Forceful or Funny? Audience Interpretations of Narrative Persuasion in Satirical Entertainment Media

ABSTRACT

It has been established that narrative entertainment messages have the power to produce persuasive outcomes in audiences, but the specific message components that influence audience responses are not well understood. The current study uses focus groups to explore audience interpretations of meaning, perceptions of persuasive intent, and perceptions of the source of a persuasive message in response to a satirical narrative with an environmental theme. The results indicated that audiences define persuasive intent much more narrowly than researchers. Audiences also inferred meaning based on which characters espoused certain messages, but struggled to form conceptions of the creators behind the show or discern an overall persuasive intent. Furthermore, humor acted both as a factor in enjoyment of the narrative and as a discounting cue.

KEYWORDS:

• Narrative persuasion
• focus groups
• environmental communication
• satire
• persuasive intent
• political entertainment

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For all groups, regardless of size, the moderator ensured that all participants had an opportunity to respond to all questions. For each question, the moderator first allowed any respondents to volunteer answers if they wished, and then called on any shy/quiet participants one by one and asked if they wished to add anything.

2. It is interesting to note that P5 identified the show as satirical. The moderator never labeled the show as satire, in order to allow participants to draw their own conclusions. Most participants never mentioned the terms “satire” or “satirical”.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John M. Tchernev

John M. Tchernev (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Media, Journalism & Film at Miami University (OH). His research examines audience psychology and the dynamic processing of narratives, persuasion, and satire.

Christopher Brown

Christopher Brown (Ph.D., University of New Mexico) is the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and a full professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato. His research examines constructions of race and racism in society.

Whitney Walther-Martin

Whitney Walther-Martin (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) is a casual academic at the University of Newcastle (Australia). Her work investigates the psychology and effects of persuasive messages through entertainment media.

Emily Moyer-Gusé

Emily Moyer-Gusé (Ph.D. Communication, University of California Santa Barbara) is an associate professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. Her research examines how narratives in entertainment media influence viewers’ attitudes and behaviors.