Audience Identification with Media Characters.

The essence of entertainment television is that it can delight and enlighten “through the exhibition of the fortunes and misfortunes of others . . . ” (Zillmann & Bryant, 2002, p. 437). In order for the fortunes and misfortunes of others to delight us, they must first arouse our interest. It is necessary, then, that we attend to these others and what happens to them, and this can distract from our own life. The more involved we are with the fictional world and what happens to the people in it, the more likely we are to enjoy being entertained. It is not the mere exposure to entertainment that we enjoy, but the ability of entertainment content to distract us from ourselves and to reveal to us novel and exciting experiences of others. By allowing us to share in the lives of others, entertainment can excite and educate us, can make us imagine, think and feel in ways we may not otherwise have a chance to experience. We expand our emotional and mental lives beyond the scope of our personal experience and participate in community and cultural life. Entertainment is as old as human society, but modern media of communication have multiplied the variety of stories we have access to, and the ways in which these are presented.