Entertainment and Resonance

This chapter aims to differentiate between two kinds of media use experiences that in the past twenty some years have uniformly been labeled entertainment experiences. In the background of four identified fundamental assumptions in entertainment theory (entertainment as reception phenomenon, disparity between what media users want and what they should want, entertainment between approaching and avoiding affective states, entertainment as self-transcendence) media experiences are dichotomized between those that serve users’ hedonic motivations, needs, and interests and others, more fundamental experiences of resonance (which in the recent past have often been labeled eudaimonic) that connect users to the content of a media narrative and ultimately changes them. The argument is made here for communication scholars and media psychologists to refer to entertainment experiences only in the first case in order to be less vague and ambiguous in explicating entertainment theory.

Entertained by Amazement and Wonder

Anecdotal evidence suggests that fascination, amazement, and wonder are regular audience responses to entertainment fare and substantially fuel users’ entertainment experiences. However, so far entertainment theory has largely overlooked these states. This chapter attempts to conceptually describe these experiences with the emotion awe and offers a case for awe as an important element in media entertainment. In a first step, it models conceptual relationships between awe and both hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experiences. In a second step, it systematically discusses what entertainment fare is capable to elicit awe. To do so, it draws on appraisal theories of emotion and distinguishes different levels of media use, stimuli, processes, and preconditions likely involved in the elicitation of awe during media use. Its model shows that awe is potentially experienced frequently during the reception of many forms of media and is able to contribute substantially to media users’ entertainment responses.

A Systematic Gender Perspective on Entertainment Theory

The chapter provides a systematic overview of the role gender plays in entertainment research. Starting with a theoretical primer on the gender concept, the chapter continues by summarizing empirical findings on gender differences in the selection of, exposure to, and responses to entertainment, using the examples of violent, dramatic, and sexually explicit entertainment media. In the second part, the chapter systematically reviews theoretical arguments that have been made to explain these gender differences. The media user’s personality, gender identity, gender-role expectation, and social identity are discussed as individual level factors. The representation of gender in entertainment media is introduced as a second potential source for gender differences. Starting with the numeric underrepresentation of women, the chapter goes on to review misrepresentations of gender and gender roles as cause for gender differences. A critical reflection of the theoretical and methodological integration of the gender concept in entertainment theory closes the chapter.

A Brief Analysis of The State of Entertainment Theory

This chapter offers some historical and conceptual orientation to readers of the Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory. Departing from a brief review of ancient roots and twentieth-century pioneer works, we elaborate on the state and challenges of contemporary entertainment theory and research. This includes the need to develop a more explicit understanding of interrelationships among similar terms and concepts (e.g., “presence” and “transportation”), the need to reflect more explicitly on epistemological foundations of entertainment theories (e.g., neobehaviorism), and the need to reach back to past, even historical reasoning in communication that may be just as informative as the consideration of recent theoretical innovations from neighboring fields such as social psychology. Finally, we offer some reflections on programmatic perspectives for future entertainment theory, which should try to harmonize views from the social sciences and critical thinking, span cultural differences in entertainment processes, and keep track of the rapid technological progress of entertainment media.

Media Entertainment as Guilty Pleasure?

Using media, specifically those that offer entertainment, frequently conflicts with other goals and obligations in daily life. Users can manage these conflicts either by applying self-control and upholding their goals, or by giving in to media temptations, which elicits negative emotional appraisals such as guilt that potentially spoil entertainment experiences. Currently, a systematic integration of self-control and entertainment theory is direly needed to guide future work in this area. The goals of the present chapter are thus threefold: (1) It provides a theoretical explication of the central components of self-control and subsequently (2) introduces the appraisal of media use, self-control, and entertainment (AMUSE) model. The AMUSE model systematizes the available empirical evidence on the role of self-control for the selection, processing, and effects of (entertaining) media content and, on this basis, the chapter (3) provides testable propositions for future research.

The Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory

This handbook provides a strong collection of communication- and psychology-based theories and models on media entertainment, which can be used as a knowledge resource for any academic and applied purpose. Its 41 chapters offer explanations of entertainment that audiences find in any kind of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, from classic novels to VR video games, from fictional stories to mediated sports. As becomes clear in this handbook, the history of entertainment research teaches us not to forget that even if a field is converging to a seemingly dominant perspective, paradigm, and methodology, there are more views, alternative approaches, and different yet equally illuminative ways of thinking about the field. Young scholars may find here innovative ways to reconcile empirical-theoretical approaches to the experience of entertainment with such alternative views. And there are numerous entertainment-related phenomena in contemporary societies that still fit the „bread and circuses-“ perspective of the initial Frankfurt School thinking. So while the mission of the present handbook is to compile and advance current theories about media entertainment, scholars active or interested in the topic are invited to also consider the historic roots of the field and the great diversity it has featured over the past nearly 100 years. Many lessons can be learned from this history, and future innovations in entertainment theory may just as likely emerge from refining those approaches compiled in the present handbook as from building on neglected, forgotten, or marginalized streams of scholarship.

Theorizing Entertainment-Education

Entertainment-education (EE) is a theory-based social and behavior change communication strategy. The Sabido methodology of producing commercially successful prosocial telenovelas was instrumental in establishing EE as a social scientific field of research and practice globally. Early experimentations with applying theories in EE productions began in the 1970s, when entertainment theory gained a foothold in media psychology and communication research. The evolution of EE theorizing provides a parallel and complimentary perspective to the development of entertainment theories. This chapter provides a historical account of EE, highlighting its foundational theoretical strains. It also discusses the more contemporary theoretical models in EE, especially the ones that are converging in the area of narrative persuasion. Finally, we explicate on the new phenomenon of transmedia edutainment and how it could benefit and challenge the ongoing developments in entertainment theory.