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Imaginary Social Worlds: A Cultural Approach.

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Abstract

The violent fantasies of such figures as Mark David Chapman, killer of John Lennon, and John Hinckley, would-be assassin of President Reagan, have commonly been interpreted, by professionals and public alike, as socially aberrant--as the result of psychological instability. John L. Caughey's provocative study shows not only that such fantasies are shaped by enculturation, but also that they are closely linked in content and form to the more benign imaginative constructs of "normal" Americans.A new departure in the study of American society, this book takes a cultural approach to imaginary social experience, viewing the imaginary social interactions in dreams, fantasies, memories, anticipations, media involvement, and hallucinations as social processes because they involve people in pseudo-interactions with images of other people. Drawing on his anthropological research in the United States, Pakistan, and Micronesia, Caughey explores from a phenomenological perspective the social patterning that prevails in each of these imaginary worlds. He analyzes the kinds of identities and roles the individual assumes and examines the kinds of interactions that are played out with imagined persons.Caughey demonstrates that imaginary social relationships dominate much of our subjective social experience. He also shows that these imaginary relationships have many important connections to actual social conduct. Moreover, cultural values dictate the texture of the mental processes: imaginary conversations both reflect and reinforce the basic beliefs of the society, imagined anticipations of the reactions of real other people can serve social control functions, and media figures affect actual social relations by serving as mentors and role models.Caughey's arresting reappraisal of the world of fantasy is, in the words of James P. Spradley, "an outstanding job of scholarship" and "a unique contribution to the field of anthropology in general, to the study of culture and cognition, and to the study of American culture specifically."

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... Significantly, the creation of imaginary relationships is not restricted to children. According to Caughey (1984), imaginary social relationships are a typical part of adults' social networks as well as children's, albeit in qualitatively different and culturally dictated ways. Whereas children may discuss their imaginary companions with others and involve them directly in their activities, adults regularly imagine conversations with real others or daydream about imaginary people (Caughey, 1984). ...
... According to Caughey (1984), imaginary social relationships are a typical part of adults' social networks as well as children's, albeit in qualitatively different and culturally dictated ways. Whereas children may discuss their imaginary companions with others and involve them directly in their activities, adults regularly imagine conversations with real others or daydream about imaginary people (Caughey, 1984). The cognitive processes that underlie the formation of imaginary companions in children and the imaginary social relationships of adults may be similar to each other and may bear some resemblance to the cognition surrounding real relationships. ...
... Children describe them as primarily amiable but imagine that they are difficult at times (Mauro, 1991), and on rare occasions children are frightened by them (Taylor, 1999). Children imagine conflicts between themselves and their companions (Taylor, 1999) or between multiple companions, and imagine that their companions are not always available when wanted (Caughey, 1984). Relationships with imaginary companions might thus include (or provide a venue for) conflicts and adjustments akin to those of real relationships, and a child's management of such difficulties might be reflective of how she or he understands the workings of real relationships. ...
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Preschool-aged children's perceptions of their social relationships were examined, including those with parents, best friends, siblings, and imaginary companions. Sixty 4-year-old children participated in an interview designed to measure perceptions of the degree of conflict, nurturance, instrumental help, and power available in their relationships. Three groups were compared: children with (a) invisible friends, (b) companions who were personified objects (e.g., dolls), and (c) no imaginary companion. Results indicated that children differentiated the relationships in their social networks according to provisions. Parent-child relationships afforded instrumental help and siblings were associated with conflict. Provisions of real and imaginary friendships were similar, although imaginary friends were preferred as objects of nurturance. Results imply that 4-year-old children have developed differentiated relationship schemas and that those of children with invisible friends may be particularly distinct.
... Although these relationships are one-sided, they are nonetheless real to the individual, and do share many similarities to social relationships (Perse & Rubin, 1989;Rubin & McHugh, 1987). While parasocial relationships may be regarded as more abstract and less intimate than close personal relationships, for many individuals, relationships with media characters or celebrities are a constant, substantial, and important part of their social worlds (Caughey, 1984). ...
... Further, parasocial relationships may function as a coping mechanism for individuals that suffer from loneliness and diminished interpersonal contact (Cohen, 1997). People may not necessarily use these relationships to replace existing relationships with friends, but rather as a way to complement their entire social network (Caughey, 1984;Kanazawa, 2002;Perse & Rubin, 1990;Tsao, 1996). ...
... An obvious extension to this research is to investigate how our results compare to other types of relationships. While it is known that parasocial relationships serve as a functional alternative to interpersonal relationships, the relationship is often one-sided and may be more abstract and less intimate than close social relationships (Caughey, 1984). Therefore, it would be fruitful to investigate how our results differ when compared to real social relationships (e.g. ...
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In three experiments, we show that a participant's parasocial relationship with a sports celebrity, ethical intent and regulatory focus orientation influence their forgiveness towards a celebrity's ethical transgression. First, people with a strong (vs. weak) positive parasocial relationship with a sports celebrity were more forgiving after a protective-intent motivated transgression, but were less forgiving after an acquisitive-intent motivated transgression. We then show promotion-focused individuals with a strong parasocial relationship in acquisitive-intent condition were more forgiving than prevention-focused individuals. Finally, even when subjects had a negative parasocial relationship with a celebrity, promotion-focused (vs. prevention-focused) individuals were more forgiving towards a protective intent-motivated transgression. Together, the results shed light on people's inclination to forgive sports celebrities that have committed ethical transgressions.
... Traditionally, as Tom et al. (1992) suggest, certain celebrities have different social powers, such as expert, referent, legitimate, coercive, and reward powers, which are useful for affecting consumers' perceptions. For instance, according to Caughey (1984Caughey ( , 1985Caughey ( , 1994), young people admire idols and consider or refine themselves to be similar to their idols. They imitate idols' physical appearances, abilities, and attitudes. ...
... McCracken's (1989) theory supports the process of value transfer from the celebrity to consumers via the brand, which indicates that endorsers can successfully persuade consumers to use the endorsed products. Psychologically, celebrity endorsements of pop stars, athletes, or experts can make consumers imitate endorsers, believe what they claim, and use the advertised products because of the endorser's performance (Caughey, 1984Caughey, , 1985Caughey, , 1994). Based on the previous studies, we believe that a positive relationship exists between celebrity endorsement and the credibility of television advertisements. ...
... Consumers, particularly those in the younger generation, will imitate their idols. The employment of cultural idols is a strategy to shorten the distance between celebrities and their followers to make consumers feel similar to their idols (Caughey, 1984Caughey, , 1985Caughey, , 1994). Idols who are credible as spokespersons lead to a strong consumer recall of the product and brand endorsed (Yoo & Donthu, 2001). ...
Article
This paper aims to examine the elements employed in television advertising, which affect consumer attitudes toward advertised products and brands. 384 young Chinese responded to a survey questionnaire. This paper finds that celebrity endorsement positively affects creativity in television advertising. The credibility of television advertisement positively affects the recall of products and brands. Celebrities in television advertising or people who have professional knowledge as endorsers decrease the credibility of television advertisements contrary to the results of previous research. Creativity in television advertising has a negative effect on the recalls of products and brands. This paper offers insight about the young generation's perception of television advertising in China. It provides a debated perspective that creativity in television advertising negatively affects product and brand recalls.
