A journey through communication research on transportation: the future of narrative transportation on emerging forms of media

ABSTRACT

This essay discusses how storytelling conventions and entertainment delivery methods have evolved with the advent of new technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality. This paper aims to explore the psychological mechanisms involved in narrative processing for users of augmented and virtual reality spaces, focusing on transportation as an important construct. A history of presence through art performances and Greek poetry is discussed. Connections are established between Greek tragedies and audience scholarship, highlighting Nietzsche’s framework for understanding the impact of Greek tragedies on audiences and the concept of the fourth wall. The fourth wall is used to assess the similarities and differences between traditional and emerging forms of media. Finally, future research on transportation with narratives on virtual and augmented reality is proposed. These recommendations include: adapting the transportation measure to fit the affordances of emerging tech better, clarifying the relationship between transportation and flow in the context of narrative exposure within emerging tech, and conceptualizing transportation at a macro level to include transmedia experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• transportation
• narratives
• emerging technology
• presence
• entertainment

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

1 Yuntao Wang, Zhou Su, Ning Zhang, Rui Xing, Dongxiao Liu, Tom H. Luan, and Xuemin Shen, “A Survey on Metaverse: Fundamentals, Security, and Privacy,” ArXiv.org (2022).

2 Ibid.

3 Fragments, Creative & Atlas V, © 2020 https://world.magicleap.com/en-us/details/com.nsccreative.fragments.

4 Natalie B. Milman, “Defining and Conceptualizing Mixed Reality, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality,” Distance Learning 15 no. 2 (2018):55.

5 Peter Cipresso, Irene Alice Chicchi Giglioli, Mariano Alcañiz Raya, and Giuseppe Riva, “The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality Research: A Network and Cluster Analysis of the Literature,” Frontiers in Psychology 9 (2018).

6 Ibid.

7 Matthew Lombard and Theresa Ditton, “At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence,” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3, no. 2 (2006).

8 Marvin Minsky, “Telepresence,” Omni (1980).

9 Derek Alexander Burrill, “Out of the Box: Performance, Drama, and Interactive Software,” Modern Drama 48, no. 3 (2005): 510.

10 Ibid.

11 Katerina Zacharia and Marientina Gotsis, “Ancient Drama Applications in Education and Interactive Entertainment” (paper presented at the International Theatre Conference, online, November 6–7, 2021).

12 Ross Clare, Ancient Greece and Rome in Videogames (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).

13 Examples include Assassins Creed Odyssey which is a role-playing video game that follows the mythological history of the Peloponnesian War and Immortals Fenyx Rising, an action-adventure game set in a world inspired by Greek gods.

14 Aristotle, “Poetics” in Aristotle in 23 Volumes, trans. William Hamilton Fyfe (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932).

15 Edith Hall, Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2010): 3–4.

16 Friedrich Nietsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism, trans. Wm. A. Haussmann (New York: Macmillan, 1910)

17 Loss of one’s suffering, a sense of transcendence or unity with the universe.

18 Elizabeth Bell, Theories of Performance (Los Angeles: Sage, 2008).

19 John Stevenson, “The Fourth Wall and the Third Space” (essay, Center for Playback Theatre, 1995).

20 Joshua Nettheim, “Remediating the Fourth Wall” (Ph.D. diss., RMIT University, 2013), 41–66.

21 Diegetic refers to something that is part of the story world, whereas nondiegetic refers to something that is outside of the story world. Performers and characters are unaware of nondiegetic elements.

22 Tara Hunt “YouTube Content: It's About the Absence of the Fourth Wall” (essay, LinkedIn, 2015) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/youtube-content-its-absence-fourth-wall-tara-hunt/

23 Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock, “The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79, no. 5 (2000).

24 Melanie C. Green, Timothy C. Brock, and Geoff F. Kaufman, “Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation into Narrative Worlds,” Communication Theory 14, no. 4 (2004).

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27 Bimal Balakrishnan and S. Shyam Sundar, “Where am I? How can I get there? Impact of Navigability and Narrative Transportation on Spatial Presence,” Human–Computer Interaction 26, no. 3 (2011).

28 Jennifer Edson Escalas, “Self-referencing and Persuasion: Narrative Transportation versus Analytical Elaboration,” Journal of Consumer Research 33, no. 4 (2007).

29 Tom van Laer, Ko de Ruyter, Luca M. Visconti, and Martin Wetzels, “The Extended Transportation-Imagery Model: A Meta-Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Consumers’ Narrative Transportation,” Journal of Consumer Research 40, no. 5 (2014).

