PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN FACILITATING CELEBRITY WORSHIPPING AND CELEBRITY DEHUMANISATION FROM MEDIA EXPERTS PERSPECTIVES
Abstract
Abstract
The present study aimed to explore how in parasocial relationships, social media plays a role in facilitating celebrity worshipping and celebrity dehumanisation. Through snowball sampling, this study recruited five Malaysian media experts (ranging from 26 to 40 years old) who worked in media-related occupations either through the Media industry or University academia with three to 20 years of working experience. The study was conducted qualitatively through semi-structured interviews, which allows an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the participants’ experiences. Five research questions are formulated, as follows: (1) How can parasocial relationships lead to celebrity worshipping?; (2) How can parasocial relationships lead to celebrity dehumanisation?; (3) How does social media facilitate parasocial relationships with celebrities?; (4) What are the dehumanising factors experienced by celebrities?; and (5) How does social media play a role in affecting behaviours towards celebrities? The data collected from this study were transcribed and analysed using thematic Analysis. The findings revealed that three themes for RQ 1 (Media Strategy, Constant Content, Developmental Phase), three themes for RQ 2 (Disembodiment, Prejudice Opinions, Entitlement), one theme for RQ 3 (Accommodating tools), two themes for RQ 4 (Loss of control, Hatred, Demeaning physical appearance), and two themes for RQ 5(Lack of accountability, Group conformity). The findings highlighted the presence of celebrity worshipping and dehumanisation of celebrities in Malaysia. More importantly, social media does play a role and facilitates the parasocial relationships people have with celebrities.
Keywords: Parasocial Relationships, Celebrity Worshipping, Celebrity Dehumanisation, Social Media
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