Media Entertainment
Lecture 1: What is media
entertainment?
Why do we care about the scientific study of
media entertainment?
Vrijetijdsbesteding en sport, zoals tv-kijken en sporten speelt een
grote rol in hoe mensen hun dag indelen, met media-entertainment als
een belangrijk onderdeel, vooral in vrije tijd.
Media use in US in 2022
In 2022, the average daily time spent with major media including
television, newspapers magazines, radio and digital formats of each
amounted to 750 minutes (12 hours and 30 minutes), 3.5 hours of which
are spent with entertainment.
Why do we care about the scientific study of
media entertainment?
1. People spend a significant part of their day with consuming media
for entertainment.
2. ME consumption has a strong influence on self, relation to other and
the world.
3. There is a lot of content available for media entertainment
If you decided to watch Netflix 8 hours a day, how many years
would it take to finish all content available? Around 10 years.
How to define media entertainment?
Is it a certain type of content, or a feeling, or a specific behavior?
Are some media, like video games and television, more central to
entertainment than others, like books and the internet? No, you
cannot define ME by the medium.
Are specific types of content, like action movies or fantasy novels,
more entertaining than others, like documentaries and nonfiction
books? No, you cannot define ME by the content.
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,If something made you laugh or cheer, does that mean it is more
entertaining than something that made you cry or feel afraid? No,
you cannot define entertainment by the pleasantness of felt emotions.
Enjoyment
Enjoyment = according to Anne Bartsch, enjoyment is a meta-emotion.
Meta-emotion is the reflection on the experience we have during media
entertainment. We experience many different positive and negative
emotions, that we evaluate as enjoyable when we reflect on the
experience. VB: it was enjoyable to feel sadness.
Is entertainment constantly variable, changing based on who we
are with and what we are doing, or how we think about an
experience? Yes, the same content can be experienced differently
depending on the circumstances.
Do you think media entertainment has a function/ purpose in
people’s lives? Yes, ME has psychological functions in our lives.
Media entertainment is….
Media content designed to be consumed for purposes of leisure (rather
than specifically for information gain, learning, or persuasion). Oliver,
2009.
Media entertainment = a form of playing, i.e., a form of coping with
reality. An activity that is most often characterized by different forms of
pleasure, but – in certain situations – also by unpleasant aspects. It is an
intrinsically motivated action that usually leads to a temporary change
in perceived reality and that is repeated quite often by people who,
during this process, less intellectually vivid and attentive than they could
be.
Exam question In the reading by Oliver (2009) for Lecture 1, she identifies
three important aspects of new technology, that are changing the media
entertainment experience. They are selectivity, interactivity, and ….
A) Serendipity
B) Technological development
C) Mobility
D) Meaningfulness
Selectivity, interactivity and …
C) Mobility
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,In the reading, Oliver (2009) discusses selectivity, interactivity, and
mobility as key aspects of new technology that are transforming the
media entertainment experience.
Lecture 2: Entertainment selection
Uses and gratifications
What is media selections?
People don’t consume all the content that is available. They make a
selection.
Media selection (MS) = a goal- oriented decision process through which
people (consciously or subconsciously) select from the available mediated
messages or avoid certain mediated messages.
Doelgericht besluitvormingsproces
Bewust en onbewust
Boodschappen vermijden
Human- media interaction
Understanding media selection
What determines media selection?
Is it something in the media?
Is it something in the user?
Theories of understanding media selection
behavior
User-centered theories
Uses and Gratifications (Session 2)
Mood management (Session 3)
Habit models (masters)
Cognitive decisions models (masters)
Media-centered theories
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, Certain features in the (new) media attract audiences (e.g.
interactivity)
Phases of media selection: how many steps?
It is Sunday afternoon, Jane is looking for some entertainment. First, she
calls her friend Mary, to invite her over, but she is studying. Then, she
decides that she wants to watch a movie. There is nothing in the cinemas
she would like to watch, so she is opening her laptop, browsing YouTube
movies, then Netflix movies. She chooses a documentary, but soon she
also gets hungry, so she starts to cook while watching the movie. Next
day, she tries to tell Mary what the movie was about.
A. 4 B. 5 C. 6 D. 7 E. 8 F. 9 G. 10 H. more
Phases of media selection
Before media use
1. Selection of a media-driven (or non-media driven) activity
Jane decided to watch a movie
2. Selection of a medium (TV, mobile, tablet, etc.) and a
platform (e.g. Netflix)
Ze kiest haar laptop als medium en opent eerst YouTube en
vervolgens Netflix om films te zoeken.
3. Selection of a mediated message provided by the medium
Uiteindelijk kiest Jane ervoor om een documentaire te kijken op
Netflix.
Early understanding: agency, escapism
Agency of the audience
Do audiences passively receive mediated messages or do they active
participants at all stages of the interaction?
Are they passive or active in media selection?
1950-60’s theories:
TV in households
Audience is lacking agency, a passive receptor of mediated
messages (just receiving and they are brainwashed by what they
see on TV)
Primary question: What are media doing to us?
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