Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap 2025

Abstract

Among media effects theories, the concept of ‘resonance’ has featured some of the most widely used theories in communication, namely Cultivation, Media Framing, and Media Entertainment. In these theories, resonance denotes eudaimonic experiences of meaning-making that make media content relevant and meaningful for audiences with similar characteristics and lived experiences as those represented in media content. Despite of its long-standing presence in these communication theories, resonance has not been yet theorized as a coherent theoretical model of media effects. The current article develops a Theory of Resonant Experiences with Media (TREM) by reviewing existing approaches to resonance in media psychological literature and by integrating such perspectives with contributions about resonance in cultural sociology. After presenting the model and its assumptions, we conclude with methodological suggestions to empirically test the TREM model, about the measurement of resonance, the temporality, and the strength of resonant effects.