Friend, Foe, or Just Your Average Joe
Celebrities and icons are not a new concept to humanity. For hundreds of years, certain people have been elevated on pedestals above their fellows. During medieval times, it was the Monarchs. During the Revolutionary War, it was President George Washington and his aide-de-camps and cabinet members (do the names Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson sound familiar?). In contrast to idols of a couple decades ago, the celebrities of the world today now face a new challenge: social media. With access to the entire world at the fingertips of everyone, parasocial relationships between famous people (may they be actors, singers, vloggers, or content creators) and their fans have formed at an alarming rate, and the protectiveness that fans have towards their idols is becoming one that is not only toxic, but also incredibly unjust.
Behind the Game
Undeniably, Home Box Office, Inc (more commonly known as HBO) has had a number of hit television shows and movies. One of their most popular TV series was the American fantasy drama series based off of George R.R Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, that was renamed to The Game of Thrones (GOT). The first episode of GOT was released to the public on April 17 in 2011, and the finale of the series aired May 19 of this past year. In the eight season lifespan that GOT has had, the show released a total of seventy-three episodes and received forty-seven Primetime Emmy Awards, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Peabody
Award. The Game of Thrones follows a group of Houses (the Big Three being House Targaryen, House Stark, and House Lannister) and the interactions that the Houses have with one another. The show writers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (more commonly known by the fans as D&D), create complex storylines that bring all the Houses and their members together while also showing the intricate relationships of gaining power to the Iron Throne and the toxicity that comes with ruling.
Parasocial, Paranormal, Parasitical
The concept of parasocial relationships have always existed. While before, the term for this was just more of seen as crazed-obsessed fans, in 2009, David Giles of Coventry University’s School of Health and Social Sciences in the United Kingdom wrote a paper that considered the phenomenon of parasocial interactions (PSI) that was used by researchers in order to describe the relationship between media users and figures (most being celebrities and fictional characters). In his paper, Giles talked about how prior to 2009, the past two decades of knowledge on PSI was a limited one, seeing as varied so much that it was nearly impossible to pinpoint the exact toxicity of PSI.
Through his research, David Giles looked into the other data and research conducted by other psychiatrist and media analyzers. The first he looked into was a report written by D. Horton and R.R Wohl on British television and their audience. Through Horton’s and Wohl’s communication research study in the early 1970s, they found that many of the viewers of a popular soap opera were described to have a PSI to the characters in the opera. When a character was in a car wreck, many viewers felt “as if they had been in a real road accident” and that they “would like to do something for them.'' This caused Horton and Wohl to conclude that two of the most essential parts of a PSI: companionship and personal identity. The characters in the soap opera often reminded the viewers of people they knew personally, and because of this, viewers identified and used the characters’ situations and behaviors and interactions as a way of trying to understand their own lives.
Counter to what D. Horton and R.R Wohl believed, K.E Rosengren and S. Windahl conducted a similar study on the PSI between viewers and celebrities. They believed that a PSI stemmed from when the viewer interacted with the media figure, but contrary to Horton and Wohl, Rosengren and Windahl believed that it was not when the viewer identified with the media figure. They believed this distinction to be important due to the fact that identity has been around for much longer than that of PSI, which derived initially from psychoanalytic theory. To Rosengren and Windahl, the most important aspect of PSI was the source of alternative companionship, which resulted from the deficiencies in social life and dependency on television (a main point being the compensation for loneliness and isolation).
In the later 1970s, J. Nordlund Of Scandinavia entered into David Giles’ research. Instead of countering the points made by Horton, Wohl, Rosengren, and Windal, Nordlund branched the idea of identification and interaction being one of the same instead of separate ideas like the previous researchers had thought. Nordlund believed that the functions were more integrated than what the other four believed, and that together, identification and interaction with media personas were more of what defined a parasocial interaction, which was the functional alternative to social interaction.
Winter (and Hellfire) Is Coming
When the finale of The Game of Thrones premiered and the series ended as a whole, the audience reaction to the ending was a healthy melting pot in terms of both positive and negative views. Social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter blew up and had various amounts of GOT-related hashtags trending. Amongst the posts and tweets on the opinions of the finale, a fair amount of students at Drexel had their own thoughts and feelings on the subject. In particular, Jill Fox, Marty Jenkins, Alan Keller, Mary Little, Cathy Meyers, and Isabel Smith all had their own very opinionated thoughts and feelings on the ending of GOT and the parasocial relationships that many of the fans have created between themselves and the actors and/or characters.
