Article : Mediated vs. Parasocial Relationships: An Attachment Perspective

by Gayle S. Stever, January 2013

This article delineates the distinctions between mediated and parasocial relationships before outlining the key aspects of parasocial theory and suggesting that the theory be expanded to consistently include parasocial attachment as a category distinct from parasocial relationships. Parasocial theory involves interactions, relationships and attachments between people of differing status such that one person is well known to the other but that knowing is not reciprocated. As media become more pervasive in the day-to-day lives of individuals, it becomes more and more important to understand the mechanisms whereby parasocial interaction, relationships, and attachments function in both development and social life. This paper proposed an integrated theory of parasocial dynamics, drawing principally from communications studies and psychology, while also recognizing the contributions of sociology and anthropology. Parasocial attachment is proposed to be a form of classical human attachment as defined by Bowlby (1969) and Ainsworth (1978), and the qualities and characteristics that define the other two identified forms of attachment, infant-caregiver and adult romantic, apply equally well to parasocial attachment.