You are who you watch: Identification and transportation effects on temporary self-concept (original) (raw)

IDENTITY AS A COMPASS FOR UNDERSTANDING MEDIA CHOICE

The changes to our socio-technological media environment over the past 30 years have heightened the interest in identity across the social sciences. The spread of networked digital communication technologies and mobile media have increased the urgency for media scholars to better understand how and why individuals consume media as they do. Several media choice scholars have recently started considering how individuals’ identity and self-concept relate to media choice, but have not yet systematically addressed how identity might be related. This dissertation takes the first steps toward advancing an identity-based approach to understanding individual media choice in the 21st century by: 1) Providing a thorough theoretical and conceptual review of identity theory (Burke & Stets, 2009) and the identity process; 2) By discussing media research in the context of identity theory and applying identity theory directly to media research, and; 3) By empirically testing multiple elements of identity theory in two original experimental designs. Results indicate that identity not only affects media choice, it also affects how individuals ascribe meaning to media content.

Recognition as a Measure of Television Exposure: Multiple Measures and their Relationship to Theory of Mind

Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2019

The purpose of this research was to develop a test, similar to the Author Recognition Test (Stanovich & West, 1989), to assess exposure to popular and award-winning fictional television shows airing, across platforms, in the past decade. Three versions of the Television Recognition Test were developed for this purpose. The first, featured in studies 1 and 2, asked participants to choose which of 66 names (including 30 foils) they could identify as belonging to television show characters. In study 3, two alternative methods of measuring fictional television exposure were assessed: one presented participants with character names accompanied by pictures; the second presented participants with a list of show titles. Recognition of television show titles, but not characters, was related to performance on a theory of mind task. Further analyses revealed that this effect was stronger for award-winning television shows, and limited to men, for whom the relation between the theory of mind task and show titles was only significant for award-winning shows. These findings are discussed as a guidepost for future research.

Understanding audience involvement: Conceptualizing and manipulating identification and transportation

Poetics, 2010

Two central avenues for audience involvement in entertainment are identification and transportation. This study conceptually and empirically differentiated between these processes by manipulating information about the hero of a film and about the plot in order to affect the ways viewers respond to the film and character. The valence of information about the hero affected the level of identification (but not the level of transportation), and the time of deeds affected the level of transportation (but not the level of identification). These results provide evidence that identification and transportation are distinct processes and an analysis of how each of them relates to enjoyment supports this conclusion. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of audience involvement. #

Vicarious Social Connection: A Model of Engagement with Characters and Media Personalities

We propose a model of Vicarious Social Connection to organize the field of study commonly known as parasocial research. Whereas the study of parasocial or one-sided relationships is among the most common approaches in the field, audience connections with media figures may be construed in a variety of ways. These include both as a merging of the self and the media figure, and as a separation of the self and figure. The Vicarious Social Connection model highlights imaginal aspects of sociality including self-other merging, a concept central to Cohen's definition of identification. This model integrates recent advances in our understanding of collective social experiences and the dynamic nature of the way we connect. This broader conceptualization has a number of advantages including addressing repeated criticisms from key scholars, disambiguating related concepts, and sharpening the field's connection with a variety of broadly applicable social psychological phenomena.

The Role of Television Programming on Secondary Students' Self Identity

2000

This study examined the viewing preferences of high school students, with a focus on high school age males. The purpose of the study was to explore the media's perpetuation of stereotypes, and how these representations influence the students' self-identity and perceptions of gender roles. Participants were 77 high school students in a medium-sized town in the Southwestern United States. A review of the literature was conducted, and a survey was administered during normal school hours, asking the students to identify their favorite television program and why, and their favorite character and why. Results showed striking differences between males and females in terms of viewing preferences. Females based their reasons for liking characters on intellectual or personal character traits rather than physical ones. The majority of males tended to prefer shows that had violent, sexual, or crude themes, and to enjoy characters based on stereotypic traits (tough, violent and rude males and attractive females). Implications are discussed. Contains 25 references. (AEF) Issues in Television Viewing On average, Americans spend more than four hours a day watching television... which in turn adds up to 1,456 hours a year. That is 60 days or two months out Of every -yeanwatching Tv!. Ifan individual maintained such habits fora 72-year lifetime,".12,years would be spent in front of the tube-. Asstiming-eight-hours of sleep a night, that becomesone fourth of timespentlawake:

Development and validation of a measure of popular media fan identity and its relationship to well-being

Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2019

The purpose of this research was to develop a measure that systematically assesses the various components of film and television fan identity and to test its connection to well-being. Across two studies, the multidimensional Fan Identity Scale was developed and validated. The resulting 9-item survey yielded three factors that encompassed both personal and social dimensions of fan identity. In Study 2, the relationship between these dimensions and three facets of well-being was also explored. Results indicated that overall fan identity predicted overall well-being. In addition, social fan identity predicted relational well-being and marginally predicted physical well-being. Avenues for future research involving the Fan Identity Scale are discussed.