Audience reactions to media

personae
 Audience members can react in
many ways to media personae
• The reaction/perspective will depend on a variety of
factors. A few significant questions include:
– Does the audience member treat the personae as realistic in
some way?
• Does the audience member ‘suspend disbelief in relation to the
portrayed environment? To the character? To the actor/anchor/etc.
– What impression does the audience member have of the
character’s personality?
– What position does the audience member take in relation to the
text and/or the character?
– Is the viewer/audience member drawn to the character in some
non-cognitive way?
 Does the audience member treat the
personae as realistic in some way?
• This does not require that the audience
member perceive the persona to exist as a
real person when the show ends. The
persona must be capable of acting as an
appropriate character within the
constraints of the program-world and the
program-world must be accepted in the
sense of suspension of disbelief.
– Robot
 What impression does the audience
member have of the character’s personality?
• Viewer/listeners/audience members evaluate the
morality of characters, etc. through their words
and deeds and, sometimes, their thoughts as
revealed by the author/director, etc.
– Attribution
• Audience members tend to affiliate with those
they admire, but there are exceptions
– Large numbers of viewers liked J.R. Ewing the best
among characters on Dallas
• Viewer evaluations vary along a wide contiuum,
from adoraction (fan clubs) to disgust (chearing
at the dismemberment of villains, etc.)
 What position does the audience member take in
relation to the text and/or the character?

• Does the audience member maintain the

position of external spectator, aware of the
fictitious nature of the presentation?
• Does the audience member take a perspective
from inside the portrayed world?
– Character within the story
– Internal spectator
• Does the audience come to inhabit the body of a
character, “living within” the on-screen (or in-
story, or on-radio) persona?
Does the viewer/audience member react to
the character in some non-cognitive way?
• The evidence seems to indicate that an
audience member may be attracted to,
repulsed by, terrified of, or in some other
non-thinking way, affected by the persona
portrayed.
 What is ‘identification’?
• Identification is where the audience
member takes on the role of the persona
– “vicarious experience” of things that we could
not otherwise have any access to [Cohen,
2002]
– Audience members may ‘try on’ others’
identities, etc.
• Seen as both natural and troubling in teenagers
• Thought to be especially common in online role-
playing
• “Identification is fleeting and varies in intensity (Wilson,
1993), a sensation felt intermittently during exposure to a
media message. While identifying with a character, an
audience member imagines him- or herself being that
character and replaces his or her personal identity and
role as audience member with the identity and role of the
character within the text. While strongly identifying, the
audience member ceases to be aware of his or her
social role as an audience member and temporarily (but
usually repeatedly) adopts the perspective of the
character with whom he or she identifies.”
• Cohen, 2006
• An important basis for identification is
when the audience member understands
and then adopts the goals of a character.
The audience member then reacts to the
attempt to reach those goals within the
environment of the story, etc.
• Cohen, 2006
• Directors and writers create characters with whom
audiences are meant to interact to enjoy books, films, or
television programs. Unlike identification with parents,
leaders, or nations, identification with media characters
is a result of a carefully constructed situation. Thus,
media studies of identification must account for the
production of identification targets as well as the
identification of audiences with them. Finally, it is
important to note that identification is a response to
communication by others that is marked by internalizing
a point of view rather than a process of projecting one’s
own identity onto someone or something else.
• The process of identification may begin because of a production feature that
brings the audience member to adopt a character’s perspective (Wilson,
1993), an audience member’s fondness for a specific character (Cohen,
1999), or a realization that a similarity exists between the audience member
and a character (Maccoby & Wilson, 1957). These lead to a
psychologicalmerging(Oatley, 1999) or attachment, inwhichthe
audiencemember comes to internalize the characters’ goals within the
narrative. The audience member then empathizes with the character and
adopts the character’s identity. As the narrative progresses, the audience
member simulates the feelings and thoughts appropriate for the events that
occur. Identification may be ended or interrupted whenthe audience
member is made aware of him- or herself through an external stimuli (e.g.,
the phone rings), a textual stimuli (e.g., a change of camera angle or a
direct reference to the reader), or the end of the story. Outcomes of
identification may include increased liking or imitation but can also include
negative feelings. Identifying with extremely negative characters who are
evil or very violent may evoke some understanding or even sympathy for
them during reading or viewing but strongly identifying with such a character
is likely to cause dissonance, guilt, or even fear.
 Identification Parasocial Liking, Imitation
interaction similarity,
affinity

Nature of Emotional and Interactional Attitude Behavior

process cognitive, alters
state of
awareness
Basis Understanding Attraction Perception of Modeling
and empathy character and
self
Positioning of As character As self As self As learner
viewer (self as other)
Associated Absorption in Attachment to Fandom, Learning,
phenomena text, emotional character and realism reinforcement
release text, keeping
company

Positioning of As character As self As self As learner

viewer (self as other)
Four dimensions of identification
The first is empathy or sharing the feelings of the character (i.e., being
happy; sad; or scared, not for the character, but with the character).
The second is a cognitive aspect that is manifest in sharing the
perspective of the character. Operationally this can be measured by
the degree to which an audience member feels he or she
understands the character and the motivations for his or her
behavior.
The third indicator of identification is motivational, and this addresses
the degree to which the audience member internalizes and shares
the goals of the character.
Finally, the fourth component of identification is absorption or the
degree to which self-awareness is lost during exposure to the text.

