Narrative Styles and Narratology Formats in PSAs: Assessing the Effects on Arousal, Attention, and Memory

Kimberly Baker 1, Fei Qiao 2 * , Shuhua Zhou 3
More Detail
1 Department of Communication, Alabama State University, USA
2 School of Journalism and Communication, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, CHINA
3 School of Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 9, Issue 4, Article No: e201925. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/5948
OPEN ACCESS   1903 Views   1644 Downloads   Published online: 30 Sep 2019
Download Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

The following study aims to advance knowledge about the effects of narration and point-of-view formats on attention, arousal, and recall for persuasive messages relayed in public service announcements (PSAs). The experiment combines two frameworks, narratology and valence, to expose subjects to 12 different PSAs concerning the topic of animal abuse. Both psychophysiological data and self-report measures were analyzed to determine if three formats of narratology regarding point-of-view (no vocal POV vs. first-person vs. third-person) with two valences (positive vs. negative) have an effect on arousal, as indicated by skin conductance; attention, as indicated by heart rate and memory, and recall as indicated by a posttest unaided recall. The findings contribute toward understanding the emotional and cognitive effects that stimuli have on arousal, attention, and memory.

CITATION

Baker, K., Qiao, F., & Zhou, S. (2019). Narrative Styles and Narratology Formats in PSAs: Assessing the Effects on Arousal, Attention, and Memory. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 9(4), e201925. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/5948

