Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences With Media Characters

In this article I argue that although the notion of identification with media characters is widely discussed in media research, it has not been carefully conceptualized or rig-orously tested in empirical audience studies. This study presents a theoretical discus-sion of identification, including a definition of identification and a discussion of the consequences of identification with media characters for the development of identity and socialization processes. It is suggested that a useful distinction can be made be-tween identification and other types of reactions that media audiences have to media characters. A critical look at media research involving identification exposes the in-herent conceptual problems in this research and leads to hypotheses regarding the antecedents and consequences of identification with media characters. The impor-tance of a theory of identification to media research and communication research, more broadly, is presented. When reading a novel or watching a film or a television program, audience members often become absorbed in the plot and identify with the characters portrayed. Unlike the more distanced mode of reception—that of spectatorship—identification is a mechanism through which audience members experience reception and interpreta-tionof the text fromthe inside,as if theeventswerehappening to them. Identification is tied to the social effects of media in general (e.g., Basil, 1996; Maccoby Wilson, 1957); to the learning of violence from violent films and television, specifically (Huesmann, Lagerspetz, Eron, 1984); and is a central mechanism for explaining such effects. As Morley (1992) said: “One can hardly imagine any television text having any effect whatever without that identification ” (p. 209). The most promi-