科研成果详情

Recently, politicized crime dramas on Chinese streaming media have been welcomed by audiences. Focusing on the typical happy ending of politicized crime dramas, the current study examines the Chinese audiences’ responses to political-entertainment programs streamed online. Our study establishes a theoretical framework with the concepts of narrative transportation, identification, and co-viewing. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 385 respondents in China in 2023. It was found that audiences’ transportation into the happy ending of politicized crime dramas and identification with the protagonist–the police–improve their enjoyment and political trust. It was also found that watching with numerous virtual co-viewers on Danmaku (referring to the online service that enables user-generated comments to appear on the screen that shows media programs) and on social media enhances audiences’ transportation and identification. Furthermore, virtual co viewing through Danmaku and social media influence audiences’ enjoyment and political trust via the sequential mediation of audiences’ transportation and identification. The findings reveal the importance of the ending of narratives and virtual co-viewing in the consumption of political entertainment programs, having meaningful theoretical and practical implications. With the expansion of media entertainment, scholars have paid attention to the persuasive power of films, TV dramas and other popular entertainment that based on narratives in realms of entertainment education and health communication. The current study expands the area of narrative persuasion inquiry to political communication. In studying politicized crime dramas, we confirmed the persuasive influence of narratives, the happy ending in specific, through mechanisms of transportation and identification. That is, audiences perceive the government to be more credible as a result of experiencing vicariously with the police in their successful crackdown of crimes during the happy ending. Besides confirming the effectiveness of media entertainment in political persuasion, this study adds to research on co-viewing. Media consumption is a social activity as audiences often watch media programs with others. Most research on co-viewing examined the influence of physical co-viewing with a focus on parents accompanying children’s media consumption. In this study, we revealed the influence of two forms of virtual co-viewing, which are watching with co-viewers on the same screen–on Danmaku and on the second screen–on social media, on audiences’ narrative involvement and political attitudes. The findings suggest the importance of audiences’ online social interactions. With multiplication of smart devices and the development of new communicative forms such as streaming media and Danmaku, audiences are increasingly connected with others, including the large number of unknown others, during media consumption. Thus, virtual co-viewing is suggested to be taken into consideration in the Page 20 examination of media consumption and its consequences. In addition to the theoretical implications, we also discussed the practical insights concerning the tactics for strategic communication practitioners to brand the images of government agencies and for marketers to promote dramas streamed on the Internet.