Papers presented at a workshop held May 21-23, 1995, Otzenhausen, Ger.

Media Psychology examines the impact that 21st century media use has on human behavior, from teenage crushes on pop stars to soap fandom in adulthood. It brings together North American communication research with European media research in a variety of disciplines--psychology, sociology, communication and media studies--and in doing so, maps out the territory for media psychology. David Giles argues that psychologists have been guilty of ignoring the influence of the media over the last century, seeing it at best as a minor nuisance that will eventually go away. However, with the increasing prevalence of new electronic forms of mass communication, the media seem to have a greater influence than ever over our daily lives. In this book, Dr. Giles tackles the traditional topics of media psychology--sex, violence, advertising--along with sections on developmental aspects of media influence and the psychology of the audience. He also examines a number of specific media genres--news, sports, soaps, and the increasingly popular audience participation media, such as "reality" and "lifestyle" television. In addition, he asks what light psychology can shed on the popularity of these genres and the response of their audiences. Finally, there are chapters on the increasing influence of the Internet and on the representation of psychology and psychologists themselves in the media.

This collection represents a systematic exploration of media entertainment from an academic perspective. Editors Zillmann and Vorderer have assembled scholars from psychology, sociology, and communication to provide a broad examination of the primary function of media entertainment--the attainment of gratification. Chapters included here address vital aspects of media entertainment and summarize pertinent findings, providing an overview of what is presently known about the appeal and function of the essential forms of media entertainment, and offering some degree of integration. Written in a clear, non-technical style, this volume provides a lively and entertaining study of media entertainment for academic study and coursework.

The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology explores facets of human behaviour, thoughts, and feelings experienced in the context of media use and creation.

Although not considered a formal area of study, scholarship on the uses, content, and effects of entertaining media has been central to communication studies and related fields for more than a century. The serious study of entertainment seems paradoxical, as we presume entertainment to be the “lighter side” of our daily lives. Yet as revealed in this volume, entertainment media serve as cultural artifacts that shape our understandings of various peoples and publics in ways that invite deeper, immersive, and increasingly interactive engagement. On this backdrop, Entertainment Media and Communication serves as a reference guide for canonical and foundational research into media entertainment and a collection of emerging and updated theories and models core to the study of media entertainment in the 21st century. Across more than forty chapters and with a diverse and inclusive list of authors, this volume provides a broad-yet-nuanced view into entertainment media and communication scholarship. The contributors explore its foundations, define and extend key concepts and theories through myriad lenses, discuss unique considerations of digital media, and divine future paths for scholarly inquiry.

As entertainment becomes a trillion-dollar-a-year industry worldwide, as our modern era increasingly lives up to its label of the "entertainment age," and as economists begin to recognize that entertainment has become the driving force of the new world economy, it is safe to say that scholars are beginning to take entertainment seriously. The scholarly spin on entertainment has been manifested in traditional ways, as well as innovative ones. Representing the current state of theory and research, Psychology of Entertainment promises to be the most comprehensive and up-to-date volume on entertainment. It serves to define the new area of study and provides a theoretical spin for future work in the area. Divided into three basic parts, this book: *addresses the fundamental mechanisms and processes involved in orienting to and selecting entertainment fare, as well as receiving and processing it; *explores the mechanisms and processes by which we are entertained by the media messages we select and receive; and *provides an opportunity for the application of well-established as well as emerging psychological and psychobiological theories to be applied to the study of entertainment in ways that seldom have been utilized previously. Psychology of Entertainment will appeal to scholars, researchers, and graduate students in media studies and mass communication, psychology, marketing, and other areas contributing to the entertainment studies area.

In this book, Barrie Gunter provides a broad overview of the methodological perspectives adopted by media researchers in their attempt to derive a better understanding of the nature, role and impact of media in society. By tracing the epistemological and theoretical roots of the major methodological perspectives, Gunter identifies the various schools of social scientific research that have determined the major perspectives in the area. Drawing a distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods, he discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and examines recent trends that signal a convergence of approaches and their associated forms of research. The unique strength of this

Characters are central to our experiences of screened fictions and invite a host of questions. The contributors to Screening Characters draw on archival material, interviews, philosophical inquiry, and conceptual analysis in order to give new, thought-provoking answers to these queries. Providing multifaceted accounts of the nature of screen characters, contributions are organized around a series of important subjects, including issues of class, race, ethics, and generic types as they are encountered in moving image media. These topics, in turn, are personified by such memorable figures as Cary Grant, Jon Hamm, Audrey Hepburn, and Seul-gi Kim, in addition to avatars, online personalities, animated characters, and the ensembles of shows such as The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad.

This volume represents the next generation of research in media psychology, bridging selective exposure into a larger framework of choice in media usage. Considering the myriad media options available to use, this work seeks to answer such questions as: What mechanisms guide an individual's exposure to/choice of media? How can researchers model them? The questions why and how people decide to use media offerings are key in current communication scholarship. Research on selective exposure has addressed this area in the past, but the term 'media choice' is used here to represent any implicit/automatic/spontaneous or explicit/deliberate 'decisions' of the users and subsequent behavioral consequences that lead to a contact with a media stimulus.

Taking the soap opera as a case study, this book explores the 'parasocial interaction' people engage in with television programmes. It looks at the nature of the 'active viewer' and the role of the text in social psychology. It also investigates the existing theoretical models offered by social psychology and other discourses. This second edition takes into account recent research work and theoretical developments in fields such as narrative psychology, social representation theory and ethnographic work on audiences, and look forward to the developing role of audience research. It will be an essential study for students and lecturers in social psychology and media studies.