Why do we entertain ourselves with media narratives? A theory of resonance perspective on entertainment experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhy do we entertain ourselves with media narratives? Although the most recent answer to this question (Oliver et al., 2018) provides a far more complex understanding of entertainment use compared to earlier theorizing, it still leaves important questions unanswered. Our primary ambition here is to introduce a new theoretical perspective that may be used to explain entertainment experiences on the basis of the sociological theory of resonance (Rosa, 2018). This theory focusses on genuine, ‘vibrant’ connections individuals can have with others and with the world. Our thesis is that this form of connection resembles what in more recent theories of entertainment is labelled eudaimonic experiences. But while these eudaimonic experiences are often seen as complementing hedonic ones, we propose to categorically distinguish between the two with only regarding the hedonic dimension as entertaining and the eudaimonic one as ‘resonant’ relationship. From this point of view, media narratives are selected either for their impact on a user’s affective states or for their potential to provide a user with a resonant connection. This conceptualization not only allows to answer some of the still open questions in entertainment theory but to also include the social and historical context of entertainment use.