Entertainment Studies 2002 Abstracts
Entertainment Studies Interest Group
Entertainment Studies Interest Group Violent Music Genres on the Net: Analysis of Music Videos on BET.com, Country.com, MTV.com, and VHl.com • Debashis “Deb” Aikat, North Carolina at Chapel • NO ABSTRACT
Disposition and Ethnicity in Competition-Based Reality Television Programming: An Examination of the Effects on Viewer Enjoyment • Kristin M. Barton and Arthur A. Raney, Florida State University • The study investigates the extent to which disposition and ethnicity of contestants in a competition-based reality program are predictors of viewer enjoyment. To determine this, 149 White participants viewed photographs of White and Black males of varying dispositions, rating each as potentially successful and enjoyable program contestants. Findings support Zillmann’s moral sanction theory, but fail to support findings from the disposition theory of sports spectatorship literature (specifically, Sapolsky, 1980).
Optimistic Bias and the Media: Adolescents’ Perceptions of Violence • John Chapin, Penn State University, Stacy de las Alas and Grace Coleman, Crisis Center North • The study sought to be one of the first to explore the role of the media in the formation and preservation of optimistic bias. The study was also one of the first to link optimistic bias and third-person perception, bridging a gap between communication studies and health psychology. The intersection of the two literatures may be especially beneficial in understanding how adolescents process and interpret public health messages and subsequently engage in risk behaviors or self-protective behaviors in health contexts.
Late-night Comedy in Election 2000: The Direct Effects of Exposure on Candidate Trait Ratings and the Moderating role of Political Knowledge • Dannagal E. Goldthwaite, Pennsylvania • Throughout the 2000 Presidential election, there was much discussion among journalists, politicians and comedians alike, about the role of late-night comedy in the formation of public opinion. In a New York Times article entitled “The Stiff Guy vs. the Dumb Guy,” Marshall Sella suggested that “…part of what turns random episodes like the RATS controversy into icons, what inflates them into pivotal campaign events, is late-night comedy” (Sella, 2000, p. 72).
Gender, Violence and Victimization in Top-Selling Video Games’ • Katharine E. Heintz-Knowles, Children’s Media Research and Consulting and Jennifer Jacobs Henderson Washington • In 2000, video games were a $6 billion industry (Interactive Digital Software Association, 2001). In 2001, sales reached $9.4 billion, more than gross box office receipts for the year (Kent, 2002). It is estimated that about 145 million Americans play video games on a regular basis (Kaplan, 1999). According to Kids and Media @ The New Millennium (1999), seventy percent of children in the U.S. have video game systems in their homes, and 33% have a console in their bedrooms.
Measuring Expected Entertainment Gratifications: Developing and Validating the Expected Entertainment Value Scale • Thomas Kim Hixson, Wisconsin-Whitewater • The Expected Entertainment Value Scale identifies and quantifies the expected gratifications used by moviegoers to help select a particular movie to attend. The scale was validated using movie trailers as stimuli in two separate samples and found to a reliable and useful tool to measure the effects of trailers. Movie genre preference was found to be a significant predictor of expected entertainment value, a finding that should make the scale useful to movie advertisers.
Addictive, But Not For Me: The Third-Person Effect And Electronic Game Players Views Toward The Medium’s Potential For Dependency And Addiction • James D. Ivory, Wyoming • As video games continue to maintain a widespread following among children and adults alike, research attempts to define the addictive potential of the medium. Since much of this study involves self-reporting by game players, possible third person effects must be considered. This study’s analysis of a sample of 175 university students finds some evidence for the existence of third person effects in regular player’s opinions pertaining to electronic games and addiction.
Would the Real Reality Television Please Stand Up: An Analysis of How Viewers Understand Reality TV • Lisa Joniak, North Florida • Reality television has experienced a surge in programming and viewership. The range of what is being labeled “reality TV” has become divergent and unwieldy. Thus, it is essential, at this developmental stage, to explore what reality television truly is. This study examines how viewers interpret, understand and characterize reality television programming. In general, viewers from the present study agreed that reality programs contain the following characteristics: no script, real people, and real, unrehearsed reactions to some event or situation.
Marriage On Television: A Content Analysis • Sara Netzley, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale • This study explored the way in which television presents marriage by analyzing the content of the 14 most popular television programs of the 2001-2002 television season. Statistical analysis of chi-square tables found a relationship between television program genre and attitudes presented toward marriage, as well as a relationship between a character’s marital status and the attitude he or she expressed about marriage.
Reading Distinction On Television: Exploring Fiction and Non-fiction Alike • Jennie Phillips, Texas at Austin • NO ABSTRACT
Gratifications of Reality Show Viewing: Antecedents and Consensuses • Ran Wei and Caroline Tootle, South Carolina • Reality TV shows appear to sweep the nation. What are the gratifications sought from reality TV? What explain the gratifications? And what are the effects of reviewing reality TV? This survey study of college students found two new gratification dimensions of reality TV viewing: life-like format and vicarious participation. Further, they were found related to respondents level of thrill seeking from reality shows and viewing level of reality TV.
Wrestling With Violence: Desensitization to Violence through Viewing Professional Wrestling • Kevin D. Williams, Georgia • NO ABSTRACT
Entertaining Commercials in Sports Telecast: A Content Analysis of Commercials in XFL Football • Moonhee Yang and Brian Brantley, Alabama • In this paper, we examined the relationship between Sports program and commercials shown during their broadcasts. To this end, we performed a content analysis of 132 commercials embedded in XFL games. The results show that there was congruence between commercials and XFL games in product category, emotional strategy, and music. We also found that stereotypically masculine imaging was dominant in the commercials we analyzed, often at the expense of female image.
Effects of Success and Failure in Interpersonal Competition in Violent and Nonviolent Video games on Players’ Affect and Self-Ascribed Toughness • Hong-sik Yu and Dolf Zilmann, Alabama • This study investigated whether personal victory in interpersonal competitive play of video games would lead to an increase in postgame positive mood states, distress tolerance and self-defensive confidence, while personal defeat would result in the reverse effect. It was also hypothesized that personal victory would lower distress perception, whereas personal defeat would heighten it. In addition, this study explored whether these suggested effects were larger after violent video games than after nonviolent ones.
Print friendly
