Silvia Knobloch

Does Entertainment Suffer From Interactivity? The Impact of Watching an Interactive TV Movie on Viewers' Experience of Entertainment

To investigate whether interactivity enhances entertainment in interdependence with individual factors, an experiment with a 3 × 2 between_subject design was conducted. 427 participants aged between 14 and 49 were randomly assigned to a 30_minute TV movie with three different interactivity levels and two different introductions that should diversify feelings of sympathy toward the protagonist. Dependent variables like empathy with the protagonist, suspense, and movie evaluation were measured after exposure, and some were measured during exposure. A number of personality scales were also presented at the beginning of each session. The results indicate that individuals with lesser cognitive capacity feel more entertained, that is, they feel more empathic toward the protagonist, feel more suspense, and evaluate the movie more positively when they watch it without any interactivity, in the traditional passive manner. For individuals with greater cognitive capacity, it is just the opposite: They can use interactivity to their advantage. An increase in their entertainment experience was observed as a direct consequence of their being able to influence the plot of the movie.

Imagery Effects on the Selective Reading of Internet Newsmagazines

An Internet newsmagazine was created, involving all features of online interactivity. The text of all available reports was held constant. The imagery of a subset of articles was manipulated, however. The manipulated articles were presented either without images, with text-related innocuous images, or with text-related threatening images in both their headline displays and their text bodies. During a fixed period of time, readers were free to sample articles and to read as much of them as they pleased. Unbeknownst to them, their selective exposure behavior was automatically recorded. It was observed that the incorporation of threatening images fostered more frequent selection of the associated articles and markedly increased reading times of the corresponding texts. The incorporation of innocuous images had similar but more moderate effects. Retrospective accounts of reading were consistent with the recorded exposure behavior.

Effects of Lead Framing on Selective Exposure to Internet News Reports

With headlines and texts held constant, the subheads of articles embedded in an Internet newsmagazine were manipulated in an overview from which articles could be selected. In a control condition, the lead, indicating deplorable happenings,was framed in a factual manner.In the other conditions,the leads were framed either in terms of conflict between feuding parties, the unfolding of disastrous occurrences, the emotional upheaval and agony suffered by the victims of these occurrences, or the economic implications of the incidents. Selective exposure to the articles was accumulated in minute intervals and automatically recorded. Leads projecting aggravated conflict or the agony over suffered misfortunes were found to foster increased reading times of the associated articles. The effects of highlighting misfortunes by themselves or of emphasizing the misfortunes’ economic implications proved to be negligible, however.

Affective News Effects of Discourse Structure in Narratives on Suspense, Curiosity, and Enjoyment While Reading News and Novels

Three studies were conducted to investigate effects of narrative’s discourse structures and factuality on suspense, curiosity, and reading enjoyment. Data collected with a questionnaire to measure suspense and curiosity substantiated the discriminant validity of these dimensions. In a Web-based study and two paper-pencil studies, respondents read texts that were manipulated for type of discourse structure (linear, reversal, or inverted type). To manipulate factuality (high vs. low), texts were presented either as news reports or as novel excerpts, a treatment that proved to be effective. All assumptions gained empirical support. The linear type evoked more suspense than either reversal or inverted type. Curiosity was higher in reaction to reversal-type narratives than it was for either linear-type or inverted-type narratives. The linear and the reversal type both produced greater reading enjoyment than the inverted type. These effects were independent of factuality of media content.

Effects of Salience Dimensions of Informational Utility on Selective Exposure to Online News

An Internet newsmagazine was created to ascertain effects of three dimensions of news salience—magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of events—on selective news exposure. In an overview, leads of half the articles were manipulated along the salience dimensions (low vs. high). Remaining leads and all articles were held constant. While readers sampled articles, their selective exposure was automatically recorded. Independent manipulation of salience dimensions resulted in increased exposure to associated articles for all three dimensions. Their joint manipulation yielded the same results for magnitude and likelihood. The absence of interactions in the joint manipulation suggests additive dimension effects.

