Abstract
This chapter builds on previous work that positions user engagement on the user involvement continuum and suggests that user engagement is comprised of physical interactions with media, cognitive involvement, absorption in media content, and behavioral outcomes in the form of outreach or media participation. The authors explore medium or interface characteristics and individual differences in the form of “power users” as determinants of user engagement, and persuasion as an outcome. An empirical example is user to illustrate the relationship between physical interactions, cognitive engagement, imagery engagement, and user attitudes and behavioral intentions. The chapter acknowledges and seeks to remedy the challenge associated with integrating conceptual frameworks of user engagement into design principles.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adamo-Villani, N., Richardson, J., Carpenter, E., Moore, G.: A photorealistic 3d virtual laboratory for undergraduate instruction in Microcontroller Technology. In: 33rd SIGGRAPH 2006 (S. 21). ACM, New York (2006)
Agarwal, R., Karahanna, E.: Time flies when you’re having fun: cognitive absorption and beliefs about information technology usage. MIS Q 24, 665–694 (2000). doi:10.2307/3250951
Askwith, I.D.: Television 2.0: reconceptualizing TV as an engagement medium. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chicago (2007)
Attfield, S., Kazai, G., Lalmas, M., Piwowarski, B.: Towards a science of user engagement (Position Paper). In: WSDM Workshop on User Modeling for Web Applications (2011)
Bellur, S., Sundar, S.S.: Interactivity as conversation: Can back and forth interactions affect user cognitions and attitudes? Paper presented at the 63rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, London (2013)
Bhargava, H.K., Feng, J.: America Online’s Internet access service: how to deter unwanted customers. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl. 4 (1), 35–48 (2005)
Biocca, F.: Virtual reality technology: a tutorial. J. Commun. 42 (4), 23–72 (1992). doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00811.x
Bucy, E.P.: Interactivity in society: locating an elusive concept. Inf. Soc. 20, 373–383 (2004). doi:10.1080/01972240490508063
Bucy, E., Tao, C.-C.: The mediated moderation model of interactivity. Media Psychol. 9 (3), 647–672 (2007). doi:10.1080/15213260701283269
Busselle, R., Bilandzic, H.: Fictionality and perceived realism in experiencing stories: a model of narrative comprehension and engagement. Commun. Theory 18 (2), 255–280 (2008)
Busselle, R., Bilandzic, H.: Measuring narrative engagement. Media Psychol. 12 (4), 321–347 (2009)
Calder, B.J., Malthouse, E.C., Schaedel, U.: An experimental study of the relationship between online engagement and advertising effectiveness. J. Interact. Mark. 23 (4), 321–331 (2009)
Carr, N.G.: The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. W.W. Norton, New York (2010)
Cha, M., Haddadi, H., Benevenuto, F., Gummadi, K.P.: Measuring userinfluence in twitter: the million follower fallacy. In: 4th International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM), vol. 14(1), pp. 8–17 (2010)
Chapman, P., Selvarajah, S., Webster, J.: Engagement in multimedia training systems. In: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences (1999). doi:10.1109/HICSS.1999.772808
Chu, S.C., Kim, Y.: Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites. Int. J. Advert. 30 (1), 47–75 (2011)
Coyle, J.R., Thorson, E.: The effects of progressive levels of interactivity and vividness in Web marketing sites. J. Advert. 30, 65–77 (2001)
Cunningham, T., Hall, A.S., Young, C.: The advertising magnifier effect: an MTV study. J. Advert. Res. 46 (4), 369 (2006)
Dobele, A., Toleman, D., Beverland, M.: Controlled infection! Spreading the brand message through viral marketing. Bus. Horiz. 48 (2), 143–149 (2005)
Dobrian, F., Sekar, V., Awan, A., Stoica, I., Joseph, D., Ganjam, A., Zhang, H.: Understanding the impact of video quality on user engagement. ACM SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev. 41 (4), 362–373 (2011)
Dow, S., Mehta, M., Harmon, E., MacIntyre, B., Mateas, M.: Presence and engagement in an interactive drama. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1475–1484. ACM, New York (2007)
Evans, D.: Soc Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. Wiley, Hoboken (2010)
Eveland, W.P., Marton, K., Seo, M.: Moving beyond “just the facts”: the influence of online news on the content and structure of public affairs knowledge. Commun. Res. 31 (1), 82–108 (2004)
Falls, J.: What’s the value of social media “engagement?” The Financial Brand. http://thefinancialbrand.com/35062/social-media-engagement-in-banking/ (2013). Cited 15 Feb 2015
