I am what i watch: Voyeurism, sensation seeking, and television viewing patterns

Abstract

This article investigates the role of viewers' personality traits, sensation-seeking, and voyeurism in relation to reported consumption of voyeuristic program content in various television genres. A uses and gratifications approach was employed to identify factors predicting appeal of particular TV programs. The study combines two types of media research: survey and content analysis. Results were combined to create the Voyeurism Television Consumption Index (VTCI) for each genre of TV programming. Both sensation-seeking and voyeurism predict media selection, with voyeuristic personality a better predictor of VTCI across genres. Implications of the findings are discussed. © 2010 Broadcast Education Association.