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Articles Media EntertainmentLieke Brekelmans
Article 1: Entertainment by Oliver
Examines the complex relationship between audiences and entertainment media.
Entertainment
- Media that provides pleasure and enjoyment, though it often extends beyond mere
hedonistic gratification
- It can also provoke thought, inspire, and fulfil deeper emotional needs like self-
reflection and meaning-making
- More than a source of superficial enjoyment
- Satisfies both immediate emotional needs and long-term aspirations for meaning and
connection
Hedonistic enjoyment
- Pleasure derived from fun, laughter, or positive experiences
- Example: friends
Eudaimonia
- A concept referring to meaningful or thought-provoking experiences that promote
reflection about life and purpose
- Example: the Shawshank redemption
Entertainment theories (why and how people engage with entertainment)
1. Mood management theory:
a. Zillmann
b. Suggests that people use entertainment to regulate their emotional states
c. Viewers often select media that will enhance positive moods or mitigate
negative ones
d. People tend to avoid content that could exacerbate negative emotions and
gravitate toward uplifting or distracting media when distressed
e. Mood adjustment hypothesis:
i. Individuals may sometimes choose media that matches or enhances
their current mood
f. Example: watching a comedy after a stressful day to relax
2. Uses and gratifications theory:
a. People actively seek out media to fulfil specific needs, such as escapism, social
connection, or personal identity
b. Audiences are active participants who select media based on specific needs or
gratifications, such as:
i. Hedonic needs → seeking pleasure and entertainment
, ii. Social needs → using media for connection or conversation with
others
iii. Identity needs → consuming media that reflects or enhances one’s
sense of self
iv. Cognitive needs → seekng knowledge or intellectual stimulation
c. Examples:
i. Engaging with superhero movies to escape mundane realities and feel
empowered
ii. Engaging with news or documentaries for information
iii. Watching a reality show for escapism
3. Disposition theory:
a. Focuses on how viewers’ enjoyment is tied to their moral alignment with
characters
b. People root for good characters and derive satisfaction from seeing bad
characters punished
c. Audience enjoyment is closely tied to their moral alignment with the
characters in a narrative
d. Complexities:
i. The extent to which moral ambiguity in characters influences viewers
engagement, especially in modern storytelling that features anti-
heroes
e. Example: enjoying breaking bad because Walter White is complexly portrayed
as both a hero and an anti-hero
4. Transportation theory:
a. When audiences are deeply immersed in a narrative, they enter a
‘transported’ state where they are highly engaged and emotionally affected by
the story
b. Increased empathy, emotional responses, and suspension of disbelief
c. Example: losing track of time while watching a gripping thriller or reading a
compelling novel
5. Excitation transfer theory:
a. Residual arousal from one stimulus can intensify the emotional impact of
sunsequent stimuli
Positive emotions improve mood and social bonding.
Negative emotions can still provide meaningful experiences, allowing for catharsis and
empathy.
Entertainment media serves as a platform for reinforcing or challenging cultural norms and
social values.
Representation → how characters and stories reflect or fail to reflect diverse perspectives.
Parasocial relationships
, - Audiences often form one-sides emotional connections with characters or celebrities,
impacting their real-life relationships and self-perception
Eudiamonic motivations
- Beyond seeking pleasure, many audiences are drawn to entertainment that fosters
personal growth and deeper understanding of human experiences
- Often explores themes or morality, mortality and the human condition
Entertainment provides a break from reality, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in
fictional worlds or narratives.
Escapism
- Often seen as a form of avoidance
- Can also provide temporary relief and emotional rejuvenation
Flow state
- A state of deep immersion and focus often experienced in gaming or intense
storytelling
Long-term impacts of entertainment
- Can shape attitudes, behaviour and even moral values over time
Moral emotions
- Specific emotional responses such as guilt, pride, or moral elevation elicited by
entertainment media
- Example: feeling uplifted after watching heroic self-sacrifice in films like Schlinder’s
list
Affective blends
- Situations where viewers experience simultaneous conflicting emotions, such as joy
and sadness during bittersweet endings
Cultivation theory
- How repeated exposure to media, especially television, shapes perceptions of reality
- Example: heavy exposure to crime dramas might lead to an inflated sense of real-
world crime risk
- Prolonged exposure to media shapes viewers’ perceptions of reality, particularly
regarding societal norms, risks and values
- Example: heavy viewers of crime dramas believe the world is more dangerous than it
actually is
Mediated social learning
- The role of entertainment in modelling behaviours, norms, or social scripts, such as
romantic expectations shaped by rom-coms
, Social cognitive theory
- People learn behaviours, norms, and attitudes through observations, particularly
from media models
- Imitation
- Identification → adopting attitudes or values demonstrated by media characters
Emotional contagion hypothesis
- Audiences’ emotions can mirror the emotions expressed in media content
Article 2: Entertainment effects: enjoyment
Enjoyment
- Multifaceted concept in media research
- It represents a positive affective response to media consumption, often characterized
by pleasure, relaxation or excitement
Uses and gratifications theory
- Audiences actively select media based on personal needs, such as escapism, social
interaction, or mood regulation
- Enjoyment arises when media successfully fulfils these needs
Affective disposition theory (ADT)
- Enjoyment is influenced by emotional connections to characters
- Viewers tend to enjoy media more when ‘liked’ characters succeed and ‘disliked’
characters fail
- Empathy and moral judgement play critical roles in shaping these connections
Flow theory
- When viewers are fully immersed in media (a state flow), they experience heightened
enjoyment
- Factors contributing to flow include:
o Clear goals
o Balanced challenges
o Minimal distractions
Factors influencing enjoyment
1. Content characteristics:
a. Narrative structure:
i. Well-developed plots with tension, resolution and character
development foster engagement and enjoyment
b. Genre expectations:
i. Audiences derive enjoyment from media that aligns with or subverts
genre conventions in surprising ways
c. Humour and arousal:
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