Fazio, R.H., Zanna, M.P., Cooper, J.: Direct experience and attitude-behavior consistency: an information processing analysis. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 4 (1), 48–51 (1978). doi:10.1177/014616727800400109
Green, M.C., Brock, T.C.: The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 79 (5), 701 (2000)
Harden, L., Heyman, B.: Digital Engagement: Internet Marketing that Captures Customers and Builds Intense Brand Loyalty. AMACOM, New York (2009)
Hayes, A.F.: Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. Guilford, New York (2013)
Heath, R.: How do we predict advertising attention and engagement? University of Bath School of Management Working Paper Series. http://opus.bath.ac.uk/286/1/2007-09.pdf (2007). Cited 15 Feb 2015
Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K.P., Walsh, G. Gremler, D.D.: Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: what motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the internet? J. Interact. Mark. 18 (1), 38–52 (2004)
Hu, Y., Sundar, S.S. Effects of online health sources on credibility and behavioral intentions. Commun. Res. 37 (1), 105–132 (2010). doi:10.1177/0093650209351512
IJsselsteijn, W.A., de Ridder, H., Freeman, J., Avons, S.: Presence: concept, determinants and measurement. Proc. SPIE, Hum. Vis. Electron. Imaging V 3959, 520–529 (2000). doi:10.1177/0093650209351512
Indvik, L.: Cost Per Like: A Subjective Valuation of Your Facebook Fans. http://mashable.com/2013/04/26/facebook-cost-per-like/ (2013). Cited 15 Feb 2015
Jacques, R., Preece, J., Carey T.: Engagement as a design concept for multimedia. Can. J. Educ. Commun. 24 (1), 49–59 (1995)
Kalyanaraman, S., Sundar, S.: The psychological appeal of personalized content in web portals: does customization affect attitudes and behavior? J. Commun. 56 (1), 110–132 (2006)
Klein, L.R.: Creating virtual product experiences: the role of telepresence. J. Interact. Mark. 17, 41–55 (2003). doi:10.1002/dir.10046
Lee, S.-S. Lee, W.: Exploring effectiveness of physical metaphor in interaction design. In: CHI 2009 Proceedings. ACM, Boston (2009)
Li, H., Daugherty, T., Biocca, F.: Impact of 3-D advertising on product knowledge, brand attitude, and purchase intention: the mediating role of presence. J. Advert. 31 (3), 43–57 (2002)
Lindgaard, G., Dudek, C., Sen, D., Sumegi, L., Noonan, P.: An exploration of relations between visual appeal, trustworthiness and perceived usability of homepages. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 18 (1), 1–28 (2011)
Liu, Y., Shrum, L.J.: What is interactivity and is it always such a good thing? Implications of definition, person, and situation for the influence of interactivity on advertising effectiveness. J. Advert. 31 (4), 53–64 (2002)
Liu, Y., Shrum, L.J.: A dual-process model of interactivity effects. J. Advert. 38 (2), 53–68 (2009)
McMillan, S.J.: A four-part model of cyber-interactivity: some cyber-places are more interactive than others. New Media Soc. 4 (2), 271–291 (2002)
Mollen, A., Wilson, H.: Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives. J. Bus. Res. 63 (9), 919–925 (2010)
O’Brien, H., Toms, E.G.: What is user engagement? A conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 59 (6), 938–955 (2008)
O’Brien, H., Toms, E.G.: The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 61 (1), 50–69 (2010)
Oh, J., Bellur, S., Sundar, S.S.: Clicking, assessing, immersing and sharing: an empirical model of user engagement with interactive media. Commun. Res. (2015). doi:10.1177/0093650215600493 [Published online before print September 21, 2015] (in press)
Oh, J., Sundar, S. S.: How does interactivity persuade? Effects of interactivity on cognitive absorption, elaboration, and attitudes. J. Commun. 65, 213–236 (2015)
Parsons, T.: Generating ‘Engagement’ on Facebook Is Just The Beginning. The Financial Brand. http://thefinancialbrand.com/37709/facebook-engagement-roi-metrics-in-banking/ (2014). Cited 15 Feb 2015
Plummer, J., Cook, B., Diforio, D., Schachter, B., Sokolyanskaya, I. Korde, T.: Measures of Engagement. Advertising Research Foundation, New York (2007)
Rafaeli, S.: From new media to communication. Sage Annual Rev. Commun. Res. 16, 110–134 (1988)
Reeves, B., Nass, C.: The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1997)
Reeves, B., Nass, C.: Perceptual user interfaces: perceptual bandwidth. Commun. ACM 43 (3), 65–70 (2000)
Rogers, A.M.: The Virtuous Cycle: Online News, Industry Change and User Choice. Res Pap 104. http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/gs_rp/104 (2011). Cited 15 Feb 2015
Schlosser, A.E.: Experiencing products in the virtual world: the rule of goal and imagery in influencing attitudes versus purchase intentions. J. Consum. Res. 30, 184–198 (2003)
Shepard, R.N.: The mental image. Am. Psychol. 33 (2), 125–137 (1978). doi:10.1037/0003-066X.33.2.125
Slater, M.D. Rouner, D.: Entertainment, education and elaboration likelihood: understanding the processing of narrative persuasion. Commun. Theory 12 (2), 173–191 (2002)
