Pamela Rutledge: Media Psychology Blog
Rutledge on the psychology of social media, transmedia, narrative, technology & user experience
The human biological predisposition to seek social contact reacts to radio more than TV according to Cramer from Psychology Today. He suggests that the greater ambiguity in radio allows for more personal interpretation and hence, more personal connection. Does that ambiguity imply that talk-radio host is perceived as talking directly to you because you are not seeing the other audience? One could also argue that it is the sustained one-on-one relationship between the listener and the host.
About Dr. Pamela RutledgePamela Rutledge is a consultant, author, researcher, and the Director of the Media Psychology Research Center. Her area of expertise is positive and cognitive psychology applied to emerging technologies and the use and impact of social media, narrative, and transmedia storytelling on branding, messaging, and consumer behavior. She is Adjunct Faculty at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Fielding Graduate University and an instructor of Media Psychology, Social Media and Transmedia Storytelling at UCLA Extension and UC Irvine Extension. Pam is also on the advisory board for UC Irvine Extension Business School's certificate program in Internet and Social Media Marketing. Pam develops workshops and presentations to teach Transmedia Storytelling for Marketing and Branding for both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations..
Dr. Pamela Rutledge is available to reporters for comments and analysis on the impact of technology and social media use on individuals, business strategy, and society.
Contact: prutledge@mprcenter.org.
Makes sense, to a certain degree. There is a portion of the brain that doesn’t understand radio, TV, print, etc. It only responds to stimulus, devoid of source. That helps to explain why we have emotional attachments to fictitious characters – a part of the brain “believes” them to be real. As for the radio – TV part, it may be , as noted, that the direct connection perceived between listener and source reinforces brain associations related to bonding. However, I would suspect that if a study was done between radio talk shows and TV talk shows, TV would elicit a stronger connection. We love being part of a community and having a visible audience could make the whole experience stronger for us (so long as the audience relates in the same way we do to the material, images, etc).