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December 17, 2008Narrative entertainment programming can lead to persuasive outcomes |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Entertainment-education is a common strategy for incorporating health and other educational messages into popular entertainment media. A new article in the journal Communication Theory examines the involvement with narrative storylines and characters that is fostered by entertainment programming and presents a framework for explaining its persuasive effects. Emily Moyer-Guse of The Ohio State University builds on various theories that address the role of involvement in the processing and effects of entertainment-education messages. Her research advances a preliminary framework regarding how narrative entertainment programming may lead to persuasive outcomes. The narrative format can allow viewers to become "sucked in" to the world in which the drama takes place, reducing viewers' perception that the message is persuasive in nature. When viewers identify with characters, they may be more willing to consider dissonant perspectives and to imagine themselves doing, thinking, or feeling something they ordinarily would not, because they are experiencing it vicariously through the character. "Gaining this understanding of how individuals process entertainment-education messages and the implications for persuasive outcomes is critical given the widespread potential to use these messages to influence viewers' health-risk behaviors," Moyer-Guse concludes. Communication Theory is an international forum publishing high quality, original research into the theoretical development of communication from across a wide array of disciplines, such as communication studies, sociology, psychology, political science, cultural and gender studies, philosophy, linguistics, and literature.
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