Effects of Television Clips with Hedonic and Eudaimonic Tone on Viewers\' Affective States and Subsequent Program Selection

Motivations for entertainment consumption are complex, involving moods, wants, anticipations, and several other factors. Typically, attempts at a theoretical understanding of motivations for media selection have centered on enjoyment, or hedonic, pleasure-seeking motivations. Recently eudaimonic, or truth-seeking, motivations have also been given much attention. Most investigations into hedonic and eudaimonic motivations for media consumption have conceptualized these motivations as traits, rather than as states. Recent research has used survey methods to determine that those with hedonic motivations tend to seek out entertainment that is hedonic in nature and feel more fun affect while watching, while those with eudaimonic motivations for consuming entertainment tend to seek out media that is eudaimonic and nature and experience more meaningful affect during viewing. This experiment successfully manipulated hedonic and eudaimonic states using clips with either hedonic or eudemonic tone from three different television shows, with hedonic or eudaimonic tone in clips significantly affecting participants\' reports of hedonic and eudaimonic states as well as meaningful and fun affect. The effects of clips with hedonic or eudaimonic tone on these responses were not moderated by typical hedonic and eudaimonic trait preferences. The experiment also examined the effect that clips with hedonic or eudaimonic tone might have on subsequent program selection by allowing participants to rank hedonic or eudaimonic clips for subsequent viewing. The hedonic or eudaimonic tone of the clips only predicted participants\' subsequent preference for eudaimonic or hedonic clips in the case of one of the three shows in the study; this effect on subsequent clip preference was found with the show that generally elicted the strongest responses from viewers in other study measures. Implications for our understanding of television consumption motivations are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communication

Department dc:contributor.department

Communication

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Bailey, Erica

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Ivory, James Dee

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Wojdynski, Bartosz
• Mackay, Jennifer B.

• television
• motivation
• entertainment
• hedonicism
• eudaimonia
• selective exposure
• media effects

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:1126

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/23226