Conference Paper: Twitter as a Form of Parasocial Interaction: Implications for Parasocial Attachment

by Gayle S. Stever, September 2013

Transforming Audiences

This article addresses the presence of social media in our culture and the significance of interaction that takes place through social media. Specifically this research calls for a description of social interaction between/among a sample of celebrities and their fans on Twitter. It is a given that fans normally don’t have access to regular social interaction with their favorite celebrities. But for the subset of celebrities who participate regularly on Twitter, is that changing? What are the implications for such interaction? Is it to be taken seriously or is it a superficial way to communicate that is done principally for marketing purposes? When celebrities choose to Tweet, how often do they do this and to whom are their Tweets directed? Other celebrities? Fans? The media? Their friends? All of the above? In this study, analysis has been done of nine celebrities from US media (although their fans are from all over the world). The study describes the frequency and nature of the interaction between each celebrity and a sample of his or her fans. The data is both quantitative and qualitative and for the qualitative part of the study, Grounded Theory methods (Strauss, 1987) were used.