Media Entertainment
Lecture 1: Introduction to Media Entertainment
Monday 1st November
Average hours per day spent
- Personal care, including sleep
- Leisure and sport
- Working
Why do we care about the scientific study of media entertainment?
- ME consumption has a strong influence on self, relation to others and the world
- There is a lot of content available for media entertainment
How to define media entertainment?
- Is it a certain type of content, or a feeling…
- You cannot define ME by the medium
- You cannot define ME by the content
- You cannot define ME by the pleasantness of felt emotions
Experience at the heart of media entertainment: Enjoyment
According to Anne Bartsch, enjoyment is a meta-emotion, meaning that during media
entertainment we experience many different positive and negative emotions, that we
evaluate as enjoyable when we reflect on the experience. Independent of content and
presentation format.
Entertainment is constantly variable. The same content can be experiences differently
depending on the circumstances. Trends are important, but they tell not the whole story.
ME has psychological functions in our lives, despite it is often habitual.
Media entertainment is media content designed to be consumed for purposes of leisure
(rather than specifically for information gain, learning, or persuasion.
Media entertainment is a form of playing, i.e., a form of coping with reality. An activity that
is 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 that is repeated quite often by people who are, during this process,
less intellectually vivid and attentive than they could be.
Lecture 2: Entertainment Selection: Uses & Gratification
,Wednesday 3rd November
What is media selection?
People don’t consume all the content that is available. They make a selection. MS is goal-
oriented decision process through which people (consciously or subconsciously) select from
the available mediated messages or avoid certain mediated messages.
Q: why is it important for media psychologists to understand how people make decisions on
what media to consume?
Human-media interaction
Media selection behavior Psychological processes in users Media effects
Before During After
Understanding Media Selection
- What determines media selection?
o Is it something in the media?
o Is it something in the user?
Theories of understanding media selection behavior
User-centred theories
o Uses & Gratifications (session 2)
o Mood management (session 3)
o Habit models (masters)
o Cognitive decision models (masters)
What is it in the user that influences what media type she consumes?
Media-centred theories
o Certain features in the (new) media attract audiences (e.g. interactivity)
What is it in the medium that influence what media type the user consumes?
Phases of Media Selection
Before media use
1. Selection of a media-driven (or non-media driven) activity
2. Selection of a medium (TV, mobile, tablet, etc) and a platform (e.g. Netflix)
3. Selection of a mediated messaged provided by the medium
Before (selection from the available mediated messages)
During (selective processing of the mediated message itself)
After (selective remembering of the mediated message
,Early research vs today
Agency of the Audience
- Do audiences passively receive mediates messages or do they active participants at all
stages of the interaction?
- 1950-60’s theories:
TV in households
Audience is lacking agency, a passive receptor of mediated messages
Primary question: what are media doing to us?
Early media research focused on the success of ‘campaigns
Çould the new ‘mass media’ produce dramatic effects on ‘mass society’?
In contrast to assumption about powerful media effects, empirical studies form the
1940’s started to show that audience members were:
o Active, not passive
o Selective, not a captive audience
o Obstinate, not gullible
Lazarsfeld & Katz (1940): The importance of selection and use
o People’s predispositions affect their media choices
o People make strategic use of media to meet their needs
o Media are primarily influential via interpersonal talk
Lazarsfeld & Katz (1940): Worries about escapism
o Focus on one particular need: escapism
o ‘People are dprived an alienated, it is suggested, and so they turn to the
dreamlike world of the mass media for substitute gratifications, the
consequence of which is till further withdrawal form the arena of social and
political action.’
o Worries about escapism: further withdrawal form the arena of social and
political action
, Katz & Foulkes (1962)
o What exactly do we mean by consuming ‘escapist’ media? A process…
Of consuming a distracting content
Driven by a motivation or ‘drive’
Psychological escapism
Comes with high levels of exposure
Social context of exposure is important
Dysfunctional consequences
o Yes, some media use is escapist, where people ‘forget about troubles’ or ‘lose
themselves’
o But, there is great variation in the type of needs, and ‘linkages cannot be taken
for granted’
o Escapism (or similar experiences) can be functional
Lecture 1: Introduction to Media Entertainment
Monday 1st November
Average hours per day spent
- Personal care, including sleep
- Leisure and sport
- Working
Why do we care about the scientific study of media entertainment?