... There is precedence for this. For example, Caughey (1984Caughey ( , 1986) explored people's fantasies regarding their favorite celebrities. What he refers to as "pseudo communications" describe imagined, often detailed interactions involving celebrities. ...
... Sometimes, people take fantasies beyond the confines of the mind and into reality. "Groupies," Caughey (1984) argues, "represent a culturally recognized category of successful celebrity seekers who have managed to turn a fantasy attraction into a 'real ' relationship" (p. 46). ...
... Levy (1979) provided a rare study whose data suggested compensation as a function of parasociability. However, as Caughey (1984) argues, some fans may seek contact with mediated personae when they become dissatisfied with mediated PSRs. Fan club membership and fan mail are measures of this phenomenon. ...
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In America, socializing with friends has become a functional alternative to watching television. Such a drastic change in how we spend free time demands a closer look at media effects. The study at hand invokes intrapersonal communication research and parasocial interactions and relationships from the media effects literature, synthesizing a new line of research in the process. We ask, “What functions and characteristics of parasociability predict parasocial compensation for real-life interaction?” To explore this question, we combined data based on respondent identification numbers from two larger surveys that measured functions and characteristics of parasocial. An ordinary least squares regression with compensation as the focal variable revealed that parasocial thinking, when functioning as internal rehearsal and self-understanding, and when characterized by variety and self-dominance, predicts parasociability as compensation for human interaction. Retroactive parasocial thinking negatively predicted c...
... Rubin, Perse, & Powell, 1985) and qualitative research (e.g. Caughey, 1984) has examined the various outcomes (as well as their determinants) of the interactions audiences have with mediated personae. One such outcome of PSI is lingering parasocial relationships (PSRs). ...
... While people from many cultures around the world may have gods, goddesses, angels, or other mythical creatures involved in their IIs, the Western world tends to have IIs with people whom we see on television ( Caughey, 1984) or online. Continuing imagined interaction work with mediated personae after exposure to that personae is what, Porter (2015, 2016) argue, constitutes a parasocial relationship. ...
Conference Paper
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“The information war is real,” Westneat (2016) argues, “and we’re losing it.” Parasocial relationships (PSRs) are one-sided relationships that individuals have with mediated personae (Horton & Wohl, 1956). Between fake news, currently enflamed divisions in western civilization, and foreign-backed bots, trolls, and social media pages, media effects researchers can no longer ignore the power that parasocial relationships have in people’s lives. Various authors have explored PSRs, which begin after a parasocial interaction with a personae during a viewing sequence (e.g. Cummins & Cui, 2014; Hartmann & Goldhoorn, 2011; Klimmt, Hartmann, & Schramm, 2006) and persist beyond the viewing experience as imagined interactions with the personae (Madison and Porter, 2015; Madison & Porter, 2016). PSRs can be described in terms of their characteristics and their functions, which operate in several dimensions in our lives to influence thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. People often have parasocial relationships with news announcers and other figures upon whom we rely for information about our world (e.g., Perse, Rubin, & Powell, 1985). This study explores perceptions of Infowars host Alex Jones’ credibility and functions of PSRs. We used a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers (N = 584) and found several PSR functions that predict perceived credibility and viewing of Infowars. PSRs form a great part of our identities, and in a world of constant contact with mediated communication, and with the pervasiveness of fake news, the bases of our identities become questionable.
... Unlike normal interactive (two-sided) relationships, these para-social relationships are likely to 'occur across a significant social distance -with people "we don't know"' (Rojek, 2001, p. 52). Moreover, these relationships are more often than not one-sided and based on imagined social interaction (Caughey, 1984) that is brought close to the consumer through, for example, social media (Bolton et al., 2013). Therefore, despite an often large proximal distance between the consumer and the celebrity (Zhao, 2003), the perceived psychological distance might be quite short (McCutcheon, Ashe, Houran, & Maltby, 2003). ...
... Generation Y (also called Millennial Generation) includes people born between 1980 and 2000. That is not to say that other generations do not have an affinity with celebrities and form para-social relationships with them (Barbas, 2001;Caughey, 1984;Dyer, 1979;Horton & Wohl, 1956;Marshall, 2010;McDonnell, 2014), and so could also provide examples of para-social relationships and consumption of celebrity. ...
Article
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Employing a qualitative approach, within the context of Generation Y consumers, this research investigates the internal justification processes used by consumers contemplating to forgive a celebrity who has transgressed society’s norms of acceptable behaviour. A thematic analysis of data from in-depth interviews identified nine emergent categories, grouped into four themes or core drivers: celebrity-related drivers, consumer-related drivers, context-related drivers and time-related drivers. The findings show that although there is generally no personal relationship between consumers and celebrities, consumers tend to bond with celebrities in para-social relationships. Many consumers see these relationships as similar to how they connect with friends thus leading them to show forgiveness tendencies towards a celebrity comparable to forgiving friends. The paper presents a conceptual framework highlighting the consumer’s forgiveness justification process.
... citado por Watkins, 1986). Caughey (1984), un antropólogo social, ha considerado el papel de "los mundos sociales imaginarios" tanto en las culturas occidentales como en las no occidentales. Llevó a cabo investigación de campo en Fánakker, una pacífica isla en Micronesia, y en las Colinas de Margalla en Pakistán, y comparó estas culturas con la cultura norteamericana. ...
... voluntad y sus propios deseos. En las conciencias míticas un espíritu tutelar no es concebido como el "sujeto" de la vida interior de alguien, sino como algo objetivo, "que habita en el hombre, que está conectado espacialmente a él y, por lo tanto, puede también ser separado espacialmente de él..." (Cassirer, 1955, p.168. citado por Watkins, 1986). Caughey (1984), un antropólogo social, ha considerado el papel de "los mundos sociales imaginarios" tanto en las culturas occidentales como en las no occidentales. Llevó a cabo investigación de campo en Fánakker, una pacífica isla en Micronesia, y en las Colinas de Margalla en Pakistán, y comparó estas culturas con la cultura norteamericana. Su conclu ...
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RESUMEN En este trabajo se presenta una introducción a la teoría de la valoración con las formulaciones clásicas de William James sobre el sí mismo como punto de partida. En esta teoría dinámica y abierta, el sí mismo es concebido como un proceso orga-nizado de valoración, valoración que es una unidad de significado personal a los ojos de la persona que relata la historia de su vida. La teoría se describe, cronológicamente, en tres partes: (a) la investigación sobre los sueños, los mitos colectivos, y las apli-caciones prácticas en el ámbito de las quejas psicosomáticas, esbozan la primera fase del edificio de la teoría; (b) en la segunda fase, la teoría recibe un nuevo impulso a partir de la noción de Bakhtin de la novela polifónica, que desemboca en una con-cepción multivocal del sí mismo; (c) la reciente ampliación de la teoría es ilustrada por la influencia que los otros imaginarios tienen en el sistema de valoraciones per-sonales, y por la discusión del caso de una cliente al borde de un trastorno de personalidad múltiple. Palabras clave: si-mismo, teoría de la valoración, significados personales, auto-narraciones, auto-valoración, auto-percepción, si-mismo dialogal. ABSTRACT With William James' classic formulation on the self as a starting point, an introduction into valuation theory is presented. In this open and dynamic theory the self is conceived of as an organized process of valuation, a valuation being a personal unit of meaning in the eyes of the person telling his or her life story. The theory is chronologically described in three parts: (a) research on dreams, collective myths, and practical applications on psychosomatic complaints illustrate the first phase of theory building; (b) in the second phase the theory has received a new impuifs from Bakhtin's notion of the polyphonic novel leading to a multivoiced conception on the self; (c) the recent extensión of the theory is illustrated by the influence of imaginal others in the personal valuation system and by a discussion of a case of a client who was on the border of a múltiple personality disorder.
