Parasocial Interaction with Media Characters

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to understand the nature of the parasocial interaction with media characters, to have knowledge about the causes and to review important previous researches on parasocial interaction. In this way, it is aimed to have information about the premises of the parasocial interaction and the variables it is associated with and to determine the possible effects of these variables on social life. Considering the previous studies, it is seen that the focus is on the relationships with the character in the series. For this reason, this study focuses mainly on the interaction with characters of series. In the study, firstly, the nature and premises of the concept of parasocial interaction are mentioned, and then the similarities of this interaction with interpersonal relations are mentioned. Finally, some researches and some suggestions were made about this subject, in which parasocial interaction was examined especially in terms of age, gender, loneliness and social anxiety.

Keywords

• parasocial interaction
• television series
• media characters
• parasosyal etkileşim