3-31-09 Lecture Summary

Professor Rudd taught us about parasocial interactions. The interactions are defined as a one-sided relationship with a media figure, and were thorougly studied by the psychologists Horton and Wohl. As Rudd pointed out, parasocial interactions aren't really relationships at all, since a "relationship" necessarily involves at least two people. Still, parasocial interactions have a profound impact on our lives and the way we interact with other people.

Rudd then explained the interpersonal relational theory and how it is applied to parasocial interactions. The theory states that people don't disclose secret information until they're confident that the listener has earned their trust (over time). This effect can be thought of visually as a bull's-eye, in which each ring signifies a different level of the depth of information willingly disclosed. The outer ring signifies casual, surface information such as name or physical appearance. While moving toward the center of the bull's-eye, each ring signifies increasingly personal, secretive details that require more time and comfortability with someone in order to be readily shared.

Interestingly enough, we also learned that there is no correlation between loneliness and high parasocial interactions. Likewise, social skills do not correlate to high parasocial interactions. However, research has found that fewer opportunities for social relationships predict higher parasocial interactions.

Lastly, Rudd described ways in which media producers use parasocial relationships. One way is that producers focus on making productions (and personalities) seem more realistic. Other ways are frequency and consistency of appearance (of a certain actor, host, etc.), stylized behavior and conversational manner, and the effective use of the formal characteristics of television.