Work

Enjoyment and Appreciation as Motivators for Coping: Exploring the Therapeutic Effects of Media Messages on Perceived Threat

Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: This study explores how experience-based media messages featuring victims, survivors, and outperformers provide therapeutic benefits through the enjoyment and appreciation of the messages. Using the economic crisis as a context, our findings indicate that whereas distressed individuals were more likely to appreciate threat-related stories featuring victims and survivors over outperformers, nondistressed individuals were more likely to enjoy such stories featuring outperformers over victims and survivors. Appreciation and enjoyment of these threat-related stories predicted effective coping outcomes: positive reappraisal of the economic situation that also led to increased perceived control over the threat through positive affect. Health implications for enjoyment and appreciation of experience-based stories as motivators for coping outcomes are also discussed. © 2016 Jinhee Kim & Mina Tsay-Vogel.
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2327871330
FWCI: 1.741
Cites: 46
Cited by: 5
Related to: 10