REFERENCES

  • Abrams, M. H. (1988). A glossary of literary terms (5th ed.). New York: Hold, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc.
  • Alstiel, T. and Grow, J. (2006). Advertising Strategy: Creative tactics from the Outside/In. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Bailey, R. L., Wang, T. and Kaiser, C. K. (2017). Clash of the primary motivations: Motivated processing of emotionally experience content in fear appeals about obesity prevention. Health Communication, 33(2), 111-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2016.1250186
  • Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Barthes, R. (1974). Introduction to the structural analysis of narratives. London, UK: Collins.
  • Bolls, P. D., Lang, A. and Potter, R. F. (2001).The effects of message valence and listener arousal on attention, memory, and facial muscular responses to radio advertisements. Communication Research, 28(5), 627-651. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365001028005003
  • Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G. and Berntson, G. G. (2000).The handbook of psychophysiology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 752. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.39.5.752
  • Chen, M., Bell, R. A. and Taylor, L. D. (2016). Narrator point of view and persuasion in health narratives: The role of protagonist-reader similarity, identification, and self-referencing. Journal of Health Communication, 21, 908–918. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2016.1177147
  • Christy, K. R. (2018). I, You, or He: Examining the Impact of Point of View on Narrative Persuasion. Media Psychology, 21(4), 700-718. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2017.1400443
  • Codispoti, M., Ferrari, V. and Bradley, M. M. (2006). Repetitive picture processing: autonomic and cortical correlates. Brain Research, 1068(1), 213-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2005.11.009
  • Dessart, L. (2017). Social media engagement: A model of antecedents and relational outcomes. Journal of Marketing Management, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1302975
  • Dilliard, A. J., Ferrer, R. A. and Welch, J. D. (2018).Associations between narrative transportation, risk perception and behavior intentions following narrative messages about skin cancer. Psychology and Health, 33(5), 573-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2017.1380811
  • Dillman Carpentier, F. R. and Potter, R. F. (2007). Effects of music on physiological arousal: Explorations into tempo and genre. Media Psychology, 10(3), 339-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213260701533045
  • Duck, J. M., Terry, D. J. and Hogg, M. A. (1995). The perceived influence of AIDS advertising: Third-person effects in the context of positive media content. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 17(3), 305-325. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp1703_2
  • Fisher, W. R. (1984). Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argument. Communications Monographs, 51(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637758409390180
  • Frye, N. (1973). Anatomy of criticism: Four essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Geiger, S. and Newhagen, J. (1993). Revealing the black box: Information processing and media effects. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 42-50. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01303.x
  • Gerrig, R. J. (1993). Experiencing narrative worlds: On the psychological activities of reading. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  • Gordon, R., Ciorciari, J. and Laer, T. (2018).Using EEG to examine the role of attention, working memory, emotion, and imagination in narrative transportation. European Journal of Marketing, 52(1/2), 92-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-12-2016-0881
  • Grabe, M. E., Zhou, S., Lang, A. and Bolls, P. D. (2000). Packaging television news: The effects of tabloid on information processing and evaluative responses. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(4), 581-598. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4404_4
  • Granitz, N. and Foreman, H. (2015).Building self-brand connections: Exploring brand stories through a transmedia perspective. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 38-59. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.1
  • Green, M. C. and Brock, T. C. (2000).The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701
  • Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Hinyard, L. J. and Kreuter, M. W. (2007).Using narrative communication as a tool for health behavior change: A conceptual, theoretical, and empirical overview. Health Education & Behavior, 34, 777-792. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198106291963
  • Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S. and Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring. Psychological Bulletin, 114(1), 3-28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0333-2909.114.1.3
  • Kallinen, K. and Ravaja, N. (2007).Comparing speakers versus headphones in listening to news from a computer–individual differences and psychophysiological responses. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(1), 303-317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.10.014
  • Kemp, E. A., Borders, A. L., Anaza, N. A. and Johnston, W. J. (2018). The heart in organizational buying: Marketer’s understanding of emotions and decision-making of buyers. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 33(1), 19-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-06-2017-0129
  • Kim, H. K. and Shapiro, M. A. (2016). When bad things happen to a protagonist like you: The role of self in resistance to negatively framed health narratives. Journal of Health Communication, 21, 1227–1235. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2016.1240268
  • Lang, A. (1990). Involuntary attention and physiological arousal evoked by structural features and emotional content in TV commercials. Communication Research, 17(3), 275-299. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365090017003001
  • Lang, A. (1994). What can the heart tell us about thinking? In Lang, A. (Ed.), Measuring psychological responses to media messages (pp. 99-111). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650202029003001
  • Lang, A., Borse, J., Wise, K. and David, P. (2002). Captured by the World Wide Web: Orienting to structural and content features of computer-presented information. Communication Research, 29(3), 215-245. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0704_6
  • Lang, A., Chung, Y., Lee, S., Schwartz, N. and Shin, M. (2005). It’s an arousing, fast-paced kind of world: The effects of age and sensation seeking on the information processing of substance-abuse PSAs. Media Psychology, 7(4), 421-454. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4401_7
  • Lang, A., Zhou, S., Schwartz, N., Bolls, P. D. and Potter, R. F. (2000). The effects of edits on arousal, attention, and memory for television messages: When an edit is an edit can an edit be too much? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(1), 94-109.
  • Leshner, G., Bolls, P., Gardner, E., Moore, J. and Kreuter, M. (2018). Breast cancer survivor testimonies: Effects of narrative and emotional valence on affect and cognition. Cogent Social Sciences, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2018.1426281
  • Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental Research, 164, 149-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015
  • Martin, W. (1986).Recent theories of narrative. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • McCracken, G. (1989). Who is the celebrity endorser? Cultural foundations of the endorsement process. Journal of Consumer Research, (16), 310-321. https://doi.org/10.1086/209217
  • Modica, E., Rossi, D., Cartocci, G., et al. (2018). Neurophysiological profile of antismoking campaigns. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9721561
  • Moyer‐Gusé, E. (2008). Toward a theory of entertainment persuasion: Explaining the persuasive effects of entertainment‐education messages. Communication Theory, 18(3), 407-425. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2008.00328.x
  • Moyer‐Gusé, E., Chung, A. H. and Jain, P. (2011).Identification with characters and discussion of taboo topics after exposure to an entertainment narrative about sexual health. Journal of Communication, 61(3), 387-406. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01551.x
  • Moyer-Gusé, E., Tchernev, J. M. and Walther-Martin, W. (2019). The persuasiveness of a humorous environmental narrative combined with an explicit persuasive appeal. Science Communication, 41(4), 422-441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547019862553
  • Nabi, R. L. and Moyer-Guse, E. (2012).The psychology underlying media-based persuasion. The Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology (pp. 1-34). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398809.013.0016
  • Nan, X., Futerfas, M. and Ma, Z. (2017). Role of narrative perspective and modality in the persuasiveness of public service announcements promoting HPV vaccination. Health Communication, 33, 320–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2016.1138379
  • Nazione, S. (2016). An investigation of first- versus third-person risk narrative processing through the lens of the heuristic-systematic model. Communication Research Reports, 33, 145–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2016.1155048
  • Pemberton, A. and Aarten, P. G. (2017). Narrative in the study of victimological processes in terrorism and political violence: An initial exploration. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 1-16. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1057610X.2017.1311110?needAccess=true
  • Petty, R. E. and Cacioppo, J. T. (1986).The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 19, (pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2
  • Ravaja, N. (2004). Contributions of psychophysiology to media research: Review and recommendations. Media Psychology, 6(2), 193-235. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532785xmep0602_4
  • Schneider, E., Lang, A., Shin, M. and Bradley, S. (2004). Death with a story: How story impacts emotional, motivational, and physiological responses to first-person shooter video games. Human Communication Research, 30(3), 361-375. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/30.3.361
  • Semmler, S. M. and Loof, T. (2019).Audio-only character narration overcoming resistance to narrative persuasion. Communication Research Reports, 36(3), 191-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2019.1598855
  • Slater, M. D. and Rouner, D. (2002). Entertainment-education and elaboration likelihood: Understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. Communication Theory, 12(2), 173-191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2002.tb00265.x
  • Stern, B. B. (1991). Who talks advertising? Literary theory and narrative “point of view.” Journal of Advertising, XX(3), 9-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1991.10673344
  • Surmelian, L. (1969). Techniques of fiction writing. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
  • Trilling, L. (1972). Sincerity and authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Wang, Z. and Lang, A. (2012). Reconceptualizing excitation transfer as motivational activation changes and a test of the television program context effects. Media Psychology, 15, 68-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2011.649604
  • Wojcieszak, M. and Kim, N. (2016). How to improve attitudes toward disliked groups: The effects of narrative versus numerical evidence on political persuasion. Communication Research, 43, 785–809. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215618480
  • Yilmaz, R. (2019). Handbook of research on narrative advertising. Hershey, PA: ICI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9790-2
  • Zhang, J., Chen, G. M., Chock, T. M., Wang, Y., Ni, L. and Schweisberger, V. (2016).A psychophysiological study of processing HIV/AIDS public service announcements: The effects of novelty appeals, sexual appeals, narrative versus statistical evidence, and viewer’s sex. Health Communication, 31(7), 853-862. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2015.1012629