Transportation into Audio-visual Narratives: A Closer Look

Many scholars use Green and Brock’s (2000) transportation scale to measure the degree to which audiences become absorbed into a narrative. In a pair of studies, we explore if the scale performs the same in relation to text-based versus audio-visual (AV) narratives. In Study 1, 125 participants were exposed to one of two versions (text or AV) of the same narrative. A confirmatory factor analysis indicates that the scale is not unidimensional and the factor structure is not consistent between formats. Measurement invariance across the text and AV groups was not supported. In Study 2, a larger (N=498) more diverse sample was employed, as well as different stimuli. Again the scale was not unidimensional and measurement invariance was not supported. These results indicate the scale may not be valid for audio-visual narratives, and also suggest that the concept of transportation itself may be distinct depending on the medium.