Reality and its relationship to media

Presence, identification, realism

How do we think about reality?

• It seems so obvious that we never really give it much thought

• Two major concerns about reality are:– Our theory of it (ontology)

– How we come to know it (epistemology)

What is reality?

• The objectivist stance, which most Americans accept, is that there is a definite, physical world out there regardless of our perception of it. That world has definable features and runs according to a set of physical laws that do not vary based on our actions or perceptions of it.– If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, it

still makes a sound.

• The less-commonly accepted subjectivist stance says that reality is in our heads and the nature of some external world is indeterminate, if there is one at all.– Consciousness defines reality, and if a tree falls in

the forest and no one is there to hear it, there is no sound. More importantly, if there is no one there there is no tree or forest, either.

How do we come to know reality?

• Objectivists state that our senses react predictably and effectively to real stimuli in ways that allow us to come to understand the world around us. Experience drives our understanding, which allows us over time to abstract from experience to theory about the world, which is then tested and rewritten, etc.

Peggy Vaughan

• Subjectivists argue that reality is constructed through imagination, interaction with the physical world, or social interaction. Reality is a product, not a definite external ‘thing.’

Practically speaking

• From a cognitive information processing standpoint, we have two things interacting that produce reality:

• Sensory input, which is actually digital information flowing from our receptors to our brains, and

• Theories about what the data represent, stored in memory, based on prior experiences and thoughts

But

• Senses can mislead

• Theories can be wrong

Idealization

Abstraction

Realism

Mediated reality

• All content that reaches us through some form of mechanical mediation is at least a distorted view of a natural reality if not a construction of reality itself– No form of mediation reflects the original content exactly

• Framing• Amplification• Distortion• Inclusion/exclusion• Emphasis• Color• Etc.

• The experience of mediation—that is, the perception that the content is not as it would be if the audience member were ‘really there’ is a variable—and it varies widely

The experience of mediation

• The experience of mediation is not part of the sensory input—it is based on the schema held in long-term memory that “explain” any new information reaching the brain

Schema of mediation

• Mediation schema can be said to be based on two somewhat independent features of the experience of exposure to mediated content—– Formal features of the exposure• Technology

• Situation

– Content features• Narrative fidelity

• Context

Content features

• The ‘realism’ of a particular character, or story, is part of the craft of storytelling, production, etc. The actual level of realism desired is not always high– The content producer may wish to limit the

realism of a character or story for creative reasons

– Knowing how to produce a realistic portrayal is a valuable art

New technologies

• New technologies have allowed content producers to generate stories, etc. that provide physical features experienced as more and more ‘real’– The “Holy Grail” of the gaming industry is to

reach the level where the player experiences the game as though she were actually living it• Presence

Physical features that enhance realism

• Field of vision– The less the peripheral vision, ambient sound

intrudes, the more ‘real’ the experience seems to be• IMAX• VR helmet

• Sound– Quiet in physical surroundings during exposure– Inclusion or exclusion of music– Background noise within the video, etc.

Physical features

• Image complexity/fidelity with experience– The more an image seems like visual stimuli

experienced in real life, the greater the realism of the experience• 3D v. 2D

• Animated characters v. living characters

• Perspective

• Character movement

Roderick Munday

Point of view

• Single v. multiple

• Spectator– Omniscient

– Observer

• Actor– First person shooter

Physical features

• Interactivity– Does the medium/content adjust to the audience

member’s physical action?

– Propriocentrism

Sensory richness

• Haptics– Touch, vibration, etc.

Content features

• What indicators do audience members use to determine whether the content is ‘real’?

Busselle’s dimensions

Hall Busselle

Plausibility Plausibiliy

Typicality Probability

Factuality

Magic Window

Social Realism

Involvement Identity

Narrative consistency

Perceptual persuasiveness

Utility

Magic Window

• Very young children treat TV as a ‘magic window’ that allows them to see real people/animals/creatures in other places. That is, they think the characters are real rather than actors playing roles, that life goes on on Sesame Street while we are not watching, etc.

Plausibility v. probability

• As kids grow up, the tendency to judge the realism of programs shifts from their plausibility—whether or not they could happen—to their probability—how likely that the things portrayed would happen or would be encountered in real life by the audience member. Probability and social realism (whether the depiction is like real life) are the most common sources of reality judgments among college students.

Identification

• Audience members interact with characters and people onscreen in a number of ways. Audience members may treat on-screen people or characters as real when they are only fictional characters, may fantasize that they are the characters, or may perceive a real-world relationship with either the character or the actor. These varied responses tend to enhance the realism of the experience of media consumption.

Identification or involvement

• If audience members are emotionally taken with a presentation they experience it as more real.– This can happen even though they realize that the

context/narrative is fantastic

• Involvement with at least one character has the impact of increasing the feeling of realism

Emotional involvement

• Recent scientific discoveries about human brain mechanics indicate that we automatically share experiences with people we observe– Emotional experience is one of the most

compelling–Media content is created specifically to bring out

such reactions among audience members• Reaction to facial representations of emotion• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.ht

ml

IdentificationParasocial interaction

Liking, similarity,

affinityImitation

Nature of process

Emotional and cognitive, alters

state of awareness

Interactional Attitude Behavior

BasisUnderstanding and empathy

AttractionPerception of character and

selfModeling

Positioning of viewer

As character As self As selfAs learner (self

as other)

Associated phenomena

Absorption in text, emotional

release

Attachment to character and text, keeping

company

Fandom, realism

Learning, reinforcement

Positioning of viewer

As character As self As selfAs learner (self

as other)

Cohen, 2006

Narrative fidelity

• Are actions, events, and characters presented in ways that the audience member accepts as logical or at least plausible?– This will vary with a range of expectations brought to

the experience by the audience member.

• This can be a feature of even fantastic narratives– For example, the behavior of characters in apocalyptic

sci-fi stories may be judged as ‘realistic’ if it conforms to the physical rules and behavioral expectations of that world.

Busselle

Program qualityProgram richness

• Program quality

• Program richness

• Viewing motives—viewing for instruction leads to higher evaluation of reality

• Shapiro and Chock (1998) concluded that audience members compared the content they observed to a prototype for that class of observation.– Genre

• . . . studies of immersion in computer games argue that children use existing schemas of reality to understand and read meaning into the hypertexts of computer games

• Also, arguing that aesthetic pleasure of immersion and engagement relies on the participant acknowledging and understanding the differences between reality and the illusions of hyperreality.

• The notion of “gameplay” requires a balance of immersion in “play” (fantasy) and acceptance of “game” (its structure and organization in space and time)

• It is only at this stage when a participant experiences a state of “flow” where “self-consciousness disappears, perceptions of time become distorted”, and one is completely absorbed in concentration

• However, even when in such a state of flow where participants report a sensation of exiting real time and reality, they must also retain full awareness of the game and its structure, rules, and constraints, or the game will end