Dissertation
When it's not fake: empathic distress and affective responses to real media violence
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
08/2010
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005613
Abstract
This dissertation employed an experimental design to examine affective reactions to real media violence, specifically empathic distress toward victims of violent attacks. Most media effects research focuses on audience responses to fictional entertainment genres and mainstream network nonfictional content (e.g., news programs and documentaries). However, technological advances and the Internet have yielded a new subgenre of media content in the form of user-generated videos that can be uploaded and distributed without the scrutiny that generally accompanies mainstream media content. The goal of this research was to examine the connection between perceived realism, moral disengagement, and empathic distress in response to user-generated violent media content. Participants completed a pre-test questionnaire that measured the trait variables such as empathic concern, moral disengagement, propensity for reactive violence, and prior experience with real violence. This was followed by exposure to three user-generated video clips of real violence, followed by a post-test to measure empathic distress toward the victim, enjoyment of the clip, perceived victim complicity, and perceived realism. Results indicated that the individual traits were not significantly related to empathic distress. However, perceived realism and assessments of the victim's complicity in the assault significantly predicted an individual's capacity to experience empathic distress toward the victim. The implications of this research are discussed, as well as its theoretical contributions to existing research on the perceived realism of media content, the role of moral disengagement in the enjoyment of this particular subgenre of media violence, and the need to develop a reliable and comprehensive measure of media-related empathic distress
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Details
- Title
- When it's not fake
- Creators
- Mary Grace Antony
- Contributors
- Rick W. Busselle (Chair)Changmin Yan Yan (Committee Member)Jeffery C Peterson (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Department of Journalism and Media ProductionMary Beth Oliver (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 137
- Identifiers
- 99901054737901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation