Parasocial Relationships in Politics

Parasocial relationship is a term used to describe the pseudo-personal relationship media users develop toward mass media performers. Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl were the first to bring up the parasocial relationship idea in 1956. They claimed that the unique characteristics of the electronic media, [Page 530]especially those of television, have encouraged an illusional face-to-face relationship between spectators, defined as the media users, and performers, defined as the personas that appear repeatedly in the media, such as actors, presenters, newscasters, and politicians. The qualities of television, such as close-up shots and camera zooms, create a sense of intimacy, reality, and affinity toward the personas on the screen. Observers have indicated that these qualities are felt more strongly in the context of politics, due to ...