Fear Can Be Contagious Even Through Screens! A Discussion on the Perceived Realism within the Ghost Story Community and the Influence of Emotional Contagion on Enjoyment Experience A Case Study on the PTT Marvel Board

• Main Authors: Chou, Yu-Hsuan, 周昱璇
• Other Authors: Chen, Yen-Shen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/3pd5xc

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 傳播研究所 === 107 === This study looks at the ghost story community that has become wildly popular in recent years, seeking to explore the entertainment experience of audience by applying experimental methods. This study points out that even though the ghost story community is rendered only by means of texts, it holds two main features that make itself irreplaceable. The first being the ‘Perceived Realism’ within the narratives, for most ghost stories are based on true experience of the community members; The second being the ‘emotional contagion’ exclusive to this community, meaning that the interactions on this social media may cause the emotion of fear to become contagious among the audience. In addition, this study examines whether the ghost story community can only give rise to a sense of presence through texts. The result indicates that best enjoyment experience can be created when the stories are highly authentic and the emotion of fear can be detected from the comments. The ghost story community allows the audience to feel accompanied. However, perceived realism is still the main sources of enjoyment, while comments with fear holds sway over the audience. Furthermore, the sense of presence is also a crucial element within the ghost story community.