Are the liberal good in Hollywood? Characteristics of political figures in popular films from 1945 to 1998.

Previous research (Prindle & Endersby, 1995) indicated that the leaders of Hollywood are far more liberal than the average American. The question that remained to be answered was to what extent this liberal bias leaks into the Hollywood product. In an effort to answer this question we examined 124 political characters in 47 popular political films spanning five decades. The findings suggested that the characters who were depicted as more liberal also tended to be depicted as more intelligent, friendly, and good. However the results also suggest that the liberal bias in Hollywood is not very robust. Hollywood movers and shakers appeared to have kept their liberal bias in check to some extent. It is speculated, (similarly to Prindle & Endersby), that Hollywood was more invested in producing entertainment that is politically generic and palatable to a general audience than in making movies that promote their liberal political leanings.

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* The term "power elite" was coined by C. Wright Mills in 1956 as a short-hand term referring to the select few in business and government who make key decisions for American policy. Lichter, Rothman, and Lichter (1986) updated the term to include political interest movements and the national media. Their research explored the impact of the power elite on American life, with particular emphasis on news journalists and their tendency toward political liberalism.

Those who control all forms of mass media can be considered members of the power elite. Newspaper, radio and television have traditionally been seen as the predominant forms of mass media, but as Macionis (1999) pointed out, videocassette recorders (VCRs) are becoming pervasive in American households. The dramatic increase of VCR use suggests that Americans are accessing films more than ever, thus placing movies in the realm of mass media, and filmmakers in the position of the power elite.

Casual speculation by radio talk-show hosts, politicians, and other public figures is that Hollywood has a strong liberal bias. For example, Cones (1997) asserted that Hollywood films reflect the values of a select few whom he identified as politically liberal, Jewish males of European heritage. Cones and Jaeger (n.d.) co-founded the Film Industry Reform Movement (F.I.R.M.), an organization designed to dethrone the power-base of liberal Hollywood.

While it is possible that Hollywood has a liberal bias, it is also possible that this is a misperception driven by the biases of those making the observations. Vallone, Ross, and Lepper (1985) demonstrated that people with a strong political opinion on an issue tend to perceive neutral media coverage on that issue as biased and against their side. They dubbed this the "hostile media phenomenon." Bias in perception was also highlighted by Rothman, Powers and Rothman (1993) who trained raters to evaluate films by objective criteria, and found no evidence for the then popular assertion that Hollywood filmmakers were portraying woman negatively (a "backlash" against the feminist movement). As Rothman et al. concluded, it is easy to become prey to bias if judgments about Hollywood's prejudice are made without a representative sample of films, a valid rating system, and trained raters.

Assertions that there is a liberal power elite in Hollywood has some empirical backing. Prindle and Endersby (1993) presented evidence that those with influence in Hollywood are indeed more liberal than the average person. They identified those in Hollywood who had the most influence on the ideological tone of the industry (including executives, actors, directors, producers, and writers) and through interviews determined that these individuals were far more likely than a control group to describe themselves as liberal and to support liberal views on a variety of issues. Powers, Rothman, and Rothman (1996) did a similar survey of Hollywood moviemakers, with similar results. Powers et al. also examined high-grossing films from 1946-1990, and found that, beginning in the mid-1960s, Hollywood's message has become more left-leaning and more critical of traditional American society. Specifically, they found a trend toward a more critical view of the military, police, wealthy people, businesspeople, and organized religion, and a more positive depiction of women and minorities.

While Powers et al. (1996) provided a wealth of information about the content of popular films, there are more questions to be answered. They found a trend toward more liberal …