Parasocial relationships and interactions in social networking sites. A conceptual review

Article Sidebar

Comunicación y Redes Sociales
PDF (Spanish) Figura 1 (Spanish) Figura 2 (Spanish) Figura 3 (Spanish) Título y resumen en inglés (Spanish)
Published: 01-07-2015
Accepted: 24-06-2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v13i2.853
Keywords:
parasocial interactions and relationships (PSI), social networking sites, online communication, bots, fans, twitter
Dimensions

Main Article Content

Lucía Caro Castaño
(ES)
University of Cádiz image/svg+xml
lucia.caro@uca.es

Abstract

It is developed in this paper an upgrade of the notion of parasocial experience. This concept was originally coined by Horton and Wohl in 1956 to describe the illusion of reciprocal interaction that many audience members experienced towards the acting of certain performers in the mass media programs, especially television. From the observation of communicative practices developed by users in social media platforms, a reformulation of this classical concept is proposed to fit the context of these new spaces. Also, it is proposed a specific typology of parasocial experiences developed in the social media’s context. Finally it is discussed how users negotiate the construction of reciprocal relationships in a public space of high visibility like Twitter and how they define some policies of forced reciprocal linking as the label #FFBack express.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2015): Communication and Social Networks

Section

Monograph

Author Biography

Lucía Caro Castaño, University of Cádiz

Personal Docente e Investigador en el Departamento de Marketing y Comunicación.

Publicaciones previas:

Caro Castaño, Lucía (2014): Prácticas informativas potencialmente infoxicadoras para posicionar la marca personal. Un análisis etnográfico en Twitter. Revista Ámbitos, 24. Disponible en: http://ambitoscomunicacion.com/2014/practicas-informativas-potencialmente-infoxicadoras-para-posicionar-la-marca-personal-un-analisis-netnografico-en-twitter/

Caro Castaño, Lucía (2012): Identidad mosaico. La encarnación del yo en las redes sociales digitales. Revista TELOS, 91, abril-junio. Disponible en: http://sociedadinformacion.fundacion.telefonica.com/DYC/TELOS/REVISTA/Dossier/DetalleArtculoTELOS_91TELOS_DOSSIER1/seccion=1266&idioma=es_ES&id=2012042611500002&activo=6.do

How to Cite

Caro Castaño, L. (2015). Parasocial relationships and interactions in social networking sites. A conceptual review. Journal ICONO 14, 13(2), 23-47. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v13i2.853

References

Bakshy, E., Hofman, J., Mason, W. & Watts, D. (2011). Everyone is an influencer: quantifying influence on Twitter. VVAA. Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on web search and data mining (pp. 65-74). New York: ACM Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1935826.1935845

Barabási, A. (2002). Linked: How everything is connected to everything else. New York: Basic Books.

Castells, M. (2009). Comunicación y poder. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Coronado, M., López, A., Iglesias, C. & Garijo, M. (2011). TutorGSI: aplicación de tecnologías de bots a entornos LMS. Revista de Educación a Distancia, 20, 1-12. Disponible en: http://oa.upm.es/12270/1/INVE_MEM_2011_109506.pdf [recuperado el 12-03-2015].

De Backer, C., Nelissen, M., Vyncke, P., Braeckman, J. & McAndrew, F. (2007). Celebrities: from teachers to friends. Human Nature, 18(4), 334-354. doi: 10.1007/s12110-007-9023-z DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-007-9023-z

Gershon, I. (2010). The breakup 2.0: disconnecting over new media. New York: Cornell University Press.

Giles, D. (2002). Parasocial interaction: A review of the literature and a model for future research. Media Psychology, 4(3), 279-305. doi: 10.1207/S1532785XMEP0403_04 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0403_04

Goel, S., Watts, D. & Goldstein, D. (2012). The structure of online diffusion networks. VVAA. Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on electronic commerce (pp. 623-638). New York: ACM Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2229012.2229058

Hartmann, T. (2008). “Parasocial interactions and paracommunication with new media characters”. Konijn, E., Utz, S., Tanis, M. & Barne, S. (eds.): Mediated interpersonal communication (pp. 177-199). New York: Routledge.

