Absorption and meaningfulness Examining the relationship between eudaimonic media use and engagement

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Abstract

Recent scholarship has begun to theorize "eudaimonic" media gratifications-gratifications regarding meaningfulness, including thoughts about the human condition, human values, and questions of virtue. In this chapter, we examine the intersection of narrative absorption and eudaimonic gratifications from a variety of vantage points. First, we provide a brief discussion of how we are using these two concepts. Second, we consider eudaimonic motivations as trait-like and state-like measures that are used to describe viewers' use of media in their search for meaning, and how this motivation heightens the likelihood of absorption during subsequent viewing. Third, we explore theoretical and conceptual accounts of how absorption into narrative worlds may ultimately serve to satisfy eudaimonic goals, resulting in feelings of heightened well-being. Finally, we will outline ideas for how future scholarship may account for evolving technologies in the examination of these relationships.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Linguistic Approaches to Literature

First Page

253

Last Page

269

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