Rock, rap, and rebellion: comparisons of traits predicting selective exposure to defiant music

Abstract After the assessment of various traits pertaining to adolescent rebelliousness, respondents were placed in a private situation that allowed them to listen to selections of an assortment of upbeat songs with either socially defiant or non-defiant messages. The songs were presented via computer. The computers software unobtrusively recorded the duration of all musical choices made. The assessments of trait rebelliousness, disinhibition, and hostility were found to be correlated with time spent listening to songs featuring defiant messages. Trait rebelliousness was closely related to disinhibition. The preference for defiant music proved to be more strongly related to disinhibition and proactive rebelliousness than to hostility and reactive rebelliousness. The two latter traits were without appreciable influence on selective exposure to defiant music.

Love Lamentation in Pop Songs: Music for Unhappy Lovers?

Abstract. The investigation builds on and extends demonstrations in the U.S. that romantically disenchanted men and women are attracted to love-lamenting music. The current focus is on preferences ...

Effects of Salient News Items on Information Acquisition and Issue Perception

Abstract. A medical news report was manipulated to project either Alabama or Texas as the target region for the outbreak of a new (fictitious) disease. Residents of Alabama and Texas responded to these reports, making the report of the threat to their respective territories relevant to them, while rendering the report of the threat to other regions of the country comparatively irrelevant. Regionally defined issue salience was found to foster superior acquisition of both quantitative and qualitative information of diagnostic value. Issue salience also led to estimates of greater danger to the public and self. It increased the perceived newsworthiness and usefulness of the reports as well. These findings suggest that issue salience motivates attention to, and the acquisition of, diagnostically relevant information that tends to be poorly processed or ignored under conditions of insufficient relevance.

Cowboy und Prinzessin seit Adam und Eva

Zusammenfassung. Um die Praferenzen bei Unterhaltungsangeboten untersuchen zu konnen, wurden vier- bis sechsjahrigen Vorschulkindern Videocover als Abbildungen zur konkreten Auswahl vorgelegt. Diese Abbildungen wurden in zwei Feldstudien in Kindergarten systematisch variiert, so dass die Kinder entweder zwischen einem aggressiven und einem friedvollen Thema oder aber einer mannlichen und einer weiblichen Hauptfigur aussuchen konnten. So konnte der Einfluss von Geschlecht und Altersstufe auf die Praferenz gewalthaltiger Inhalte beziehungsweise gleichgeschlechtlicher Medienfiguren analysiert werden. Jungen bevorzugten im Vergleich zu den Madchen deutlich die aggressiven Inhalte und zeigten uberdies ein hoheres Mas geschlechtsstereotyper Praferenzen. Madchen und Jungen favorisierten - gleichermasen - Medienfiguren des eigenen Geschlechts. Das Alter der Kinder hatte keinen Einfluss auf die Unterhaltungsselektion.

Überlegungen zur Charaktersynthese von non-fiktionalen Medienfiguren

Wulff geht in seinem Beitrag davon aus, das naturliche Personen und in szenischen Darstellungen enthaltene „Personen“ grundsatzlich unterschiedlich wahrgenommen werden. In seiner „Charaktersynthese“ befast er sich mit den Informationsquellen, aus denen sich Rezipienten von fiktionalen medialen Angeboten bedienen, um ein inneres Bild der Rezeptionsgrose „Person“ herzustellen. Informationen zu fiktionalen Personen konnen aus drei Quellen stammen, die wiederum noch feiner differenziert werden konnen: — Wulff nennt zunachst den Kontext des Stucks, der die gesamte Narration, einzelne Szenen, das Personengefuge und auch das Genre bzw. die Gattung des Stucks umfast. — Die Besetzung der Rolle mit einem bestimmten Schauspieler oder sogar einem Star beeinflust die Wahrnehmung der fiktiven Person, da der Zuschauer auf die Informationen von Star-Images und auch von Systemen von Stars zuruckgreifen kann. — Schlieslich bieten intertextuelle Ruckverweise dem Rezipienten Anhaltspunkte fur die Wahrnehmung der fiktiven Person, da Analogieschlusse zum Alltagsleben moglich sind und auch der Intertext von literarischen oder auch von generischen Figuren berucksichtigt werden kann.