OK, just back from a week on the road.
JT51, I think we are looking at different aspects of a view of a country. I mentioned the media specifically, but read a travel guide, travelogue or blog and often the 'real' side of a country appears. It's the job of the media to attract attention to their story to make it more watchable or readable, more gory, more expensive, more people killed all interspersed with rumour from 'a source', maybe exaggerating the facts is a simple way of putting it. If you read some European media stories of the USA not many of us would turn up in your country, but of course there is mostly a grain of truth but magnified.
Most people in most countries are more or less just like you or I, want a decent job, nice home, not too much aggravation and the chance to enjoy themselves from time to time, never been to any country where these type of fundamental wishes are any different for the man in the street.
You are right of course that by actually going somewhere it has to change your perception, no book can predict how we will react to situations that are alien to our normal life, but if you are open to other cultures and ideas and prepared to immerse yourself a little in whatever is 'local' then in my personal experience I've had a great time.