30 See note 23 above.

31 See note 24 above.

32 Emily Moyer-Gusé, “Toward a Theory of Entertainment Persuasion: Explaining the Persuasive Effects of Entertainment-Education Messages,” Communication Theory 18, no. 3 (2008).

33 Michael D. Slater and Donna Rouner, “Entertainment-Education and Elaboration Likelihood: Understanding the Processing of Narrative Persuasion,” Communication Theory 12, no. 2 (2002).

34 The EORM and EELM are theories used to predict attitudinal and behavior change resulting from exposure to narratives. These theories are largely studied in the context of traditional media and focus on engagement with the story world and characters as key mechanisms for story-consistent attitudes and behaviors.

35 See note 7 above.

36 See note 23 above.

37 See note 7 above.

38 See note 23 above.

39 Richard J. Gerrig, Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993).

40 For example, in one study, participants were instructed to spot errors in the text.

41 See note 7 above.

42 Nathan Walter, Sheila T. Murphy, Lauren B. Frank, and Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, “Each Medium Tells a Different Story: The Effect of Message Channel on Narrative Persuasion,” Communication Research Reports 34, no. 2 (2017).

43 Thomas Baumgartner, Kai Lutz, Conny F. Schmidt, and Lutz Jäncke, “The Emotional Power of Music: How Music Enhances the Feeling of Affective Pictures,” Brain Research 1075, no. 1 (2006).

44 Alessandro Ansani, Marco Marini, Luca Mallia, and Isabella Poggi, “Music and Time Perception in Audiovisuals: Arousing Soundtracks Lead to Time Overestimation No Matter Their Emotional Valence,” Multimodal Technologies and Interaction 5, no. 11 (2021).

45 See note 23 above.

46 Robert E. Burnkrant and H. Rao Unnava, “Effects of Self-Referencing on Persuasion,” Journal of Consumer Research 22, no. 1 (1995): 17.

47 See note 28 above.

48 The weak argument contained a description of shoelaces and the strong argument contained a description of the shoe’s advanced stability system.

49 Maj-Britt Isberner, Tobias Richter, Constanze Schreiner, Yanina Eisenbach, Christin Sommer, and Markus Appel, “Empowering Stories: Transportation into Narratives with Strong Protagonists Increases Self-Related Control Beliefs,” Discourse Processes 56, no. 8 (2019).

50 Cinematic virtual reality is the application of film to virtual reality technology. Typically, the audience member feels like they are in the virtual environment with 360 degrees of audiovisual content.

51 Andrea Trudeau, Ying Xie, Olha Ketsman, and Fatih Demir, “‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’: The Effects of Cinematic Virtual Reality Film-Viewing on Adolescent Students’ Empathic Responses” Computers & Education: X Reality 2 (2023).

52 John M. Tchernev, James Collier, and Zheng Wang, “There and Back Again? Exploring the Real-Time Cognitive Journey of Narrative Transportation,” Communication Research (2021).

53 Ibid.

54 Ross Gordon, Joseph Ciorciari, and Tom van Laer, “Using EEG to Examine the Role of Attention, Working Memeory, Emotion, and Imagination in Narrative Transportation,” European Journal of Marketing 52 no. 1/2 (2018).

55 Tom van Laer, Ko de Ruyter, and Martin Wetzels, “Effects of Narrative Transportation on Persuasion: A meta-analysis,” Advances in Consumer Research 40 (2012).

56 Jared M. Ott, Naomi Q. P. Tan, and Michael D. Slater, “Eudaimonic Media in Lived Experience: Retrospective Responses to Eudaimonic vs. Non-Eudaimonic Films,” Mass Communication & Society 24, no. 5 (2021).

57 Daniel G. McDonald, Melanie A. Sarge, Shu-Fang Lin, James G. Collier, and Bridget Potocki, “A Role for the Self: Media Content as Triggers for Involuntary Autobiographical Memories,” Communication Research 42, no. 1 (2015).

58 Enny Das, Tijmen Nobbe, and Mary Beth Oliver, “Health Communication| Moved to Act: Examining the Role of Mixed Affect and Cognitive Elaboration in ‘Accidental’ Narrative Persuasion,” International Journal of Communication 11 (2017).

59 Ibid.

60 Michael D. Slater, David R. Ewoldsen, and Kelsey W. Woods, “Extending Conceptualization and Measurement of Narrative Engagement After-the-Fact: Parasocial Relationship and Retrospective Imaginative Involvement,” Media Psychology 21, no. 3 (2018).

