Presence and television - The role of screen size

Film and a number of emerging entertainment technologies offer media consum ers an illusion of nonmediation known as presence. To investigate the possi bility that television can evoke presence, 65 undergraduate students were s hown brief examples of rapid point-of-view movement from commercially avail able videotapes on a television with either a small screen (12 inches [30.5 cm] measured diagonally) or a large screen (46 inches 1116.8 cm]). Partici pants' responses were measured via a questionnaire and a computer-based rec ording of arousal (electrodermal activity). Viewers of both televisions rep orted an enjoyable sense of physical movement, excitement involvement, and a sense of participation. Furthermore, as predicted, participants who watch ed the large screen television thought the movement in the scenes was faste r, experienced a greater sense of physical movement, enjoyed the movement t o a greater extent, found the viewing experience more exciting, and were mo re physiologically aroused. Practical and theoretical implications are disc ussed.