Full, comprehensive notes (reading study questions, microlectures, and live lectures) of the entertainment communication course at the University of Amsterdam. I have a GPA of 8.8.
ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNICATION NOTES
Definitions
Key concepts
Week 1
Vorderer, P., Klimmt, C., & Ritterfeld, U. (2004). Enjoyment: At the heart of media
entertainment. Communication Theory, 14, 388–408.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00321.x
Key topics:
Entertainment experience
Prerequisites to enjoy media
Entertainment media use in daily life
Study questions
➔ Why do people display strong preferences for being entertained?
◆ Motivational basis of human activity: approach system (results in pleasure) +
avoidance system (results in pain)
● Entertainment = enjoyment = pleasure
○ But entertainment usually gives a wide range of experiences and
causes many different moods/feelings, not just pleasure. But these
can also be seen as enjoyment
◆ Meta-emotions: emotions that may be
undesirable/unpleasant objectively, but which lead to
appreciation, pride, and/or enjoyment on a meta-emotional
level
◆ Motives for consuming media:
● 1. Escapism: how media can provide some sort of mental retreat for users
who feel uncomfortable in their actual lives
● 2. Mood management/regulation: we consume in order to regulate our
moods (ideally a positive mood)
○ E.g.: consumption of comedy when bored, or consumption of
depressing movies in order to compare yourself with others who
are worse off to make you feel better about your life
● 3. For the feeling of achievement (e.g. in video games)
○ Especially for interactive media
◆ Why do users seek entertainment in general/fundamentally?
1
, ● Entertainment is a form of play which is something we are intrinsically
motivated to do because, for example, evolution which says that play was
important for human survival
➔ What kind of consequences does entertaining media consumption have?
◆ There are a wide range of manifestations of media consumption
● These depend not only on the media product itself, but also the individual
◆ Three main consequences/effects:
● Excitation transfer:
○ Exposure and rising action = arousal
◆ This high level of arousal remains in the disposition or
falling action (which usually is a happy ending), so the
high arousal is linked to positive emotions/cognitions,
leading to euphoria.
○ This can also be seen as the feeling of relief, which many media
users are willing to sit through uncomfortable suspense in order to
reach
○ SHORT TERM effect
● Catharsis
○ For the purging (i.e. getting your feelings out) and purifying
(becoming virtuous and cleansing oneself of negative
feelings/thoughts(?)) effect of media (not much empirical research
on this)
● Learning
○ Media users are more willing to learn in the context of an
entertaining program due to the positive emotions it gives
➔ One example of entertainment media use in daily life:
◆ A reader finds entertainment in a thriller book due to escapism. She suspends
belief about the realism of someone like the protagonist existing in the real
world, finds empathy for the hero, feels like she’s actually there in the story, and
undergoes excitation transfer when she goes through phases of suspense and
relief.
Study questions:
➔ In this article, the authors propose an integrated view of media entertainment. What are
the key factors discussed in this model?
2
, ◆
◆ Conceptual model centered around enjoyment as the core of entertainment
● + prerequisites of enjoyment which have to be met by the individual
media user and by the given media product
◆ User prerequisites, motives, media prerequisites, + effects and manifestations
● Media prerequisites:
○ Technology, design, aesthetics
◆ E.g. usability of media, interactivity
◆ Pretty aesthetics can lead to sensory delight
○ Content
◆ Also important in making a piece of media
meaningful/entertainment for a user, dependent on
individual preferences
➔ What are the prerequisites on the media user's side to be able to enjoy media?
◆ Suspension of disbelief
● Doubts about the realism of the fiction could prevent the entertainment
experience because the audience is less immersed
◆ Empathy
● For the characters in the story
◆ Capability & desire to relate to characters (e.g parasocial r/s)
● Parasocial = when bonding occurs independently from an actual
exposure, e.g. in between different episodes of a show
○ Also encourages viewers to consume to ‘stay in touch’ with
people on screen
◆ Sense of being there (i.e transportation, immersion, flow, presence)
● Presence = the feeling of actually being there in the media
◆ User’s interest
3
, ➔ Can you recognize some of the concepts described in this article (or during the lecture)
in your own daily entertainment media use? Make notes of some key words or situations
(e.g., flow, escapism).
Oliver, M.B. & Raney, A.A. (2011). Entertainment as pleasurable and meaningful: Identifying
hedonic and eudaimonic motivations for entertainment communication. Journal of
Communication, 61, 984-1004. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01585.x
Key topics:
Entertainment experience
“Sad” media
Motivations for entertainment media use
➔ Motivations:
◆ surveillance/information
◆ Personal relationships/social interaction and integration
◆ Personal identity
◆ Escapism
➔ Ultimate goal of entertainment: enjoyment?
Study questions:
➔ Most researchers identified positive feelings such as pleasure or enjoyment at the core of
entertainment experience. However, there are situations where use of entertainment
media do not solely center around such positive feelings. What are some examples
discussed in the text?
◆ Sad media such as tragic drama, moving cinema, heartbreaking opera, etc. may
be deeply gratifying but not ‘enjoyable’
➔ On Page 986, the authors discuss enjoyment of "sad" media content. Why was this seen
as paradoxical within entertainment literature? And what kind of alternative
explanations have been offered to explain this?
◆ There’s a paradox between the hedonistic enjoyment of sad content - how can
one enjoy the feeling of unenjoyment?
◆ Although many theories have suggested that people consume entertainment to
feel positive emotions, there exist people who really enjoy sad films/tearjerkers.
◆ Alternative explanations:
● Hedonistic (because they ultimately lead to happiness) explanations:
1. Catharsis:
◆ Tragic entertainment offers viewers the opportunity to
purge their negative emotions
4
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