Linking perceived film and television narrative rhythm with audience emotional immersion: the mediating paths of attention allocation and narrative transportation

Introduction With the trend of fragmented and mobile film and television viewing, narrative rhythm has become an important factor closely related to audience experience. Drawing upon foundational cognitive attentional principles and narrative transportation theory, this study examines the associative mechanisms and structural paths linking perceived film and television narrative rhythm (PNR) with audience emotional immersion (EI). Methods Based on cross-sectional survey data collected from 1,074 participants, the study employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Bootstrap resampling procedures (5,000 resamples) to evaluate direct and indirect associations among variables, while controlling for trait empathy and demographic characteristics. Results Perceived narrative rhythm was significantly and positively associated with emotional immersion. Attention allocation (AA) and narrative transportation (NT) each demonstrated significant independent indirect associations between perceived rhythm and emotional immersion, while jointly constituting a significant chain mediation pathway: perceived narrative rhythm → attention allocation → narrative transportation → emotional immersion. Following the inclusion of these mediating variables, the residual direct association between perceived rhythm and emotional immersion was no longer significant. This associative pattern demonstrated consistency across gender, age, and viewing device subgroups. Discussion The findings illustrate the sequential cognitive and experiential patterns whereby audiences transition from cognitive resource allocation to story space involvement during media processing. This study provides an empirical foundation from a psychological perspective for understanding audience media engagement and emotional immersion in the mobile digital era.