Social TV viewers’ symbolic parasocial interactions with media characters: A topic modelling analysis of viewers’ comments

Abstract

To identify the involvement outcomes of viewers’ symbolic parasocial interactions with media characters and to measure the impact on series popularity, we capitalized on big data in the form of social TV viewers’ comments, sampled from nine Korean TV series with different popularity levels broadcast through the VIKI streaming website. We report evidence that viewers’ real-time comments express symbolic interactions that form the basis for parasocial relationships with media personae. Topic modelling of the narrative evidence provided by viewers’ comments uncovers the outcomes of viewers’ involvement with media characters. Finally, we regress parasocial relationships and the outcomes of their parasocial interactions on TV series popularity to reveal that the parasocial relationship with media persona is indeed relevant to series popularity. Among the outcomes of parasocial interactions, the cognitive, referential, and critical outcomes have a greater impact on series popularity than empathy, behaviour, and expression of emotion. These results would suggest that popularity is grounded in reflection and judgement, and on viewers’ connecting the viewing experience with personal experiences. In terms of methodological implications, our innovative methodology, based on viewers’ real-time commenting as they watch TV series, opens up new avenues for research into parasocial behaviour in online environments.