... También siguiendo la metodología de Lysaker, Lancaster y Lysaker (43), pretendemos analizar los personajes que participan e interaccionan en la narración vital. Para ello hemos creado a priori, un pequeño sistema de categoría basándonos en las aportaciones de estos autores y en Caughey (1984) (46). En este sistema se presta atención al carácter colectivo o abstracto (la comunidad de propietarios, el claustro de profesores, los hombres buenos, etc) y particular (mi hermano) de los personajes que aparecen en la narración y en el carácter material e inmaterial del personaje. ...
... También siguiendo la metodología de Lysaker, Lancaster y Lysaker (43), pretendemos analizar los personajes que participan e interaccionan en la narración vital. Para ello hemos creado a priori, un pequeño sistema de categoría basándonos en las aportaciones de estos autores y en Caughey (1984) (46). En este sistema se presta atención al carácter colectivo o abstracto (la comunidad de propietarios, el claustro de profesores, los hombres buenos, etc) y particular (mi hermano) de los personajes que aparecen en la narración y en el carácter material e inmaterial del personaje. ...
Conference Paper
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Una aplicación del análisis narrativo a la rehabilitación psicosocial del enfermo mental: Una investigación sobre el cambio narrativo en pacientes esquizofrénicos./2/2007] Resumen Desde distintos ámbitos científicos se ha hecho énfasis en la función esencial que desempeñan las narrativas en la construcción de la identidad y la interacción social (Bruner, 1991; Hermans, 2004; Lucius-Hoene, 2002). Sin embargo, las contribuciones teóricas y prácticas de la psicología narrativa no han sido aplicadas a la rehabilitación psicosocial del enfermo mental. Un trabajo de investigación sobre los cambios en las narrativas de vida de pacientes esquizofrénicos residentes en Casas Hogares (C.H) pertenecientes a una fundación pública nos sirve para reflexionar sobre las posibles aplicaciones de la psicología narrativa en la rehabilitación psicosocial. El trabajo de investigación se realizó mediante 10 entrevistas narrativas a pacientes de esquizofrenia paranoide en sus lugares de residencia. Cinco pacientes recién ingresados en la C.H y otros cinco vivían en éstas desde más de 36 meses. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas entre las categorías que utilizan los pacientes para construir su identidad, un cambio en el tono emocional de sus narrativas y una variación en las características de los actores que interactúan en éstas. Estos resultados nos impulsan a profundizar en la investigación y posibilitan nuevas aplicaciones del análisis narrativo como método de evaluación psicosocial. Introducción Esta conferencia se divide en una parte teórica y en una parte empírica. En la primera se justifica teóricamente los puntos en común entre la psicología narrativa y la rehabilitación psicosocial del enfermo mental. Para ello se repasan los aspectos más importantes de ésta (1.1). Posteriormente se exponen las características de las narrativas vitales según las últimas aportaciones desde distintas perspectivas (apartado 1.2) y, por último, se reflexiona sobre distintos intentos de aplicar la psicología narrativa en el ámbito de la rehabilitación psicosocial (apartado 1.3). En la parte empírica (apartados 2.1, 2.2, 2.3) se expone una investigación llevada a cabo con usuarios de las Casas Hogares pertenecientes a La Fundación Andaluza para la Integración Social del Enfermo Mental (FAISEM). En esta investigación se estudia los cambios acontecidos en las narrativas de los pacientes tras su paso por las psiquiatría.com -generar PDF 1 Casas Hogares. Se presentarán algunos resultados de esta investigación y se aprovexcharán estos datos para continuar reflexionando sobre posibles aplicaciones de la Psicología Narrativa en el campo rehabilitador. 1. Las aplicaciones del análisis narrativo en al ámbito de la rehabilitación psicosocial del enfermo mental 1.1 Aspectos esenciales de la rehabilitación psicosocial del enfermo mental. El campo de la rehabilitación psicosocial en la esquizofrenia surge a partir de importantes cambios políticos, sociales y científicos en los planteamientos de la gestión de la enfermedad mental. Gracias a algunos modelos integradores de las décadas de los setenta, ochenta y noventa sobre la enfermedad mental empezamos a descubrir que las necesidades de las personan que padecen esquizofrenia son múltiples y muy extensas y en ningún caso quedan satisfechas mediante un adecuado tratamiento farmacológico. A pesar del avance y la importancia de las terapias farmacológicas y de su evidente efecto protector frente a las recaídas, la ratio de recidivismo para individuos que cumplen con su tratamiento farmacológico alcanza en algunos estudios un 40% para el primer año y un 15% en sucesivo años (1) (2). Además, como sabemos los fármacos tienen un impacto limitado en los síntomas negativos y no provee al sujeto de las habilidades necesarias para una exitosa transición a la comunidad (3). Es más, los últimos modelos etiológicos sobre la esquizofrenia hacen énfasis en la importancia del estrés en las recaídas de las personas con esquizofrenia. Por lo cual habrá que dotar a los enfermos, como veremos más tarde, de las habilidades interpersonales para regular este estrés.
... Although research is limited, some evidence suggests that people obtain benefits from parasocial romances similar to those obtained in personal romantic relationships, such as decreases in loneliness and increases in sexual gratification (Adam & Sizemore, 2013;Liebers, 2022). Some people report being unable to fantasize about a parasocial target after the media figure becomes involved with a new romantic partner (Tukachinsky Forster, 2023) or discloses a noncompatible sexual orientation (Caughey, 1984), suggesting a potential threat to at least one benefit or to the PSR itself in some cases. If PSRRs function similarly to social relationships, then jealousy in this context might also stem from similar threats. ...
Article
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Theorizing regarding parasocial relationships (PSRs) often assumes that findings regarding interpersonal relationships will generalize to PSRs. However, experiences like jealousy may operate differently in a PSR compared to a real romantic relationship. This quantitative survey (N = 309) tests and extends an interpersonal jealousy model to examine the experience of threat and the perception of romantic rivals in parasocial romantic relationships. Specifically, the study explores threats to relational benefits, self-esteem, and the relationship’s existence as mediators of the hypothesized relationship between PSR strength and jealousy. The study also examines perceived similarity to the rival as a moderator. The results indicate that perceived threat to the relationship’s existence drives jealousy in the context of PSRs. However, the relationship between PSR strength and perceived threat to the relationship’s existence is only significant at low levels of perceived similarity with the rival. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
... Daha yüksek düzeydeki hedefler daha az ikame edilebilir ve engellerle karşılaşıldığında terk edilme olasılığı daha düşüktür. Dolayısıyla ilişkisel hedef arayışı teorisi, belirli ünlülerle saplantılı ve aşırı derecede bağlantı kurmaya çalışan hayranların, özellikle ünlünün hayran için ideal bir öz imajı temsil ettiği koşullar altında, ünlüyle ilişki kurma hedefini daha üst düzey hedeflerle ilişkilendirdiğini öne sürer (Caughey, 1984). Hayranın ünlüyle bağlantı kurma hedefinin abartılı arzu edilirliği, hayranın ısrarlı ve uygunsuz takip faaliyetini teşvik eder. ...