Smith, R.E., Swinyard, W.R.: Cognitive response to advertising and trial: belief strength, belief confidence and product curiosity. J. Advert. 17 (3), 3–14 (1988)
Steuer, J.: Defining virtual reality: dimensions determining telepresence. J. Commun. 42 (4), 73–93 (1992)
Strange, J.J., Leung, C.C.: How anecdotal accounts in news and in fiction can influence judgments of a social problem’s urgency, causes, and cures. Personal. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 25 (4), 436–449 (1999)
Stromer-Galley, J.: Interactivity-as-product and interactivity-as-process. Inf. Soc. 20 (5), 391–394 (2004)
Sundar, S.S.: Multimedia effects on processing and perception of online news: a study of picture, audio, and video downloads. J. Mass Commun. Q. 77, 480–499 (2000). doi:10.1177/107769900007700302
Sundar, S.S.: Social psychology of interactivity in human-website interaction. In: Joinson, A.N., McKenna, K.Y.A., Postmes, T., Reips, U.-D. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology, pp. 89–104. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007)
Sundar, S.S.: The MAIN model: a heuristic approach to understanding technology effects on credibility. In: Metzger, M.J., Flanagin, A.J. (eds.) Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility, pp. 72–100. MIT, Cambridge (2008)
Sundar, S.S., Marathe, S.S.: Personalization versus customization: the importance of agency, privacy, and power usage. Hum. Commun. Res. 36 (3), 298–322 (2010)
Sundar, S.S., Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Hastall, M.R.: News cues: information scent and cognitive heuristics. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 58 (3), 366–378 (2007)
Sundar, S.S., Xu, Q., Bellur, S., Jia, H., Oh, J., Khoo, G.-S.: Click, drag, flip, and mouse-over: effects of modality interactivity on user engagement with web content. Paper presented at the 60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Singapore (2010)
Sundar, S.S., Oh, J., Bellur, S., Jia, H., Kim, H.S.: Interactivity as self-expression: a field experiment with customization and blogging. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 395–404. ACM, New York (2012)
Sundar, S.S., Bellur, S., Oh, J., Xu, Q., Jia, H.: User experience of on-screen interaction techniques: an experimental investigation of clicking, sliding, zooming, hovering, dragging and flipping. Hum. Comput. Interact. 29 (2), 109–152 (2014)
Sundar, S.S., Bellur, S., Oh, J., Jia, H., Kim, H.S.: Theoretical importance of contingency in human-computer interaction: effects of message interactivity on user engagement. Commun. Res. (2014). doi:10.1177/0093650214534962. http://crx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/21/0093650214534962 [Published online before print on May 22, 2014] (in press)
Sutcliffe, A.: Designing for user engagement: aesthetic and attractive user interfaces. Synth. Lect. Hum.-Cent. Inform. 2 (1), 1–55 (2009)
Tavanti, M., Lind, M.: 2D vs 3D, Implications on spatial memory. In: Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization (INFOVIS’01), San Diego, 22–23 October, pp. 139–148 (2001)
Venkatesh, V., Davis, F.D.: A theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. Manag. Sci. 46 (2), 186–204 (2000)
Vorderer, P.: Entertainment theory. In: Bryant, J., Roskos-Ewoldsen, D., Cantor, J. (eds.) Communication and Emotion: Essays in Honor of Dolf Zimmerman, pp. 131–153. Erlbaum, Mahwah (2003)
Wang, A.: Advertising engagement: a driver of message involvement on message effects. J. Advert. Res. 46 (4), 355–368 (2006)
Webster, J., Ho, H.: Audience engagement in multimedia presentations. ACM SIGMIS Database 28 (2), 63–77 (1997)
Wise, K., Bolls, P.D., Schaefer, S.R.: Choosing and reading online news: how available choice affects cognitive processing. J. Broadcast Electron. Media 52 (1), 69–85 (2008)
Witmer, B.G., Singer, M.J.: Measuring presence in virtual environments: a presence questionnaire. Presence 7 (3), 225–240 (1998). doi:10.1162/105474698565686
Wu, G., Wu, G.: Conceptualizing and measuring the perceived interactivity of websites. J. Curr. Issues Res. Advert. 28 (1), 87–104 (2006)
Xu, Q., Sundar, S.S.: Lights, camera, music, interaction! Interactive persuasion in e-commerce. Commun. Res. 41 (2), 282–308 (2014). doi:10.1177/0093650212439062
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oh, J., Sundar, S.S. (2016). User Engagement with Interactive Media: A Communication Perspective. In: O'Brien, H., Cairns, P. (eds) Why Engagement Matters. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27446-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27446-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27444-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27446-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)