Although scholars have generated much research examining enjoyment of mediated sports, much of it has failed to explore how visual production elements shape viewer response. This study examines the impact of one increasingly common technique, subjective camera, on viewer arousal and enjoyment of game play. Participants viewed multiple plays from a college football game R. Glenn Cummins (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 2005) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His research interests include the impact of various structural, content, and user characteristics on the enjoyment of media entertainment. Justin R. Keene (M.A., Texas Tech University, 2009) is a dual-Ph.D. student in the Department of Telecommunications and the Cognitive Science program at Indiana University. His research interests include motivated cognition, differential cognitive processing of sports fans, and cognitive modeling. Brandon H. Nutting (M.A., Texas Tech University, 2009) is a doctoral candidate in the College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech University. His research interests include cognitive processing of mediated messages and time perception.

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This study, based on previous work, investigated the interaction of camera angle, arousing content, and an individual’s general and school-specific fanship on the cognitive processing of and emotional reactions to sport communication from a top-down and bottom-up perspective. Cognitive processing was defined as the resources available for encoding and was indexed using secondary-task reaction times, and self-reported positivity, negativity, and arousal were also measured as an index of emotional reactions. Results indicate that general and school-specific fanship have differential effects on cognitive processing and emotional reactions. In addition, in a replication of previous work, it would appear that different camera angles do not have different effects on cognitive processing. The implications of the top-down and bottom-up approach for the sport communication experience are discussed for both sport researchers and sport communication practitioners.

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