The Role of Feeling in the Entertainment=Emotion Formula

Abstract

This paper examines feelings and emotions in relation to entertainment experiences. Feelings reflect an appraisal of everyday events or media products that shape our experience of pleasure and interest which are complementary. Pleasure can result from the meaningful interpretation of a program or from positive associations that it evokes. Interest in a program can result from intellectual engagement and a search for meaning or simply to alleviate boredom. According to a reactive model of media involvement, a person selects stimuli which modulate feelings of pleasure or excitement. This affective covariation process is superficial in the sense that there is no need for deep processing in order to determine the value of the stimulus. Emotions are more closely tied to the self and the meaning of social situations. Emotion can be related to a reflective model of aesthetic involvement whereby a person interprets the work in terms of relevant aesthetic knowledge and personal life experiences. This search for underlying layers of meaning leads to deeper aesthetic engagement and emotional elaboration. The main point here is that processes related to the experience of feelings and emotions run concurrently. Feelings reflect more global responses to events involving characters and plots. Emotions are more firmly grounded in the search for meaning in depicted situations and implicate the lives of audiences who watch the programs.