Is It a Male or Female Thing?: Identification and Enjoyment of Media Characters

The relationship between viewers and media characters is a large part of involvement with the media. Understanding how individuals respond and perceive characters increases the understanding of their responses to entertainment in general. Research has shown gender to be a strong and consistent predictor in responses to entertainment in a number of areas including enjoyment and identification, which is one way in which characters mediate a range of media effects. But people have also been found to respond to various characters in different ways. The present study examined the effects gender and character role have on enjoyment and identification. The results suggest only a marginal difference in enjoyment of males and females based on the character role, but that gender plays a large part in differences in levels of identification.

Publisher: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, New Orleans Sheraton, New Orleans, LA, May 27, 2004
Year of Publication: 2004