Article
Stalklama veya ısrarlı takip; bir kişinin diğerine dayattığı, mağdurda korku veya ciddi sıkıntıyaratan, tekrarlanan, istenmeyen, müdahaleci bir davranış modeli olarak tanımlanmaktadır.Konuyla ilgili araştırmalar son otuz yılda önemli bilgiler sunsa da ısrarlı takip konusundakiliteratür çoğunlukla teorik bir temele dayanmamaktadır. Ayrıca, stalklama davranışını ortayaçıkaran ve sürdüren psikolojik ve sosyal mekanizmalar hakkında sınırlı sayıda çalışmamevcuttur. Bu nedenle ısrarlı takip davranışının ortaya çıkmasına ve sürdürülmesine neden olan psikolojik arka planı açıklamaya yönelik izahatları gözden geçirmek önemlidir. Çalışmadastalklama davranışı anlayabilmek için ileri sürülen tek faktörlü teorilere örnek olarak‘bağlanma kuramı’, çok faktörlü teorilere örnek olarak ise ‘ilişkisel hedef takip kuramı’ ele alınmıştır. Bu kuramlara ek olarak ısrarlı takip literatüründe öncü bir isim olan Reid Meloy’un stalklamadavranışını açıklamada kullandığı psikodinamik model incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın ısrarlı takipçilerin psikolojik yapılanmasının daha iyi anlaşılması ve böylece saldırgan profiller içinetkin tedavi ve müdahale programlarının oluşturulmasında kaynak niteliğinde olmasıamaçlanmaktadır.
... Parasocial interaction and parasocial relationships are two related but distinct concepts (Kurtin et al., 2018;). In a parasocial relationship an audience member will continue to interact with the media not only through watching the show but also by forging interpersonal bonds when the show is off and the character or persona is not present (Caughey, 1984). Parasocial relationships evolve from a PSI first sequence contact, and both phenomenon may foster imagined interactions. ...
Article
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This study explores the prevalence of parasocial interaction between the South Korean band BTS and their fans. Using content analysis, 1,114 fan comments on BTS’s YouTube videos were examined. Approximately two-thirds of analyzed comments displayed at least one of the four indicators of parasocial interaction explored: authenticity, affability, social attraction, and fandom. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between how parasocial interaction (PSI) indicators appeared in the music videos compared to the personality-driven nonmusic videos. The music videos had comments that displayed affability and fandom more frequently, while the personality-driven nonmusic videos displayed higher amounts of social attraction. Social attraction was also the most frequently displayed PSI indicator, implying that fans consuming content through YouTube are more likely to focus on the visual appeal of the content. This research fosters a deeper understanding of the nature of parasocial interaction between fans and celebrities in the context of online media.
... 'also pictures and statues of his books' characters like Cossette, Jean Valjean and Javert... you will go to the past and live with them for an hour and I think you will enjoy it.' (TripAdvisor, 2013) The reviewer's imagination has used the prompts to bring the fictional characters to life and re-enact the past in the way that Caughey discusses (Caughey, 1984;Caughey, 2006). It is difficult with such scant evidence to suggest what has happened here, however, from the detailed knowledge of character names, revealed by the reviewer coupled with the fact that none of the disappointed reviews mentions characters that it is the respondent's depth of knowledge that has rendered the experience more satisfying, brought more value and avoided disappointment. ...
Book
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Literary tourism is a field that is becoming increasingly interesting to students for numerous reasons. Research in this area has been on the rise for several years, yet researchers of literary tourism often find it difficult to connect with others who have researched in this subject. There are, however, some exceptions in this field. One is TULE (Centre for Literary Tourism - Il Centro per il Turismo Letterario at the Perugia Foreigners' University), which brings together literary tourism researchers from Europe. In the creation of this textbook, the editor, Dr. Jasna Potočnik Topler, who is also a TULE member, invited her TULE colleagues Dr. Rita Baleiro (University of Algarve, CiTUR), Giovanni Capecchi (Università per Stranieri di Perugia), and Dr. Charles Mansfield (The Writing Research Centre), who research and teach literary tourism, to collaborate in writing a textbook on researching literary tourism. This handbook has been created in the frame of the TULE project, Establishing Literary Tourism Network in Higher Education (LIT-NET). This handbook is designed to guide students and supervisors through the fascinating journey of exploring literary tourism — a field that blends literature, heritage, history, culture, social sciences and tourism into a compelling field of study.
... Furthermore, if individuals identify with characters that exemplify positive portrayals of their disorder, it may also influence the way they perceive themselves. For example, previous research supports the assertion that young people have altered their appearance, attitudes, values, and activities in an attempt to be more like a revered character (Caughey, 1984). In addition, research has also shown that continued exposure to a message can impact how individuals view the world (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1986;Kokesh & Sternadori, 2015). ...
Article
Research shows that media figures can influence the construction of one’s personal and social identity. However, there are few studies that examine representations of stigmatized groups with developmental disorders, such as those with autism spectrum disorders. This research examines the effect of a viewer’s scores on the autism quotient (AQ) and their relationship with homophily and attributional confidence towards Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, who is suspected of having Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Guided by uncertainty reduction theory the results indicated a positive relationship between the dimensions of the AQ and homophily with Sheldon, and a positive relationship between higher scores on the AQ and attributional confidence towards Sheldon. The implications of identification with fictional television characters for individuals with AS, and the application of the AQ in future research are discussed relative to the current findings.
... Similar to real-life interactions, both attractiveness (physical, social, and task attractiveness) and perceived similarity of the media character seem tobe important antecedents (Cohen, 2001;Hartmann et al., 2001;Rubin & McHugh, 1987;Rubin & Rubin, 2001;Turner, 1993;Visscher & Vorderer, 1998). Personae often exhibit character traits that receivers admire and would like to hold as well (Caughey, 1984(Caughey, , 1986. Gender also plays arole in this respect. ...
... Concerning hero identification, there are many ways such identification may be functional. For example, heroes have been argued to provide utility as leaders to guide others through difficult circumstances (Freud, 1922;Le bon, 1895;Fromm, 1941), vicarious experiences of success (bernhardt, Dabbs, Fielden, & Lutter, 1998), increases in positive affect and selfesteem (as with basking in reflected glory; Cialdini & Kenrick, 1976), ideal self-images that guide behavior toward attaining a possible self (Caughey, 1984;Higgins, 1987;Sullivan & Venter, 2005), and role models (yoon & Vargas, 2014). However, one function of hero identification yet to be explored is the protective utility of identified heroes against existential concerns. ...
Article
Three studies examine hypotheses derived from terror management theory to investigate the relationship between mortality concerns and hero identification. Study 1 found reminders of death, followed by a distraction task and a self-prime, led to greater inclusion of heroes in the self. Study 2 found that writing about a personal hero, but not other’s heroes or acquaintances, led to lower death-thought accessibility after being reminded of mortality. Finally, Study 3 found that after death reminders, participants led to identify with a hero exemplifying traits of legacy and/or sacrifice showed lower death thought accessibility. Findings are discussed as generative for heroism research, informing a previously overlooked motivation underlying hero identification and the existential function of such identification.
