Congratulations to assistant professor Dr. Matthew Grizzard and PhD student Joe Francemone, whose recent study has been published in the Journal of Communication.

The paper, entitled "Interdependence of Narrative Characters: Implications for Media Theories," examines affective disposition theory and character interdependence in narratives.

"This paper represents what we think will begin a fundamental shift in how we design and conduct research on story characters," said Grizzard. "Our work demonstrates that viewers don’t judge story characters individually. Rather, a viewer’s perception of one character influences their perception of other characters, which implies that characters within narratives exist in a closed narrative ecosystem. This phenomenon, which we call character interdependence, has important ramifications for communication research and story creators."

Read the full article in the Journal of Communication.