Date of Award
May 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Communication Studies
Committee Member
Erin Ash
Committee Member
Darren Linvill
Committee Member
Andrew Pyle
Abstract
This research was intended to investigate if interactive narrative media enhances the effects of narrative persuasion utilizing a story about opioid overdose kits. Using Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the Entertainment Overcoming Resistance Model (EORM), and the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) as theoretical frameworks, this study examines the benefits of narrative persuasion and applies them to interactive narrative media. While these benefits have been established with traditional, unidirectional media, they have rarely been examined in media wherein the audience has the ability to affect the narrative. The hypotheses tested in this experiment posits that the interactive narrative media will elicit more positive attitudes towards the topic of the narrative while the viewers experience greater levels of narrative identification, transportation, and task-related self-efficacy related to the use of Naloxone kits to aid a person undergoing an opioid overdose.
An experiment was conducted with university students who were provided either interactive or non-interactive narrative media. Results tested with a series of independent-samples t-tests found that both interactive and non-interactive narrative media elicited similar amounts of narrative identification, transportation, and task-related self-efficacy. This study proposes that the benefits of interactivity may lie beyond a not hitherto designated interactivity threshold. Research has shown this threshold has been crossed by more complex media, but its limitations and features have yet to be discovered.
Recommended Citation
Scott, Alexander, "Narrative Persuasion Amplification via Interactive Narrative Media" (2020). All Theses. 3338.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/3338