... Dreams have lots of cultural content, and a common therapeutic technique is to ask the client to relate a dream. John Caughey, a trained anthropologist who teaches American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, has found it very useful in his teaching to have students keep diaries of their daydreams (Caughey 1984). These daydreams then become the texts " to unpack as the students come to see the cultural content of their daydreams and to see how the daydreams mix the personal with the cultural. ...
... They cross each other's paths only occasionally-a factor which, and we agree with Caughy on this, also possibly applies to the aforementioned meet-and-greets. Such moments are experienced by those involved as valuable but also as extraordinary, as Caughy puts it, because they bring together two transformations: an everyday experience becomes for a short time special and simultaneously what is unusual and unknown becomes normalized ( Caughey, 1984). As Reijnders recently pointed out, the above-mentioned binary opposition between an 'imagined' and a 'real world' is theoretically problematic, for it can be argued that imagination and reality are interwoven in multiple ways. ...
... Comment classer cette production considérable ? On peut tout d'abord l'envisager de façon chronologique, en distinguant, premièrement, les rares publications, très dispersées, allant de la Seconde Guerre mondiale à la fin des années 1960 (Löwenthal, [1943] 1961 Powdermaker, 1950 ; Horton et Wohl, 1956 ; Boorstin, 1961 ; Klapp, 1962) ; deuxièmement, le démarrage du courant, entre la fin des années 1970 et la fin des années 1980 (Monaco, 1978 ; Goode, 1978 ; Dyer, [1979 Caughey, 1984 ; Schickel, 1985 ; Braudy, 1986 ; Rein, Kotler et Stoller, [1987] 2006) ; troisièmement, sa montée en puissance, avec une quinzaine d'auteurs dans les années 1990 (deCordova, [1990 Gledhill, 1991 ; Fowles, 1992 ; Jenkins, 1992 ; Lewis, 1992 ; Cathcart et Drucker, 1994 ; Gamson, 1994 ; Gabler, 1995 ; Marshall, 1997 ; Collins, 1998 ; Frow, 1998 ; Evans et Wilson, 1999) ; et, enfin, sa consolidation actuelle, avec près d'une vingtaine d'ouvrages publiés dans les seules années 2000 (Giles, 2000 ; Cowen, 2000 ; Dahlgren et Sparks, 2000 ; Andrews et Jackson, 2001 ; Barbas, 2001 ; Rojek, 2001 ; Maltby, Houran, Lange et al., 2002 ; Ponce de Leon, 2002 ; Couldry, 2003 ; Turner, 2004 ; Cashmore, 2006 ; Holmes et Redmond, 2006 ; Marshall, 2006 ; Castles, Halpern, 2007 ; Rowlands, 2008 ; Brim, 2009 ; Loughlan, McDonald et Van Krieken, 2010). Voilà qui suffit à mettre en évidence la nette accélération des études sur la célébrité dans le monde anglophone depuis le milieu des années 1980. ...
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Over the last generation, a major field of research on «celebrity culture» has developed in the English-speaking academic world that has no equivalent in France or French. Following a discipline-by-discipline critical review of this research, an attempt is made to elucidate why there is such a discrepancy between the English and French social sciences on this point, and to identify obstacles in each of these traditions that may yet hinder the development of a sociological approach to celebrity capable of shedding non-normative light on the many facets of a phenomenon that, in the twentieth century, became virtually universal.
... According to Dialogical Self Theory (DST), the Self is complex and polyphonic, composed of a multiplicity of characters or voices, each of them portraying an aspect of the individual personality, and these characters arise from their various separate positions, as independent thought centers. According to the theory, in the mind of an individual and in social exchanges these voices are in continuous dialogue with each other, negotiating the meaning of events and putting together the stories arising form the Self (Caughey, 1984; Hermans, 1996 Hermans, , 2001a Hermans, , 2001b Hermans & Kempen, 1993; Leiman, 1997 Leiman, , 2002 Lysaker & Lysaker, 2001; Neimeyer, 2000; Tappan, 1999; Whelton & Greenberg, 2001). In sum, the positions of the Self are described as organized in dialogical patterns of voices engaging in internal interactions. ...
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Dialogical theory is a helpful frame of reference for psychotherapy research, which provides a perspective for the study of psychotherapy process in terms of meaning construction and exchange. This paper will firstly review the basic features of the dialogical approach to the theory of Self and of the process of psychotherapy, as taken into account in the papers by Avdi (2012), Gonçalves and Ribeiro (2012), Martínez, Tomicic and Medina (2012), and Leiman (2012). On the whole, the authors use the term " dialogical " with reference to a general theory of therapeutic change. The implications of such an use of the dialogical concept will be discussed, with special focus on how the relationship between intrapsychic and intersubjective dimensions are taken into account, both at the levels of theory and methodology of analysis of the psychotherapy process. With the presentation of different dialogical approaches to the study of psychotherapy, some theoretical considerations can be proposed concerning the common ground shared by the papers of Avdi (2012), Gonçalves and Ribeiro (2012), Martínez, Tomicic and Medina (2012), and Leiman (2012), included in this special issue. On the whole, the authors use the term " dialogical " with reference to a general theory of therapeutic change. More specifically, two levels of analysis may be identified: the first level concerns the dialogical perspective as a contribution to the theory of the therapeutic factors which are responsible for the patient's change in psychotherapy; the second level concerns the formulation of a dialogical model of psychotherapy process, referred to as a " meta-model " of psychotherapy. The implications of such two perspectives about the dialogical approach will be discussed, particularly by focusing on the development of a meta-model of psychotherapy, which Leiman (2012) describes as " an arduous challenge for researchers ". A special focus on the theoretical dimension is needed given the implicit contradiction within the dialogical paradigm – that is, its tendency towards considering the internal dialogues as individual constructions, by sidestepping the wider interactional and intersubjective context where the Self is shaped and construed. Such a
... One aim here then was to illustrate the potential strength of narrative fiction itself as a tool to describe and illuminate living action in a form that can be appraised for its verisimilitude and "fit" to theory (Sarbin, 1986). The thought experiment reveals how positioning theory can be used to unpick and unravel the complex mix of public and private discourse-of social interaction and micro-dialogue-that constitute our lived worlds (Caughey, 1984;Hermans & Kempen, 1993;Larrain & Haye, 2012;Wiley, 2006). Those worlds are multi-voiced kaleidoscopes behind the public utterances. ...
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The article combines discourse analysis and dialogical self theory to propose an integrated model of positioning processes in social interaction. The model incorporates social positioning—a focus for discursive psychology—with reflexive positioning—a focus for dialogical self theory. To illustrate the model, a fictionalized scenario is presented involving two people who meet for a date at a restaurant. The discursive dynamics of the scenario are then parsed using the model. The sequelae to the encounter take in the social rules for conducting dates at restaurants, but also the life trajectories of those concerned, their social worlds, and their internal micro-dialogues. Bakhtin’s concept of “loophole” is invoked to conceptualize reflexivity in the self, in the context of interactional dialogues. In discussion, the prospects for using fictional accounts as tools for developing psychological theory are considered. Without innovation in methods, advances in our understanding of positioning processes may be compromised.