The interview began with the opening question of whether anyone knew what a parasocial relationship was (to almost no surprise, none of the participants were aware of what a parasocial relationship was). After given the definition, the interviewees gave an example of someone that they believed themselves to have a parasocial relationship with.
Interestingly enough, of the six participants, only two (Fox and Keller) openly admitted to having a parasocial relationship with a celebrity (Bindi Irwin and Mila Kunis respectively). The other four were adamant that there was not a single celebrity or entity of any sort that they saxw as their “friend” without them having an actual relationship with.
Following that, the interviewees were prompted with questions on The Game of Thrones ending, the viewer outlash, the candidness of Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) on her character’s death, and the admittance of Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) into a rehabilitation center due to alcoholism and an extreme decline in his mental health.
While the questions asked about GOT seemed to be irrelevant to that of a PSI, the reason for choosing GOT (since many of the questions did not seem relevant to the topic) came to fruition: in my first research paper, I wrote about singer/songwriter Justin Bieber, his fandom (known as the Beliebers), and their interactions through the social media site Twitter; in my second research paper, I wrote about YouTubers/social media influencers Tati Westbrook and James Charles, Jake Paul and Shane Dawson, and Jon Cozart and the influence that they had with their fans through their videos. For my final essay, I chose a different platform: actors (specifically, The Game of Thrones actors) and the relationships they had with their fans through videos, Twitter, and Tumblr.
I then prompted them to determine which of the three categories of celebrities had more toxic parasocial relationships with their fans: actors, YouTubers, or singers. While a majority of the group believed that YouTubers had a more toxic relationship, Cathy Meyers and Mary Little took an opposing stance of the singers having one that was more toxic.
When asked why, Meyers stated that it was due to the fact that singers have a bigger platform, and that when she thinks of fanbases, she usually thinks of singers and not of actors or YouTubers (specifically, she thinks of that of Arianna Grande). When stating this, Marty Jenkins countered and said that YouTubers, unlike actors and singers, depend on their fans and the amount of views they receive to make an income. Therefore, it makes the PSI more toxic between a YouTuber and their fans than that of other platforms due to the fact a YouTuber makes their money and their fame off of being relatable and faking a relationship between themselves and their viewers. To that point, Jill Fox agreed and mentioned how singers and actors make their money off of an album or a movie, but they don’t need to be constantly engaged with their audience in order to sell themselves.
After both Fox and Jenkins stated their points, Meyers and Little changed their minds to that of: in terms of a fanbase, YouTubers create a more toxic PSI due to the fact that they have to sell themselves to the fans in order to make money, but in terms of the celebrity in question, singers’s fans end up creating a more toxic PSI in relation to the singer due to the obsessiveness that happens and sprouts from it.
The End
With the conclusion of the interview, I determined that PSI are a widespread epidemic than can and will target anyone regardless of their claim to fame, but like many others (and like what I believed in my second research article), the PSI between that of a YouTuber and their fans is one that is much more toxic on an overall level whereas the PSI between that of a singer/actor and their fans is one that is cultivated through the eyes of the fan and isn’t always promoted by the singer/actor.
References
Bael-the-Bard. (2019, May 20). [Tumblr Post]. Retrieved from https://bael-the-bard.tumblr.com/post/185010932043/absolutely-spot-on
Chia, S.C & Poo, Y.L. (2009). Media, Celebrities, and Fans: An Examination of Adolescents’ Media Usage and Involvement with Entertainment Celebrities. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/camho/Downloads/2018-2019/Quarter%20III/Com%20220/MC.01.pdf
Cocker, H.L & Cronin, J. (2017, May 16). Charismatic Authority and the YouTuber: Unpacking The New Cults of Personality. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/camho/Downloads/2018-2019/Quarter%20III/Com%20220/YTC.02.pdf
Ermwhatsup. (2019, May 28). Kit Harington seeking professional help... [Tumblr Post]. Retrieved from https://ermwhatsup.tumblr.com/post/185214842670/kit-harington-seeking-professional-help-for-his
Giles, D.C. (2009, May 17). Parasocial Interaction: A Review of the Literature and a Model for
Future Research. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/camho/Downloads/2018-2019/Quarter%20III/Com%20220/PR.03.pdf
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Murphy, H. (2019, May 29). Game of Thrones Fan Raises $45k For Emilia Clarke’s Charity to Make Amends for Finale Petition. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/camho/Downloads/20182019/Quarter%20III/Com%20220/MC.02.pdf
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Interview Guide
Main Question:
- Have you ever heard of parasocial relationships?
