TAF PUBLISHING

This article introduces the layers of engagement audiences transition through while consuming media content online. Specifically, the consumption of short-form online cartoons. The article contributes a new layered engagement model, building from wider literature, which considers concepts including involvement, flow, and value. This innovative model introduces the notions of deep and light engagement, as well as deep and light engagement experiences and behaviors, which influence and result from engagement. These levels of engagement represent the extremes of different layers audiences transition through as they ebb and flow from one object of consumption to another in highly competitive online environments. This engagement understanding is evidenced in practice with a case study that observes the development of audience engagement with online cartoons. The case study highlights content producers' difficulties in successfully engaging audiences with their creative ideas. This article, therefore, has both theoretical and practical implications. From the theoretical perspective, the article contributes a new understanding of engagement relevant to a media consumption environment subject to abstractness, subjectivity, and uniqueness and where goods are stripped of their tangible nature. From a practical perspective, the article contributes valuable knowledge for producers working in these environments, in how engagement can be modeled for success and foresight into the difficulties that may be faced.