... To be sure, imaginary companions of various kinds play a role in the life of adults as well. It has been claimed that most people experience having a personal relationship with some famous individuals they have never encountered outside books, movies, and media, where the maintained interactions are not unilateral but rather involve, for example, imagined conversations and meetings (Caughey, 1984; Taylor, 1999). More recent work shows that creative activities in adulthood, such as writing, involve the presence of independent Invisible Guests, to use the title of Watkins (1990; see alsoTaylor, 1999). ...
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Yehoraz is my beloved, firstborn son. He was extremely excellent in what he was and what he did, as well as exceptionally modest, in all spheres of his life. He excelled both as a company commander in the Armor Corps of the IDF and as student of electrical engineering in the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, but never underestimated the responsibilities he had to shoulder. When he died, 25 years old, I went through a long, painful process of reconstructing the meaning of my devastated life. As a professor of philosophy, I had frequently thought and taught on the meaning of life, but what I and my books had to say about the meaning of death, not of oneself but of a dear person's, was almost useless. I thought I would not be able to maintain a meaningful life without developing a new conception of the meaning of death of a dear person that would provide me with firm grounds for my future powers of will, emotions, and thoughts. The present article, on life in the heart, is a brief presentation of the conception that emerged from my pursuit of meaning in devastated life. I wrote it with Yehoraz alive in my heart.
... A hero who displays bravery without opportunity for recognition differs clearly from a person who exhibits bravery to reward the self. However, both the central and peripheral hero features refer to exceptional abilities (Campbell, 1949), influence on others (Caughey, 1984;Sullivan & Venter, 2005), and serve core values (e.g., to do the right thing). ...
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Heroes are ubiquitous in literature and popular discourse, yet little is known about cognitive representations of heroes. We examined lay conceptions of heroes using a prototype approach, compared heroes with other persons of influence, and studied how individuals use hero features to identify heroes. In Study 1, participants (N = 189) generated open-ended descriptions of heroes, which were sorted by independent coders into 26 meaningful categories. In Study 2, participants (N = 365) rated the centrality of these features, and subsequently classified each feature as either central (e.g., brave, moral integrity) or peripheral (e.g., humble, proactive). In a reaction time (RT) paradigm, participants in Study 3 (N = 33) identified central features of heroes faster than peripheral features. In Study 4, participants (N = 25) remembered more central hero features than peripheral features in a surprise recall task. In Study 5 (N = 89), participants most strongly identified a hero when the target was described with central features (vs. peripheral or neutral features). In Studies 6 (N = 212) and 7 (N = 307), participants’ ratings evidenced that the prototypical features of heroes did not fit conceptually as well for role models and leaders. In all, these studies contribute new ideas to existing knowledge about heroes, and contribute to a shared understanding of what a hero means to people. Our research is thus an important step in refining heroism into a scientific concept. The notion of the prototypical features of heroes provides a basis for future hero research and intervention.
... PSI describes a one-sided interpersonal relationship where one party knows a great deal about the other, but the other does not reciprocate the knowledge. The one-sided relations between celebrities and audience or fans (Caughey, 1984) are the most common forms of such relationships studies so far in the literature. Although the parasocial relationship is similar in many ways to the interpersonal relationship, the former is unidirectional compared to interpersonal relationships. ...
Conference Paper
The arguments proposed in this article move in line with theoretical perspectives that consider the brand as a “social shared cognitive resource”, and not an “intellectual proprietary one”, and the consumer as active actor in to brand equity creation process. The specific aims of this paper are the following ones: 1. to analyze the “spontaneous” initiatives of digital brand engagement involving Italian luxury fashion brands; 2. to conduct an observational netnography in order to explore the experience of the brand on the Web, based on the spontaneous conversations of consumers. These latter are traced in the digital tools, proprietary (digital brand communities, institutional Facebook page, Website) and non-proprietary ones (blogs, forums, business communities, video blogs, etc.); 3. to pick the managerial implications out useful for brand equity management in the luxury fashion industry.
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This paper explores how information technology is providing new tools and methodologies that are fundamentally changing the way we study language. It examines the association between language learning and technological use. The concept of "digital linguistic edge" refers to a fundamental change in linguistic study made possible by developments in digital media. The author examines how digital technologies are revolutionizing language study in a number of fields. It looks at how advances in big data analytics, computational linguistics, and natural language processing are redefining conventional approaches to linguistic study. The accessibility of large-scale linguistics enabled by digital archives and crowdsourcing provides unprecedented opportunities for empirical research and theoretical exploration. Furthermore, the integration of digital platforms in language learning and teaching fosters interactive and personalized educational experiences. The author covers the history of digital linguistics and defines the arrival of human language. The significant impact of digital technology on the field of linguistic research is improving our knowledge of language usage, structure, and cultural development in modern digital contexts. The study of language in online contexts becomes not only relevant, but also essential as technology continues to change our lives and civilizations. The writer is ready to decipher the complexity of digital linguistics. It emphasizes digital technologies, approaches, and the vast prospects for learners. This is going to send the field into new areas of research and development. As artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology progress, a number of grammar checkers are becoming available as writing tools for language learners. The new technology increases the opportunities for students to submit comments outside of the classroom. Technology is becoming significant in the field of language instruction. Introduction:
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The aim of this research was to examine the effect that parasocial relationships with lifestyle YouTubers may have on viewers’ level of self-efficacy. The primary research objectives were to determine: (a) if parasocial relationships are being formed with lifestyle YouTubers, (b) how do those relationships effect the self-efficacy of audience members when it comes to lifestyle changes, and (c) what other factors might affect self-efficacy. A survey (N = 424) was used to examine the effect that parasocial relationships with lifestyle YouTubers have on self-efficacy. Primary results indicate that parasocial relationships with lifestyle YouTubers significantly influence an increase in self-efficacy in audience members (p < .001), and the amount of cumulative weekly viewing hours of lifestyle YouTubers’ videos marginally predicted levels of self-efficacy (p = .058). From these results, we theorize that parasocial relationships with YouTubers may take place primarily through “imagined interactions” (Honeycutt, 2003).
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The central questions that guide phenomenological investigations of daydreaming can be formulated as follows: What must consciousness be if it is to be capable of daydreaming? How does daydreaming relate to other modes of experience, especially mind-wandering, lucid and non-lucid dreaming, and phantasizing? What are the eidetic features and constitutive functions of daydreaming in the overall life of consciousness? My goal in this chapter is to show that a phenomenological analysis of daydreaming can make an important contribution to the cross-disciplinary science of daydreaming precisely because it directly addresses these fundamental questions. The phenomenological analysis of daydreaming developed here suggests the following: (1) The life of consciousness is characterized by the intertwining of sleep and wakefulness. Just as there is wakefulness in sleep, so also is there sleep in wakefulness. (2) The life of consciousness is not confined to the here and now. Besides those experiences which unfold from the present standpoint, there is also another group of experiences that can be qualified as absorbed, or displaced, experiences. (3) A phenomenological analysis of daydreaming brings to light how different modes of experience are characterized by different modes of self-awareness.
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References to religious enthusiasm, self‐making, and the power of crowds in turn‐of‐the‐century journalism that popularized “the fan” show how the concept of fandom was initially shaped by some of the main preoccupations of nineteenth‐century American culture. Fan studies has, for the most part, been focused on twentieth‐century mass culture and media transformations, but by making explicit fandom's links to nineteenth‐century discourses of audience, scholars may write broader narratives of fandom's history and extend the scope of fan studies’ field of inquiry.