Parasocial relationships: one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other's existence.
- Is there a celebrity you think you have a parasocial relationship with?
Game of Thrones:
- How long have you been a fan of Game of Thrones?
- Were you disappointed by the finale of the show?
- Do you think fans are taking the ending to Game of Thrones too personally or do you think they have a right to be upset?
- Do you support Emilia Clarke’s (Daenerys Targaryen) candidness about how she feels on her character’s ending?
- Do you think that Kit Harington’s admittance into a rehab center for alcoholism and mental illness is at the fault of the writers and the ending of Game of Thrones?
Overall:
- Synopsis of past two assignments and how this relates to this essay
- Out of YouTubers, singers, and actors, who do you think has the most parasocial relationship with their fans
Verbatim Transcript Interview #1
Interviewee: Jill Fox
Interviewer: Camille Holzbauer
Date of Interview: June 09, 2019
Location of Interview: The Summit, Apartment 1506
List of Acronyms: JF = Jill Fox, IN = Interviewer
[Begin transcript 00:01:18]
IN: Anyway, so in depth, this essay I’m writing is basically Game of Thrones and the fans and parasocial relationships that have now come to light in terms of the ending. How long have you been a fan of the Game of Thrones?
JF: I had to catch up a little bit, I think ... I think I started when season two premiered, because I had to watch season one, so I’ll say when season two aired.
IN: So you’ve been up with the upkeep for six seasons.
JF: Yeah.
IN: Were you disappointed by the finale?
JF: Um, one of the things that’s interesting about Game of Thrones is that it’s a really -- okay wait, so first of all, this is a complete ‘in the moment’ thing. Because it’s been like, two years since the last season? Like, we’re living in the moment where its standing on its own against the other six, like, it’s already happened. I feel like, seven? I feel like, this season doesn’t even feel like it was a part of the last series. I feel like because it’s been so long since it was actually airing, there was such a time gap, that it feels like, and also because the theme’s completely changed, the characters started acting out of character, and because all of the seasons become irrelevant to the plot that the final season doesn’t even seem like it’s a continuation of what’s been told. It seems like a fan ending.
IN: So, do you think that the fans of the Game of Thrones are taking the ending too personally?
JF: Oh, absolutely.
IN: Do you think they have a right to be upset?
JF: Um, here’s the thing. My least favorite thing about the whole Game of Thrones finale is the petition to rewrite the finale. I hate that. I do think that that’s dumb. And, this is definitely biased as someone who’s in this business of making movies, when you’re an audience member, you’re revoking your free will. You are not allowed to tell the story. You choose to watch the show, you choose to support this thing even when it’s bad, you’ll stick with it. And like, we talk about it in screenwriting this term, and it’s all about how like, when the audience walks into a movie, your belief is suspended. You are giving up a lot, you are trusting the show to take you where it wants. And the show is allowed to, you know, do whatever it wants. And it’s also, not like they changed everyone on the writing team in the last season. It’s not like they changed everything about how the show was made, they didn’t change the actors and stuff. It was all going this way, but they just didn’t have enough source material.
IN: Or enough time.
JF: Yeah, exactly.
[End transcript 00:09:01]
Verbatim Transcript Interview #2
Interviewee: Alan Keller and Isabel Smith
Interviewer: Camille Holzbauer
Date of Interview: June 10, 2019
Location of Interview: Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, Room 265
List of Acronyms: AK = Alan Keller, IS = Isabel Smith, IN = Interviewer
[Begin transcript 00:02:37]
IN: Alright, so how long have you watched the Game of Thrones? Since what season?
AK: Uh, uh, yeah, so I just started, so last year.
IN: So season seven?
AK: Yeah.
IN: What about you Izzy?
IS: I started at the beginning, and then stopped, and then I rewatched in January.
IN: Oh, an OG! Were you disappointed by the finale?
IS: No.
AK: Not the finale, but the final season.
IN: Oh, okay. That’s an interesting take. Alright, since you guys both are not disappointed by the finale, do you think that the fans that are disappointed are taking it too personally?
IS: Yes.
AK: Kind of, no.
IN: How come?
AK: Well, they also dedicated eight years of their life to it.
IS: Well, so did the actors, and the writers.
IN: A lot of the actors are upset too.
AK: Well, also, the final season is also the only season that wasn’t written before. Like, they made it up on the go.
IN: In aspects to they spent eight years of their life on this, do you support Emilia Clarke’s candidness on how she feels about her character’s ending?
