Livestreaming, homophily and parasocial relationships : the role of mediated communication

Abstract

In the world of entertainment, parasocial relationships (PSRs) between the viewer and the performer have been strictly one-sided in nature, but with the advent of the internet this paradigm has been blurred as newer media platforms such as livestreaming gain popularity, allowing viewers to actively interact with the performer through live chat. This paper aims to understand whether the unique affordances of the medium (namely live mediated communication) has a moderating effect on the relationship between homophily and PSRs. Users of streaming platforms, TV and Netflix (n = 39) were surveyed regarding their sense of homophily and the PSRs between them and their favourite streamers/characters as well as how often they used the mediated communication channels in question. Moderation analysis was performed and identified that there was no significant effect of live mediated communication on the relationship between homophily and PSRs. However, further exploratory analysis revealed a potential relationship between livestreaming and TV potentially related to the viewing habits of these two mediums, signified by a significant and high correlation in PSRs between the two which was not present between livestreaming and Netflix.