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The adult baseball camp is examined as an emergent form of fantasy leisure. Using a symbolic interactionist approach, the authors analyze these camps as an expensive occasion for adult leisure for fans who retain, into adulthood, a fantasy image of themselves as ballplayers. Fantasy camps provide an opportunity for a brief sojurn into a simulated, spring training ambience in the instructional company of ex-big league ballplayers. The purpose is to become engrossed in a pretend world of “real” ballplaying, thereby enabling campers to interact with ballplayers with whom they have sustained imaginary social relations since adolescence.
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The objective of the present research was the search of the relationships between various types of trust and acculturation expectations of the host population (according to J. Berry). The theoretical basis of the work was: the conception of social-psychological capital of personality, the theory of social capital and the theory of acculturation by J. Berry. The sample consisted of 111 Russians, 43.3% of which were males, 57.7% were females. Age median was 21 y.o. The participants of the study were asked to fill in questionnaires. The questionnaires allowed to measure three types of trust (generalized, social, institutional), as well as four acculturation expectations (“integration”, “assimilation”, “segregation” and “exclusion”). The empirical data were processed with multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that any of the three types of trust were connected to acculturation expectations “assimilation”. With “integration” only social trust was positively connected, while institutional and generalized were not . We didn’t find any negative connections of various types of trust with acculturation expectations “segregation” and “exclusion”. But we found positive links of institutional trust with acculturation expectations, though initially we supposed that these links would be negative. The acquired results are discussed in the article, and the explanation is given to the nature of these interactions, which initially we were not supposed to receive.
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The neurocognitive theory of dreaming posits that there is a specific neural network for dreaming and that dream content is continuous with a dreamer's waking concerns. This article extends this model of dreaming by arguing that the continuity principle applies not only to intrapsychic states; dream content also frequently indexes significant shifts in the cultural atmosphere. A prominent but understudied exemplar of such indices is the appearance of media content in dreams. This article underscores such media content as an area worthy of anthropological scrutiny and focuses on celebrity dreams among US college students as a site for theorizing the imbrication of dreaming, self, and culture. It is argued that celebrity dreams index recent and dramatic shifts in media ecologies (including embodied engagement with smartphones and formative encounters with reality television) as well as middle-class young women's interiorized struggles over the expectations and exhortations associated with mounting a neoliberal and feminine public self.
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Drawing upon feeling, story and time, in this article I will make sense of my unruly life through the way David Bowie’s musical and film work has impacted upon my sense of self and belonging in the world. I will remember and recall major life events and stinging memories through his songs and performances. David Bowie has provided me with what I have elsewhere defined as the star metronome, providing me with the psychological, existential and phenomenological rhythms out of which (my) bare life emerges, blossoms and sometimes withers – its beat not linear or singular but irregular and amplified. I make sense of these wayward life stories through recall to the senses, and sensorial memory – remembering Bowie through touch, texture, sight and sound. I suggest that fan identifications such as this emerge through the interplay of three elements: affect and emotion, narratives of the self, and remembering and forgetting. Feeling, story and time produce the conditions for deeply meaningful star and fan relations to emerge.
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Due to strong economic growth in Internet development, the number of website users in Asian countries has increased dramatically. Online retailers such as Alibaba have been remarkably successful, but few research articles focus on the field of website usability and human-website interaction. As retailing websites become increasingly relational, consumers may tend to humanize brand personalities and develop a parasocial relationship with their favorite retail website. Based on the uses and gratification theory, this study empirically examined the effects of parasocial interaction and psychological distance in mediating the conceptual link between website quality and relationship quality in the context of a retailer’s website in China. The results showed that parasocial interaction and psychological distance are both full mediators between website quality and relationship quality. This research reveals that parasocial interaction can occur not only from interactions with brands but also between customers and a retail website. The findings support the value of using appropriate website strategies (e.g., web personification, design aesthetics and usability) to build an intimate brand-customer relationship.
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This chapter focuses on how fan-celebrity para-social interactions have been theorized. It argues that the concept of the “para-social”, a type of imagined rather than co-present social relationship, has not only been spuriously contrasted to “actual” sociability, but that attempts to view para-social interactions between fans and celebrities as “truly” social fail to adequately consider how the social itself involves imaginary and fantasized aspects. Both attacks on, and defenses of, fan-celebrity “para-social” interactions have tended to reductively characterize “social” relationships. It then considers how digital fandom has reconfigured debates around the “para-social”: if this has been positioned as “mediated quasi-interaction”. The chapter also argues that the concept of para-social interaction is problematized not only by the social/para-social binary, but also by its focus on an assumed social dyad. The para-social is neither wholly normalized nor displaced within a Web 2.0 social media environment; instead, it becomes multisocial.
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This study, via the use of focus groups, explores the common meanings that advertising practitioners in 10 countries associate with athlete endorsers. The study's macro perspective brings a unique understanding of practitioners’ universal thinking and practices in relation to athlete endorsement. It reveals that practitioners across the world correlate athlete endorsers with a wide range of positive and useful psychological, social, physical, skillfulness, and sport meanings. In particular, authenticity, objective performance, and the athletes’ belonging to the realm of sport—considered by practitioners as a carrier of positive meanings and as a “meeting place” between audiences and endorsers—were identified as greatly contributing to athletes’ positive endorsement value. The article places the various universal dimensions of athletes raised by practitioners in a holistic conceptual profile, in order to help visualize and organize thoughts when selecting athlete endorsers for marketing campaigns.
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Kleiber, Larson, and Csikszentmihalyi (1986) recently reported a study in which experience sampling data were used to develop a typology of common adolescent free time activities. This paper describes an attempt to validate the typology through further analysis of data from that study. Cluster analysis was applied to a matrix of subjective state distances between ten common adolescent leisure activities. Results provided support for the original two cluster typology but also indicated the existence of a homogeneous third cluster and the potential need for additional interpretation of one of the original clusters. In addition, the empirical and conceptual possibility of considering a five cluster typology is explored.
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Eins der zentralen Probleme bei der Untersuchung von Fernsehkommunikation besteht in der Tatsache, daß der theoretische Status des Gegenstands, der per Fernsehen verbreiteten Kommunikate, nach über 60 Jahren immer noch unklar ist: Produziert das Medium einerseits „Texte“, die innerhalb einer Texttheorie untersucht und beschrieben werden können, sind es andererseits innerhalb des Mediums repräsentierte Personen, die mit Zuschauern kommunizieren und in ein wie auch immer zu beschreibendes Verhältnis treten. In welchem Maße dieser Befund auch auf andere Formen der Massenkommunikation wie Film, Theater oder Predigten (oder eventuell auf Kommunikation überhaupt) zu übertragen wäre, sei dahingestellt — im Fernsehen zeigt sich das Phänomen exemplarisch in allen irgendwie moderierten Formen: Der „Text“ enthält zu Zuschauern sprechende Personen, die ihrerseits den „Text“ in einem gewissen Sinne erst herstellen.
