User-message interaction and autonomy

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For those who are not familiar with the 360-degree picture, their original ability to use social media is undermined. As mentioned by Ryan, Rigby, & Przybylski (2006, p350), institutive controls are defined as "easily mastered" controls which "do not interfere with one's sense of being in the game." While using the 360-degree picture, the interactivity will turn mobile devices into a less institutive control device. As a result, for those who have not known the 360-degree picture, they will get a lower sense of competence because they cannot exert their will to control the picture’s directions smoothly. This study hypothesizes that people’s expertise of the 360-degree picture will influence how the users on the Gogoro fan club’s level of competence when they interact with the 360-degree picture. Moreover, the competence will be higher among those who interact with the 360-degree picture when the user has the expertise of the 360-degree picture. Otherwise, the competence will be lower among those who interact with the 360-degree picture when the user is not familiar with the 360-degree picture, comparing with the conventional picture.

H1a Interacting with the 360-degree picture will cause a higher perception of competence than seeing the conventional picture for participants with the expertise of the degree picture, but will not for those subjects without the expertise of the 360-degree picture.

2.3.2 User-message interaction and autonomy

The aspect of user-machine interactivity alone is not adequate to capture the feature of 360-degree technology. With the emerging of user-generated 360-degree pictures and videos on social media, the way that the audiences interpret the embedded message in 360-degree storytelling is worthy of studying. Kwok and Yu (2013) examined that on restaurants’ fan page, showing photos can receive the highest likes and comments

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because the message is more straightforward to the audience. Su, Reynolds, & Sun (2015) found that in a hotel’s Facebook fan page, pictures is a controversial approach because it can boost sharing but hinder comment on the post. These content analysis findings can be explained by the study of Schnotz (2005) that picture comprehension is perception-based processing, in which visuospatial patterns is crucial to short-term and long-term memory. This study further explores how the 360-degree picture’s visual comprehension plus interactivity can influence the audience.

When it comes to interactive narratives, the readers have to determine the direction of story plots rather than witness the story, and interactive narratives can facilitate the user's identification with the characters more than traditional narratives because they can put themselves in the character's shoes (Green & Jenkins, 2014). With the interactivity, the audiences are capable of placing themselves in the story with the character, leading to higher media enjoyment, comparing to traditional media (Green, Brock, & Kaufman, 2004). SDT has been applied to explain the needs satisfaction derived from the narrative. For example, in a heroic narrative, no matter the medium is a book, video game, or massively multiplayer online games, the readers or players can develop their identification with the hero and gain a sense of autonomy (Rigby &

Przybylski, 2009). That is, the audiences enjoy immersing themselves in the story narrative because they imagine that they have the freedom to exert their will as being the hero. Likewise, this study expects that the users in the social media-based brand community can mirror themselves in other member's pictures of the Gogoro trip. The 360-degree interactivity will trigger the user’s identification because there is more spatial-visual space for imagination than a flat picture. Currently, there is a scarce explanation about how the interactivity of seeing a picture’s different directions can motivate the audience’s identification through autonomy.

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The current study argues that the users who look at the 360-degree picture can decide how much he or she is willing to explore the photographer’s perspectives within the picture. With the freedom to look at different directions, the level of autonomy in media use will get higher. That is, the user gains a sense of choice and volition derived from making decisions and actions to switch the angles in the 360-degree picture. The fulfillment of autonomy will intrinsically motivate people to look for more interesting and enjoyable perspectives in the 360-degree picture. There will be a long second of transportation into the panoramic picture’s scenario, comparing to a flat picture.

Specifically, when the users interact with the 360-degree picture, they can feel as if they are standing in the center of the place, which has shared the identification of the figure in the picture. Thus, the users can identify further with the scooter owner in the Gogoro online community and the activity of traveling around Taiwan with Gogoro.

However, not every community member is considered the same level of identification while looking at the 360-degree picture. According to Shin (2018), in the VR environment, only users with high empathy personality traits can strongly feel the character’s emotion and situation. That is, in the context of Gogoro owners, this study should take into account the 360-degree interactivity and the aspect of the media user’s original identification with the Gogoro trip. For those who have experienced the Gogoro trip, they can gain a higher emotional and cognitive process toward the picture. As a result, this study assumes that the behavior of exploring the 360-degree picture’s different directions will positively related to the user’s autonomy, comparing to those who see the flat picture, among the owner who has experienced Gogoro trip; otherwise, people without Gogoro trip experience will show no difference on the level of autonomy while interacting with the 360-degree picture, comparing to the flat picture.

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H1b Interacting with the 360-degree picture will cause a higher perception of autonomy than seeing the conventional picture for participants with the experience of the Gogoro trip, but will not for those subjects without the experience of the Gogoro trip.