• [Cohen, 2002]
 Influence of medium
• Literature—invites identification with
hero/protagonist and, to a lesser extent,
narrator
• Film—encourages spectator role, but may
foster identification with protagonist or
camera—”narrator”
• Television—too uninvolving to lead to
identification at all
– Domestic, chaotic viewing situation
 Identification and fictional
involvement
• Identifying with a character:
– “provides a point of view on the plot”
– “leads to an understanding of character
motives”
– brings about “an investment in the outcome of
events”
– generates “a sense of intimacy and emotional
connection with a character”
• [Source: Cohen, 2006]
 Encouraging identification
• “Writing, acting, and directing must be of
sufficient quality”
• “partly achieved by offering an illusion of
reality”
• ‘relevance’ and ‘resonance’ of issues and
events
 Antecedents to identification
• Similarity and homophily
• Children:
– Identify with role models—who they would like to be more than
who they are like
• Especially children over 8
– Attitude homophily positively related to identification
– Identified with child characters (similar to themselves)
• Exception: girls often identified with male characters
– Identified with animals
• Teens
– Often chose opposite-sex characters based on romantic or
sexual attraction
– Favored young adult rather than teen characters
• Working-class women identified with upper
class women on Dynasty more than did
middle class women
• 1/5 of German men chose female favorite
TV person compared to 1/3 German
women choosing male
• Aggressive children repored higher
homophily and identification with
aggressive characters
• “it seems that whereas similarity in attitudes
predicts character choice, simple demographic
similarity is not a good predictor. People often
identify with characters that represent what they
wish to be or to whom they are attracted, rather
than what they are. It also seems that
psychological similarity is more important than
demographic similarity in shaping identification.”
• [Source: Cohen, 2006]
Traits of characters that encourage
identification
• Men: Boys and girls like them for their
intelligence, girls like them for sense of humor
• Women: Boys and girls judged them based on
their looks
• Heroes identified with more often than villains
– Exception: many preferred J.R. Ewing
• In general, strength, humor and physical
attractiveness are preferred
– Much like in real life
• In general, much left to be determined in why
people are attracted to characters
 Authorial devices
• Protagonist point of view
• Voice-over narration of thoughts
• Direct address to audience
 Viewer characteristics
• Findings on gender ambiguous
– Women higher in parasocial interaction
• Findings concerning age are ambiguous
– Young, teens and older adults appear to have
stronger parasocial relationships
• Does not appear to be related to poor
interpersonal relations
– Some indication that “those anxiously attached
individuals who desire strong relationships but have
trouble developing secure and stable relationships”
have the strongest parasocial relationships
• [source: Cohen, 2006]
 Identification and effects
• “most—but not all—studies point to
identification as playing an important role
in media effects and suggest several
reasons why identification intensifies the
effects of media”
– Cohen, 2006
 Identification effects
• Increase enjoyment of fiction
• Persuasion
• Memorability
• Modeling and imitation
• Learning
• Reduced critical stance
• “In sum, identification is an active psychological state,
but neither stable nor exclusive. It is one of many ways
we respond to characters, and one of many positions
from which we experience entertainment. The
development and strength of identification depend on
multiple factors: the nature of the character, the viewer,
and the text (directing, writing, and acting). Finally,
identification is part of a a larger set of responses to
entertainment, ways in which we become engrossed and
delighted by the fortunes and misfortunes of others.”
– [Source: Cohen, 2006]
 Parasocial interaction
• Horton and Wohl used the term in 195
 Parasocial interaction
• Developing a relationship with a media persona
that exhibits some of the characteristics of
interpersonal relationships
• Liking, dislike
• Talking to the character/yelling at the character
• Feeling as though the character is addressing
her individually
• Seeing the persona as a ‘friend’
• Caring about the persona
• Missing the persona when skipping an episode,
etc.
 Bibliography
• Cohen, J. (2006). Audience identification with media
characters. In J. Bryant & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology
of entertainment (pp. 183-197). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
• Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication
and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at
a distance. Psychiatry, 19, 215-229.
• Klimmt, C., Hartmann, T., & Schramm, H. (2006).
Parasocial interactions and relationships. In J. Bryant &
P. Vorderer (Eds.), Psychology of entertainment (pp.
291-313). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.