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Im Bereich kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Ansätze kennzeichnet Vorderers Beitrag eine dezidiert individual- und differentiell-psychologische Betrachtungsweise, die verspricht, die interaktiven Aspekte in der Beziehung zwischen Medienrezipienten und medial dargestellten Welten besser beleuchten zu können. Folgt man neueren Ergebnissen aus der Persönlichkeits- und Sozialpsychologie, dann kann sowohl auf Seiten der Nutzer als auch auf seiten der medialen Angebote von einem gewissen Maß an Konsistenz ausgegangen werden (Cantor & Kihlstrom, 1987; Baron & Boudreau, 1987). Während bei den Erstgenannten diese Konsistenz auf die dispositionellen Eigenschaften von Personen zurückzuführen ist, entsteht sie auf Medienseite durch die konstante Bandbreite medialer Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen. Formal ist die Fernsehumgebung dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß Zuschauer für gewöhnlich vor einem Licht emittierenden Kasten sitzen und ihre Blicke dabei — mit Unterbrechungen — auf lineare Erzählsequenzen ausrichten, die in Blöcken von ca. 30 bis 60 Minuten Länge dargeboten werden. Die „Programme“ in diesen Blöcken weisen Konstanz und Varianz auf im Hinblick auf die Programmtypen als auch hinsichtlich der darin angebotenen Charaktere, auf die Zuschauer ihre Aufmerksamkeit, Gedanken und Gefühle richten können. Nach Vorderers Ergebnissen unterscheiden sich Menschen sowohl bezüglich der Mediencharaktere, mit denen sie „Beziehungen“ aufbauen, als auch hinsichtlich der Intensität, die diese Beziehungen annehmen. Dies wird als weiterer Beleg dafür gesehen, daß die Aktivität „Fernsehen“ interindividuell sehr unterschiedlich betrieben werden kann. Ein umfassendes Verständnis der Kurz- und Langzeitfolgen von Fernsehen setzt voraus, daß wir verstehen, in welcher Weise personenbezogene Merkmale (Dispositionen) und Sehgewohnheiten mit Merkmalen der dargebotenen Fernsehwelten interagieren. Vorderers Arbeit zeigt Schritte zu diesem Verständnis auf.
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“Schöne, junge Menschen, die im trendy outfit vor aktuellen Einrichtungsgegenständen ihre Probleme diskutieren” (Bleicher 1997, 7) — so lassen sich, auf eine kurze Formel gebracht, diejenigen Angebote skizzieren, die längst auch im deutschen Fernsehen täglich, insbesondere in der Zeit zwischen 17.30 und 20.00 Uhr, ein vorwiegend jugendliches Publikum ansprechen. Handlungsarm und dialoglas-tig, wie diese sog. Daily Soaps nun einmal sind, stehen sie zweifelsohne in der Tradition der — ursprünglich für das Radio entwickelten, später vom Fernsehen adaptierten — Seifenoper, wurden aber in jüngerer Zeit ganz speziell auf die Interessen von jugendlichen Zuschauern zugeschnitten. Das immerwährende, weil endlos zu diskutierende Thema aller Seifenopern stellen die Probleme im Bereich zwischenmenschlicher Beziehungen dar; in den aktuellen Daily Soaps sind es entsprechend die Probleme von Jugendlichen — mit peers, Partnern und Eltern ebenso wie mit Lehrern, Kollegen und Vorgesetzten.
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People sometimes have imagined interactions in which they imagine talking with someone. For example, before entering a job interview, the interviewee may rehearse in his/her mind what the interviewer might ask and how the self will respond. After an argument with a romantic partner, the self may replay the encounter and feel despair at not having said various things that are currently in one’s mind. In the first scenario, a proactive imagined interaction has occurred while a retroactive imagined interaction has occurred in the second. It is also possible that the retroactive encounter in the second scenario acts as preinteraction stimulus for the next encounter with the romantic partner. Thus, the conflict picks up where it left off. These examples reflect what has previously been referred to as imagined interactions (Honeycutt, 1990; Honeycutt, Edwards, and Zagacki, 1989–90; Honeycutt, Zagacki, and Edwards,1989).
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In this chapter I want to consider several potential contributions which cultural anthropology might make to the study of mental imagery associated with daydreams, fantasies, memories and anticipations. I say “potential contributions” because, as yet, anthropology has devoted little attention to this pervasive and significant aspect of human experience. To be sure, there has been some work on culture and dreaming, and on altered states of consciousness, such as trance (Kennedy and Langness, 1981). Otherwise, it seems hardly to have occurred to most anthropologists that it might be worthwhile investigating the role of mental imagery in the cultures they have studied. However, standard anthropological approaches can be readily adapted to the study of imagery in a way which could contribute significantly to our understanding of the subject. I would like to illustrate some of these possibilities by describing my own fieldwork with three exotic groups: with Sufi Mystics in Pakistan, with Trukese Islanders in the Western Pacific, and with middle class Americans in Washington and Baltimore.
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This research aims to produce a piece of place-writing for the river Loire as a tourist destination. The data collection methods have evolved very directly from an earlier doctoral study of Concarneau and the exploration of its literary tourism (Mansfield 2015). These methods are detailed and refined below. Xiao & Smith (2007) ask the question of how academic research and the creation of tourism knowledge can draw closer to the practices in the industry; this project aims to bring those together. A key element of new knowledge from the PhD study, which is taken as the starting point for this work, is the toureme (Mansfield 2015). Two key research questions frame this study and its practices: 1. How can place-writing be produced which adds value to a tourism destination? 2. How can the experience of visiting a tourist area, which is problematic to define geographically, be enhanced by place-writing? Such enhancements include adding value for the visitor, and enjoyment, through an understanding of the destination.
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Given the proliferation of social media in mass media contexts, how do media and their users interact on them? Guided by Para social interaction and multiplexity theory, the interaction between 223 Italian radio stations and their users was analyzed. Social network analysis was performed to identify the interconnectedness across radio stations and three social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Findings revealed that radio stations did utilize multiple platforms, yet, the interactions were limited to content redistribution and repetition. As for the users, contrary to expected favoring of one specific radio, a large proportion of users interacted with multiple radio stations by fulfilling their individual instrumental goals. The results of this study were fore grounded in instrumental social capital framework. Implications of multiple interaction across platforms and radio stations signal the need to reconceptualize the instrumental needs users in light of this cross-platform behavior.
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This study explores the mediating role of customer imitation behaviour in the relationship between customer buying behaviour and determinants of effective celebrity endorsement advertisements. Along with major celebrity characteristics, the study has incorporated personal characteristics and characteristics of customers’ social environment as antecedents to imitation. The article shows that attractiveness and credibility of the celebrity affect the attitude towards advertisements through the mediating role of imitation behaviour, implying that celebrity advertisements can be created in ways that stimulate customer imitation. The article further demonstrates that celebrities for endorsements can be selected according to personal characteristics of the target audience. Finally, the study reinforces the role of attitude towards celebrity advertisement in shaping the purchase intentions of customers.
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The subject of this article is media tourism: the phenomenon of people travelling to places which they associate with novels, films or television series. Existing knowledge about this phenomenon is fragmented and principally based on individual case studies of eye-catching examples. This article aims to go beyond the limited scope of case studies and to explore an underlying, more generic process. It investigates the stories that are remembered by individuals, the associations between these stories and existing places, and decisions about whether or not to undertake travel to these places. Based on a series of in-depth interviews, the article concludes that every human being has a small treasure trove of stories which they love and which are considered part of their identity. The interviews suggest that there is a strong relationship between the recollection of beloved stories and tourist practices – in terms of both destination decision making and tourist experience.
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