- ME consumption has a strong influence on self, relation to others and the world
- There is a lot of content available for media entertainment
How to define media entertainment?
- Is it a certain type of content, or a feeling…
- You cannot define ME by the medium
- You cannot define ME by the content
- You cannot define ME by the pleasantness of felt emotions
Experience at the heart of media entertainment: Enjoyment
According to Anne Bartsch, enjoyment is a meta-emotion, meaning that during media
entertainment we experience many different positive and negative emotions, that we
evaluate as enjoyable when we reflect on the experience. Independent of content and
presentation format.
Entertainment is constantly variable. The same content can be experiences differently
depending on the circumstances. Trends are important, but they tell not the whole story.
ME has psychological functions in our lives, despite it is often habitual.
Media entertainment is media content designed to be consumed for purposes of leisure
(rather than specifically for information gain, learning, or persuasion.
Media entertainment is a form of playing, i.e., a form of coping with reality. An activity that
is 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 that is repeated quite often by people who are, during this process,
less intellectually vivid and attentive than they could be.
Lecture 2: Entertainment Selection: Uses & Gratification
,Wednesday 3rd November
What is media selection?
People don’t consume all the content that is available. They make a selection. MS is goal-
oriented decision process through which people (consciously or subconsciously) select from
the available mediated messages or avoid certain mediated messages.
Q: why is it important for media psychologists to understand how people make decisions on
what media to consume?
Human-media interaction
Media selection behavior Psychological processes in users Media effects
Before During After
Understanding Media Selection
- What determines media selection?
o Is it something in the media?
o Is it something in the user?
Theories of understanding media selection behavior
User-centred theories
o Uses & Gratifications (session 2)
o Mood management (session 3)
o Habit models (masters)
o Cognitive decision models (masters)
What is it in the user that influences what media type she consumes?
Media-centred theories
o Certain features in the (new) media attract audiences (e.g. interactivity)
What is it in the medium that influence what media type the user consumes?
Phases of Media Selection
Before media use
1. Selection of a media-driven (or non-media driven) activity
2. Selection of a medium (TV, mobile, tablet, etc) and a platform (e.g. Netflix)
3. Selection of a mediated messaged provided by the medium
Before (selection from the available mediated messages)
During (selective processing of the mediated message itself)
After (selective remembering of the mediated message
,Early research vs today
Agency of the Audience
- Do audiences passively receive mediates messages or do they active participants at all
stages of the interaction?
- 1950-60’s theories:
TV in households
Audience is lacking agency, a passive receptor of mediated messages
Primary question: what are media doing to us?
Early media research focused on the success of ‘campaigns
Çould the new ‘mass media’ produce dramatic effects on ‘mass society’?
In contrast to assumption about powerful media effects, empirical studies form the
1940’s started to show that audience members were:
o Active, not passive
o Selective, not a captive audience
o Obstinate, not gullible
Lazarsfeld & Katz (1940): The importance of selection and use
o People’s predispositions affect their media choices
o People make strategic use of media to meet their needs
o Media are primarily influential via interpersonal talk
Lazarsfeld & Katz (1940): Worries about escapism
o Focus on one particular need: escapism
o ‘People are dprived an alienated, it is suggested, and so they turn to the
dreamlike world of the mass media for substitute gratifications, the
consequence of which is till further withdrawal form the arena of social and
political action.’
o Worries about escapism: further withdrawal form the arena of social and
political action
, Katz & Foulkes (1962)
o What exactly do we mean by consuming ‘escapist’ media? A process…
Of consuming a distracting content
Driven by a motivation or ‘drive’
Psychological escapism
Comes with high levels of exposure
Social context of exposure is important
Dysfunctional consequences
o Yes, some media use is escapist, where people ‘forget about troubles’ or ‘lose
themselves’
o But, there is great variation in the type of needs, and ‘linkages cannot be taken
for granted’
o Escapism (or similar experiences) can be functional
