Toward Theorizing Online Parasocial Relationships (OPSR): Parasocial Fandom (Para-Fandom) and Parasocial Fracas (Para-Fracas) as Mutations of Parasocial Relationships in the Digital Age

In this research, there was theorization of online parasocial relationships (OPSR) and scale development to measure the qualities of these relationship forms. Before OPSR can exist, three fundamentals must be available: social media, celebrity, and fandom. These fundamentals of OPSR represent the media, media figure, and media audience correspondingly. Scholarly discourse about online parasocial experience would only be complete with these fundamentals. It is proposed that there are many internet media, including social media, email, dating sites, and many more. Nevertheless, social media is the authentic space for PSR. The media figure for studying PSR should be appropriately addressed as a celebrity because this term is broad and prevents the problems encountered with using narrower terms such as ‘favorite media figure’ and others. The media audience for OPSR is fannish and should be appropriately conceived as fandoms. Fandom is preferred to fanship because, besides individual social media users’ identification with celebrities, they have a sense of imagined community that binds them together with like minds in their shared interest in celebrities as objects of passion. In theorizing OPSR, there are two broad relationship types: para-fandom and para-fracas. The former involves the positive relationship between celebrities and their audiences on social media, and the latter refers to the negative turn of the relationship. Besides the fundamentals and the forms of OPSR, other factors of OPSR influence the strength of social media users’ PSR experience. These are news bloggers/vloggers and their celebrity news and gossip content. Moreover, the scale development process was thorough and comprehensive, aiming to uncover the underlying constructs in OPSR forms (para-fandom and para-fracas) to further enhance the understanding of the parasocial experience. This three-part study, which included over 1000 participants drawn from the American population, utilized various research methods such as qualitative study, expert review, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory analysis. The result was a 25-item OPSR multi-dimensional scale with five factors: Identification, Emotive Relationship, Parasocial Awareness, Emotion Regulation, and Social Control. The resulting OPSR measure demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties, making it a reliable and effective instrument for studying online parasocial experiences in the digital age.