61 Neha Sethi, Sara M. Grady, Ezgi Ulusoy, Joshua Baldwin, and David R. Ewoldsen, “What Do We Do with Narratives after the Fact? Exploring Dimensions of Retrospective Imaginative Involvement,” Communication Reports 35, no. 2 (2022).

62 Michael D. Slater, Benjamin K. Johnson, Jonathan Cohen, Maria Leonora G. Comello, and David R. Ewoldsen, “Temporarily Expanding the Boundaries of the Self: Motivations for Entering the Story World and Implications for Narrative Effects: Temporarily Expanded Boundaries of the Self,” Journal of Communication 64, no. 3 (2014).

63 See note 61 above.

64 Thatiany Andrade Nunes and Hyunseok Lee, “Humanitarian Documentary: A Comparison Study Between VR and Non-VR Productions,” Journal of Multimedia Information System, 6 (2019).

65 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “The flow experience and its significance for human psychology” in Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness, eds. M. Csikszentmihalyi & I. S. Csikszentmihalyi (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 15–35.

66 Jeanne Nakamura and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "The Concept of Flow" in Handbook of Positive Psychology, eds. C.R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Univeristy Press, 2002), 89–105.

67 John L. Sherry, "Flow and Media Enjoyment," Communication Theory, 14, no. 4 (2006).

68 See note 23 above.

69 See note 66 above.

70 See note 58 above.

71 Ben Cowley, Darryl Charles, Michaela Black, Ray Hickey, “Toward an Understanding of Flow in Video Games,” Computers in Entertainment 6 no. 2 (2008).

72 Brett Sherrick, “The Role of Engagement in Facilitating Games-Based Persuasion.” In Video Games: A Medium That Demands Our Attention ed. Nicholas David Bowman (New York: Routledge, 2018), 44–59.

73 See note 67 above.

74 Mugur Geana, Dan Cernusca, and Pan Liu, “Enhancer or Distractor? A Pilot Study on the Impact of AR Engagement on Information Retention in a Mediated Learning Environment” (paper presented at the annual International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada, May 25–29, 2023).

75 Harish Kumar, Parul Gupta, and Shumedha Chauhan, “Meta-analysis of Augmented Reality Marketing,” Marketing Intelligence & Planning 41 no. 1 (2022).

76 Alexandra D. Kaplan, Jessica Cruit, Mica Endsley, Suzanne M. Beers, Ben D. Sawyer, and P.A. Hancock, “The Effects of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality as Training Enhancement Methods: A Meta-Analysis,” Human Factors 64, no. 4 (2021).

77 Josephine Reid, Kirsten Cater, Constance Fleuriot, and Richard Hull, “Experience Design Guidelines for Creating Situated Mediascapes,” (white paper, Hewlett-Packard Development Company, 2005), 14–15.

78 Florencia Garcia-Rapp, “The Fourth Wall and ‘The Wall’: GoT’s Reception in Argentina, Spain, and Germany,” Television & New Media 23 no. 3 (2021).

79 Hua Wang and Arvind Singhal, “Theorizing Entertainment-Education: A Complementary Perspective to the Development of Entertainment Theory.” In The Oxford Handbook of Entertainment Theory, ed. Peter Vorderer and Christoph Klimmt (Oxford, U.K.: University Press, 2021), 818–38.

80 Arvind Singhal and Everett M. Rogers, Entertainment-Education: A Communication Strategy for Social Change (New York: Routledge, 2012).

81 Hua Wang and Arvind Singhal, “East Los High: Transmedia edutainment to promote the sexual and reproductive health of young Latina/o Americans,” American Journal of Public Health 106, no. 6 (2016): 1002–10.

82 Hua Wang and Arvind Singhal, “Mind the Gap! Confronting the Challenges of Translational Communication Research in Entertainment-Education.” In Entertainment-Education Behind the Scenes, ed. L. B. Frank & P. Falzone (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021), 223–42.

83 See note 60 above.

84 Elizabeth Riggs and Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, “Beyond the Text: Testing Narrative Persuasion Mechanisms with Audio Messages,” Mass Communication and Society (2022).

85 Melanie C. Green, Sheryl Kass, Jana Carrey, Benjamin Herzig, Ryan Feeney, and John Sabini, “Transportation Across Media: Repeated Exposure to Print and Film,” Media Psychology 11 no. 4 (2008).