Hartmann, T. & Goldhoorn, C. (2011). Horton and Wohl revisited: exploring viewers’ experience of parasocial interaction. Journal of Communication 61, 1104-1121. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01595.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01595.x

Horton, D. & Strauss, A. (1957). Interaction in audience-participation shows. American Journal of Sociology, 62(6), 579-587. Disponible en: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2773133 [recuperado el 28-03-2015]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/222106

Horton, D. & Wohl, R. (2006). Mass communication and para-social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. Particip@tions, 3 [re-publicado en línea]. Disponible en: http://www.participations.org/volume%203/issue%201/3_01_hortonwohl.htm [recuperado el: 22-12-2013].

Kaplan, A. & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003

Katz, E., Blumler, J. & Gurevitch, M. (1985). Usos y gratificaciones de la comunicación de masas. Moragas, M. (ed.). Sociología de la comunicación de masas (pp. 127-171). Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.

Lee, E. & Shin, S. (2012). Are they talking to me? Cognitive and affective effects of interactivity in politicians’ Twitter communication. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 15(10), 515-520. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2012.0228 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0228

Martín-Barbero, J. (2010). De los medios a las mediaciones. Comunicación, cultura y hegemonía. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.

Marshall, P. D. (2010). The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media. Celebrity Studies, 1(1), 35-48. doi: 10.1080/19392390903519057 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19392390903519057

Marwick, A. & Boyd, D. (2011). To see and be seen: celebrity practice on Twitter. Convergence, 17(2), 139-158. doi: 10.1177/1354856510394539 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856510394539

Men, L. & Tsai, W. (2013). Beyond liking or following: understanding public engagement on social networking sites in China. Public Relations Review, 39(1), 13-22. doi: 10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.09.013 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.09.013

Page, R. (2012). The linguistics of self-branding and micro-celebrity in Twitter: The role of hashtags. Discourse & Communication, 6(2), 181-201. doi: 10.1177/1750481312437441 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481312437441

Putnam, R. (2002). Solo en la bolera. Colapso y resurgimiento de la comunidad norteamericana. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg.

Rubin, A., Perse, E. & Powell, R. (1985). Loneliness, parasocial interaction, and local television news viewing. Human Communication Research, 12(2), 155-180. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.1985.tb00071.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1985.tb00071.x

Sheeks, M. & Birchmeier, Z. (2007). Shyness, sociability and the use of computer-mediated communication in relationship development. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour, 10(1), 64-70. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2006.9991. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9991

Thompson, C. (2008): Brave new world of digital intimacy. Nytimes.com, 05-09-2008. Disponible en: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html?_r=1 [recuperado el: 26-03-2015].

Tufekzi, Z. (2014). A brief primer on human social networks, or how to keep $16 billion in your pocket. Medium.com/@zeinep, 22-02-2014. Disponible en: https://medium.com/@zeynep/a-brief-primer-on-human-social-networks-or-how-to-keep-16-billion-in-your-pocket-c290c8ac23dd [recuperado el 26-03-2015].

VVAA (2013). V Oleada del Observatorio de las redes sociales en España [informe en línea]. Madrid/Barcelona, The Cocktail Analysis. Disponible en: http://es.slideshare.net/TCAnalysis/5-oleada-observatorio-redes-sociales [recuperado el: 26-03-2015].

Walther, J. (1996): Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43. doi: 10.1177/009365096023001001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/009365096023001001

Wu, S., Hofman, J., Mason, W. & Watts, D. (2011). Who says what to whom on Twitter. VVAA. Proceedings of the 20th international conference on World Wide Web (pp. 705-714). New York: ACM Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1963405.1963504

Zappavigna, M. (2011). Ambient affiliation: A linguistic perspective on Twitter. New Media & Society, 13(5), 788-806. doi: 10.1177/1461444810385097. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444810385097

Zhao, S. & Elesh, D. (2008). Copresence as ‘being with’. Social contact in online public domains. Information, Communication & Society, 11(4), 565-583. doi: 10.1080/13691180801998995 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801998995