Abstract
Abstract Online video platforms often present videos together with social information in the form of user comments and likes. This study tested two hypotheses about how this merger of mass and interpersonal communication on online video platforms shapes viewers’ evaluations and enjoyment of online videos. Whereas the judgement effect hypothesis states that social information alters viewers’ video evaluations, the processing effect hypothesis poses that it influences viewers’ enjoyment while they are watching videos. Using real-time response measures, this experiment pitted both hypotheses against each other. The results indicate that if viewers are exposed to social information before watching a video, a processing effect emerges on their enjoyment as they are watching. If viewers are exposed to social information after watching a video, a judgement effect on their retrospective video enjoyment occurs but not on their video evaluations. These new insights advance our understanding of how social information affects video viewers.
Highlights
We found no effect of the valence of social information on viewers’ video evaluations, which seems to be at odds with previous studies that did find an effect of the valence of social information on viewers’ retrospective video enjoyment
By studying how enjoyment arises when individuals watch videos and their accompanying social information on online platforms, scholars have situated their work at the intersection of research investigating mass and interpersonal communication processes
Building on this research and following Walther’s (2017) suggestion to study the role of metaconstructs, which apply to both mass and interpersonal communication, the present study investigated how a characteristic of social information, namely its valence, affects viewers’ video enjoyment
Summary
With so many people turning to online platforms for their daily dose of entertainment, scholars have started to investigate how entertainment experiences arise when individuals watch online videos They found that the social information that accompanies online videos plays an important role in this process (i.e., Moller, Baumgartner, Kuhne, & Peter, 2019; Human Communication Research 47 (2021) 25–48 VC The Author(s) 2020. The term enjoyment refers to viewers’ experiences of fun and pleasure in response to online videos and scholars have labeled such experiences as hedonic entertainment experiences (Wirth, Hofer, & Schramm, 2012) In line with this literature, we regard enjoyment as a psychological response state that ( it includes physiological and cognitive dimensions) is predominantly the result of viewers’ affective responses to media content (Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004). When individuals use online video platforms, the videos and the social information presented on those platforms jointly shape viewers’ video enjoyment
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