers) was offering reservations through an800 number in the United States (Schell 2000:269). Those observa-tions are not intended to downplay the ruthlessness of the invasionof Tibet, nor to suggest that the forced modernization serves as justifi-cation. The point is simply to examine what was (or was not) shown totourists before their arrival.

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Following Rose (2001) and Lutz and Collins (1993), the guidebookand magazine can be usefully analyzed through content analysis oftheir pictures. This method can, to a certain extent, protect againstan unconscious search for those aspects of the latter which confirm

ones conclusion. The coding categories reflect the specific aspectsof interest to this paper. For each picture, it was recorded whether itshowed religion (e.g., monks, monasteries), Tibetans doing non-reli-gious activities, mountains, plains/flat landscape with no mountains,Chinese presence/Sinification, and Westernization/modernization.Some perceptions are more difficult to categorize using content anal-ysis and so were left out, such as the friendliness of people and thecold/harsh, clean/pristine, and beautiful environment.

The Lonely Planet (Mayhew, Bellezza, Wheeler and Taylor 1999) is a350-page guidebook giving detailed information about Tibet. Most

tourists do not read everything in it, but rather consult the specificsections related to the visited places, and they are more likely to glanceat the pictures and main headlines than at any particular part of thetext. Therefore, what follows focuses on pictures rather than on adetailed reading of the text (in summer 2002, a slightly updated 5thedition was issued, with results remaining essentially the same, so thosefor the 4th edition are given here). Table 2 shows the importance ofvarious themes depicted by photographs (85 in total, all in color). Reli-giosity is important (68% of pictures) and the landscape depicted isoverwhelmingly mountainous (32%). The absences are also significant:only two pictures show signs of modernization (trucks and Tibetans inWestern dress), and only one shows something or someone recogniz-ably Chinese, while in reality a large portion of Lhasa has been Sinified(accordingly, this surprised many tourists, as seen above). In short, theguidebooks pictures emphasize Tibets religious character and moun-tainous landscape, and erase the influence of the Chinese and modern-ization/development.

These findings are further supported by the main headlines and sec-tions of the text. For instance, Tibetan travels top ten lists first The

Tibetan people, as well as five other activities/attractions related to

Table 2. Pictures in the Lonely Planet and National Geographic

ThemesRepresented

Lonely Planeta

(% of pictures)National

Geographica

(% of pictures)

Religion 68 34Tibetans doing a

non-religious activity

5 43

Mountains 32 23Plains with no mountains 1 2Something/someone Chinese 1 5

Westernization/Modernization 2 7

a Percentages do not add up to 100% as each picture was coded for the six categories.



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religion (such as monasteries) and two related to trekking. The guide-book offers the picture of a predominantly religious and purely Tibe-tan land (as opposed to Chinese and other ethnic groups), andadopts a predominantly negative stance towards Signification: in the

Pet peeves, three are related to the Chinese.National Geographichas published many articles about Tibet for many

years. Its effect on tourists images is less precise than other represen-tations, since it is not possible to know which specific piece(s) wereconsulted. Therefore, all feature articles (six in total) published specif-ically about Tibet from 1980 to summer 2002 were selected, with con-sideration given to both their pictures and text. One focused on areligious ceremony, another on nature and conservation, two on devel-opment and modernization, and two on nomads. A content analysis oftheir images reveals the same basic trends as in the other media arti-

facts (Table 2). Religion is important, with more than a third of thephotographs showing religious objects, monuments, or ceremonies.Compared to the guidebook, more space is allocated to non-religiousactivities (43%), but this is attributed to the relative emphasis on no-mads and herders (photographs not religious in character, but thatpreserve a traditional image); mountains (23%) also predominate overplains (2%). Predictably, modernization and Sinification are down-played. Although two articles focus on these topics, only 7% of all pho-tographs show the former (cars, Western dress, mechanized tools) and5% the latter (Chinese people, army trucks). Therefore, just as in thepreviously analyzed artifacts, it is a rather traditional and non-Western-ized Tibet which is presented to readers of the magazine (although notas overwhelmingly as in the other representations).

