ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNICATION
Lectures and Book Notes
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Entertainment Communication (Articles)
• Moyer-Gusé, E. (2008). Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: Explaining the persuasive
effects of entertainment-education messages. Communication Theory, 18, 407-425
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00328.x (Links to an external site.)
• Oliver, M. B., & Bartsch, A. (2010). Appreciation as audience response: Exploring entertainment
gratifications beyond hedonism. Human Communication Research, 36, 53-
81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01368.x (Links to an external site.)
• 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
WHAT IS ENTERTAINMENT?
Although it may seem evident, it is easier to recognize entertainment than provide a
definition of it.
Entertainment means to provide amusement, diversion or enjoyment. So, it means “that
what holds you there”, what keeps your attention. The question is: news/weather/politics
considered as entertainment? It becomes impossible to see where entertainment begins
or ends. That’s is the reason why scientists have provided some definitions:
• Painters make paintings, but it takes a representative of the art-world to make a
work of art (Wollheim, 1980).
• Entertainment is ‘any market offering whose main purpose is to offer pleasure to
consumers, versus offering primarily functional utility’ (Hennig-Thurau & Houston,
2019, p 41).
• Entertainment is a complex, dynamic and multi-faceted experience one goes
through while being exposed to this type of media (Vorderer, 2001).
• Entertainment has been understood not so much as a product (movie, game or tv
show) or as a feature of such a product (action, comedy) but rather as a response
to it (Zillmann & Bryant, 1994).
• At the heart of the entertainment experience lies enjoyment, a product of
numerous interactions between conditions on both the user’s and the media’s side
(Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004).
What do you enjoy? What entertains you? What keeps you engaged? Today we expect
continuous entertainment and more of our experiences need to be entertained (aka we
carry music everywhere we go). Media needs to be entertaining if they expect us to pay
attention. If you are bored, there is a world of entertainment in your smartphone, in your
fingerprints.
When does something begin to be entertaining? Boring examples: Sleep movie (Andy
Warhol), Crackling fire video (24h in YouTube), Bus videogame (Lasts 8 hours and you just
correct the bus in the desert). Are these examples there for entertainment? Painters make
,paintings and it takes a representative to define it as a work of art. For the entertainment,
people are the ones that define it.
When it stops to be entertaining? Example: Disasters, Terrorism, Violence. What are the
boundaries?
There is a new and better definition of entertainment, which narrows the market to an
offering and not a product:
• Entertainment is any market offering whose main purpose is to offer pleasure to
consumers, versus offering primarily functional utility (Henning Thurnau & Houston,
2019).
In this course, we are not talking about every kind of entertainment. No circus, theme
parks, live entertainment, we only talk about media related entertainment. In this sense,
our definition of Media Entertainment:
• Any mediated product created for the purpose of entertaining its users.
MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT OVERLOAD
Even though we “only” talk about media entertainment, It is a gigantic world to explore:
• There were 832 new feature-length movies released in U.S cinemas in 2019 (16 per
week). 324 received a ‘wide release’ (at least 500 screens)
• As of December 2019, U.S. consumers could choose from 646,152 unique program
titles available on traditional linear and streaming services. An increase of 10% from
2018 (Nielsen, 2019).
• For music, more than 10,000 new music albums were made available in 2018 in the
U.S alone, and more than 500,000 new songs were released in that year.
• In addition, 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. That
amounted to 262 million hours of content in 2018.
• For comparison, about 160 new smartphones, 40 new car models, and 20 new
whiskeys and cognacs are annually released in the U.S.
WHAT IS ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNICATION?
Entertainment Communication is based on a thorough theoretical and empirical analysis
of the factors that define entertainment and its products, the economics of the
entertainment industry, and the application of its mechanics to achieve certain effects
within specific contexts.
The impact of entertainment reaches far beyond the economic value or the vast amount
of time we invest in its consumption. Entertainment resonates throughout our culture,
shapes our view of reality, and influences our thoughts, our motivations, our actions, as well
as our vocabulary.
• Entertainment is a valuable source of knowledge for consumers about many
aspects of their world, including people, historical events, and cultural and political
institutions (Kolker, 1999).
MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT MODEL
,Simplified representation of a complex issue. Introducing models that were used as
inspiration to the Media model.
Vorderer, Klimmt & Ritterfield (2004)
o Likes: Cycle of entertainment
o Dislikes: A little confusing as users and motives combine but media prerequisites do
not.
Differential Susceptibility to Media effects Model - DSMM (Valkenburg & Peter, 2013)
o Three factors predict media use: Disposition, Developmental level, and Social
environment
o These three factors also influence the effects that media may have on knowledge,
beliefs, attitudes, and behavior.
o Media effects are transactional, meaning that effects of media use also influence
media use.
MDA Framework (Hunike, LeBlanc & Zubek, 2001)
o Focus in certain media designers of entrtainment. A simple model that shows that
design choices made will affect the player and the player will perceive emotional
reponse that come from certain mechanics. So, designers have to implement a
certain design to achieve a certain effect.
, Laswell’s linear model of communication (1948)
o A speaker says something through cetain media to someone and this has a certain
effect.
o People choose a message and there is also an effect on the audience
MEDIA MODEL: ENTERTAINMENT AND USERS
1. What is media entertainment?
Mediated products created for the purpose of entertaining its users
• Can be free or for a fee
• Can be for a limited time or forever