IS: What did she say?
IN: She hates it. She is openly against the ending and basically thinks it’s bullshit.
IS: Okay, I liked the ending for Daenerys.
AK: Yeah, I thought it was pretty good.
IS: I really liked her journey, and I think that the beginning of the season, season eight really sucked, but like it got really empathetic. Like, Tyrion and Varys’s conversation where Varys was like, ‘how is this bitch acting like this’ and Tyrion was like, ‘you know, imagine if, your entire life, no one ever said you were wrong.’ Like, her entire life, she was told this is right, you are right. I think that it all worked out.
IN: Okay, so then in addition to that, a lot of [her] fans have donated over forty-five thousand Euros to a charity in the name of having season eight rewritten completely.
AK: I’d be down for that, for another season of Game of Thrones.
IS: I think that’s disrespectful to the people who put the time and effort into this.
AK: Yeah but the same shit happened with the Sonic movie.
IS: Okay, yeah, but like, these people have been doing this for ten years of their life. Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) was like, five when she started this. Her entire life has been this.
[End transcript 00:009:01]
Verbatim Transcript Interview #3
Interviewee: Marty Jenkins, Mary Little, and Cathy Meyers
Interviewer: Camille Holzbauer
Date of Interview: June 11, 2019
Location of Interview: The Summit, Apartment 1503
List of Acronyms: MJ = Marty Jenkins, ML = Mary Little, CM = Cathy Meyers,
IN = Interviewer
[Start transcript 00:19:52]
IN: Alright, so this is going to connect it back to the past two essays I’ve written. The first essay I wrote was about Twitter and singers, and I looked at singer Justin Bieber and his relationship with his fans through the thread of tweets and how they all think that they have a personal relationship with him. The second one I looked at was YouTubers like Tati Westbrook and James Charles, Shane Dawson and Jake Paul. Are you guys all familiar with them?
MJ, ML, CM: Yeah.
IN: And have you followed the conflicts? Or do you know of the conflicts?
MJ: I know of the conflicts.
CM: I know Shane Dawson’s, and Jake Paul’s, and James Charles’, but I don’t know the other person actually.
MJ: Tati Westbrook? Tati.
CM: Oh yeah, no, I’ve heard of her, yeah.
IN: Alright, well, that one was YouTubers and their fans. And now this new one I’m doing is actors and their fans, and out of all three of those, do you think that one of those has a more toxic parasocial relationship with their fans than the other? Or do you think that they’re all equal?
CM: I think musicians.
IN: Musicians have a more -?
CM: Yeah, I think it’s easier for them to have a bigger platform. I feel like it’s just more common for musicians to have a bigger platform. Like, more fan bases? I don’t know, it’s just whenever I think of fan bases, I think of musicians. That’s just what I think of first.
ML: I feel like, it must be helped to be in a boyband and have people very much obsessed with you.
MJ: Okay, I’m gonna say ... I’m gonna say YouTubers, just because I feel like, at least for the singer or actor, you’re getting ... if you like them, it’s because their work is quality. Whereas a lot of YouTubers, there’s a lot of good YouTubers that put out good content, but more often than not, you’re giving a lot of devotion and you’re holding this person up to a higher standard and you’re getting less back because they’re really not that talented.
CM: No, yeah, I can agree with that. Because, I don’t know, it’s more common to send like, fan mail to YouTubers than like, actual artists because like, who the fuck is gonna send fan mail to the artist? To like, Arianna Grande? She’s not gonna read that shit, you know what I mean? She’s not gonna, it’s a lot more common to send ... like YouTubers literally have P.O. boxes. They’ll literally do videos of ‘what’s in my P.O. box’ and stuff like that. So I guess it kinda make sense in that way, I guess YouTubers are trying to be more relatable maybe? Depending on what kind of YouTuber it is? Like a college YouTuber is going to do stuff that we can relate to. Or, if it’s a fitness YouTuber, they’re gonna relate it to ... I don’t know, there are so many different ways you can go about with YouTube, and when you’re trying to become a YouTuber, you’re trying to attract a certain crowd.
ML: Yeah, yeah I change my answer entirely now. I didn’t even think about it, but YouTubers profit off sharing intimate details of their life to the point where when people watch their videos, they feel like they know this person. Like they’re watching them in their daily life, doing very mundane things. While like, there’s a separation barrier between a celebrity? While a YouTuber profits off of being your friend. And that’s not really the case sometimes, like you don’t know them, you don’t.
[End transcript 00:24:54]