Congruence between Media Representations and Image

The preceding sections showed that in general terms, media repre-sentations correspond to tourists images. It is important to elaborateon the nature of this congruence, to obtain a more detailed under-standing of the effects of the former on the latter. Statistical correla-tions tested whether the correspondence alluded to so far constitutesan ecological fallacy. For instance, if those tourists who held the imagecomponents listed in Table 1 were mostly not those who had consultedthe most popular representations examined above, it could hardly beconcluded that such representations had an impact on tourists imag-ination. Consultation of each media representation was correlated withthe mention of each perception (for instance, is watching, say, Kun-dun correlated with holding the perception that Tibetans are reli-gious?). A correlation coefficient (phi) was obtained for eachrepresentation-perception pair (interaction effects were not significantenough to be considered). All correlations were rather low(phi < .200). This could suggest that representations had only a limitedimpact on image, and hence that the analysis so far committed an eco-logical fallacy. However, it is argued below that this is not the case, be-cause contemporary representations of Tibet are homogeneous. But

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first, a word on the credibility of sources of information and messagerepetition.

Although the credibility of sources of information is usually dis-cussed in relation to the type/format of image formation agentsin

particular whether they are organic or induced (Gartner 1993; Gunn1988)here it is difficult to compare source credibility in such away, since they are all organic or autonomous. Moreover, the formatof the representation (a movie vs. a guidebook) does not seem to makea significant difference on the extent to which a representation shapesdestination image. Nevertheless, credibility can also be assessed byexamining whether the total number of sources consulted has an im-pact on tourists perceptions: does repetition of a message increaseits credibility, or does it shape image to a greater extent? This wastested with the gamma coefficient, used to evaluate the correlation

between the total number of sources consulted and the mention of agiven perception. For instance, is a tourist who has watched the twomovies and read the guidebook (for a total of three representationsconsulted) more likely to imagine Tibetans as, say, friendly than a tour-ist who consulted only the guidebook? The results suggest that this isindeed the case: several perceptions (half of those listed in Table 1) were more likely to be held by tourists who had consulted a greaternumber of representations (at a significance level of 5%). Therefore,based on the (limited) evidence available, it appears that message rep-etition increases the impact of media representations on image.

Returning to the weak correlations between representations andperceptions, it is argued that this is explained by the homogeneity ofcontemporary media productions about Tibet in popular culture. Inshort, one basic picture of Tibet is circulated by the many representa-tions of it. This is so because the majority of such artifacts are variationson the Shangri-La image first popularized by James Hiltons novel LostHorizon (1933) and by Frank Capras 1937 film version of it. Thesecrystalized the Shangri-La image that is associated today with Tibet(Bishop 1989, 2000; Hutt 1996; Schell 2000). However, this is not to

deny variability, especially outside popular culture (Barnett 2001;Bishop 1989, 1998, 2000, 2001; Dodin and Rather 2001; Huber 2001;Lopez 1994).

Such homogeneity is also demonstrated empirically by the aboveanalysis: Seven Years in Tibet, the Lonely Planet, Kundun andNational Geographicare very similar when compared along the key crite-ria considered here. This also seems to apply to the other sources ofinformation mentioned on questionnaires, as far as the author knowsthem. In sum, tourists were exposed to a similar picture of Tibet,explaining the weakly significant statistical results. Therefore, it can

be stated, by way of preliminary and general conclusion, that represen-tations and destination image are congruent, suggesting relativelystrong media effects, which supports Halls first hypothesis (audiencesdecode messages in terms of the reference code in which they havebeen encoded by producers). Indeed, the various components of tour-ists images were found to be predominant in the representations theyconsulted (which makes the claim that the latter influenced the former



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more persuasive than if image components were negligible in themedia artifacts).

In the two movies, the predominance of various features was assessedthrough running times and a description of major themes. In the

guidebook and magazine, this was assessed with the help of oppositebinary pairs (for example, mountains vs plains), as seen most clearlyin the content analysis of pictures (Table 2). Such pairs allow for a mea-surement of the relative dominance of a given feature by comparing itsprominence with its opposite. For example, comparing the relativeimportance of mountains with flat lands highlighted the fact that theformer were not only present in the representations, but had a pre-dominant place in them, clearly outweighing flat landscape. Thismakes for a more persuasive claim that specific aspects of each repre-sentation influenced tourists imagination. The congruence also seems

to hold for all perceptions related to the Chinese question; viewsrelated to modernization and Westernization; the friendly and reli-gious character of Tibetans; and the mountainous, cold, and harshenvironment. Some aspects related to the Chinese and modernizationquestions were not predominant in the literal sense, but ratherthrough their relative absence. The predominance of some percep-tions in media artifacts is slightly more difficult to assess (clean/pris-tine nature, beautiful environment, and poverty). Nevertheless, agood case could be made that these were clearly shown.

