Entertainment-Oriented Gratifications of Sports Media: Contributors to Suspense, Hedonic Enjoyment, and Appreciation

Abstract

This survey study investigated contributors to viewers' hedonic enjoyment, appreciation, and emotional responses to a televised baseball game. There was an indirect relationship between athlete affinity and hedonic enjoyment by way of suspense. This relationship was moderated by the game's outcome such that suspense was associated more strongly with enjoyment when the viewer's team lost. Interest and knowledge of a player was the form of affinity that had a stronger relationship to suspense, rather than the viewers' sense of having a virtual friendship. Virtual friendship and sport involvement were associated directly with appreciation. Enjoyment and appreciation were associated with different emotional responses. Whereas enjoyment was associated with stronger positive and weaker negative emotions, appreciation was associated with stronger positive, negative, and meaningful emotions.

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Alice E. Hall

Alice E. Hall (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Her research interests include audiences' responses to entertainment media.