However, media effects should not be overstated, as some observa-tions suggest a negotiated or even an oppositional impact (Hallssecond and third hypotheses). A case in point is that individual tour-ists images rarely contain every predominant feature shown in repre-sentations. For instance, although Seven Years in Tibet depictedTibetans as religious and friendly, the Chinese as violent, and the land-scape as mountainous; individual tourists remembered only a few, notall, of these features. This attests to a partial impact and shows thatindividuals make their own meanings out of media productions, andthus should not be conceived of as passive receivers. Furthermore,

some tourists held images that were clearly opposed to the representa-tions they had consulted (for instance, a few imagined Tibetans as lazyor aggressive before their arrival). This would support Halls thirdhypothesis (audiences may interpret media messages in ways opposi-tional to the encoded messages).

What accounts for negotiated and oppositional readings? One expla-nation suggested by reception analysis lies in individuals different cul-tural and social backgrounds. In a nutshell, each person interpretsmessages differently given the cultural and social milieus from whichs/he comes. For instance, throughout the paper, differences in percep-

tions among various types of tourists (backpackers vs tour groups; West-erners vs non-Westerners) were noted, illustrating that each one ofthem filters projected images in contrasting ways. Audience ethno-graphy is one way to study such diversity, as are more positivist method-ologies which have focused on sociodemographic characteristics(Baloglu 1997; Baloglu and McCleary 1999). Similarly, views of natureor of a foreign country vary over time and across space. For instance, a

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high altitude mountainous landscape can today be seen as beautifulby most Westerners, but this perception has varied historically and geo-graphically (Bishop 1989). Put another way, imagination is influencedby popular culture and by other types of representations and wider

discourses than those specifically related to Tibet. For example, it ispossible that the perception that Tibetans were poor arose fromthe influence of wider discourses about development and the ThirdWorld which situate Tibet in a group of countries called developingor under-developed (and hence poor). These discourses also shapeideas about foreign lands and people, pointing to the limits of a studyfocusing exclusively on media artifacts specific to one destination.

CONCLUSIONThis article attempted to clarify the influence of the mass media on

destination image by describing empirically the congruence betweenthe two within the theoretical framework of effects research. This fillsan important gap in the tourism literature, which thus far has focusedonly on the role played by one element of the phenomenon. On theone hand, and as shown above, the image of Tibet projected by mediaproductions corresponds to a significant extent to tourists imagina-tion, suggesting a relatively strong influence, both in what is shownand what is omitted about the place. For instance, it is argued thatimportant absences in media productions, such as Sinification andWesternization, led to tourists being surprised by Tibets relatively highlevel of development and Chinese presence upon arrival. To para-phrase Urry (1990), most tourists gaze did not include signs of mod-ernization and Sinification, since it had been constructed byrepresentations which did not include those signs. On the other hand,media effects are not deterministic or homogeneous. The cultural andsocial background of each individual must be taken into account tounderstand the differences in interpretations and decoding of mes-sages, noted on several occasions in this paper. In sum, in the caseof Tibet, the basic conclusion of this study is that the effect of themedia lies somewhere between Halls first and second hypotheses(between a strong and negotiated influence).

To conclude, some practical implications of the findings may be sug-gested. As Bishop demonstrates, the association of a destination withpopular culture, and especially with Hollywood, can lead the localsto become caught up in disputes with which they have nothing todo. Following him, Tibetan culture did become entangled recently inscathing criticisms of the Hollywood film industry, most notably its

idealizing narrative formulas and its promotion of American cul-tural hegemony (2000:645). Therefore, from a critical scholarshipperspective, it is recommended that since representations may exerta significant influence on image, promoters should act responsiblyby projecting images of destinations that are not harmful to locals.In the case of Tibet, some have argued (Norbu 1998; Lopez 1994) thatthis recommendation should translate into less exoticized depictions,



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which may be ultimately harmful to Tibetans, constraining them intheir relations with other nations to play the Shangri-La cardcontinuously.

AcknowledgmentsThe author thanks P.P. Karan, Doug Kellner, Paul Kingsbury, Rene JeanRavault, Anna Secor, and Dick Ulack for helpful comments on the paper, Marie-StefanieTaschereau for precious assistance in the field, and Taro Futamura, Hye Kyung, John May,and Mitch Snider for translating and proofreading the questionnaires.

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Media Effect on Image