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Mediating Relationships with Parasocial Others: Relating, Connecting, and Making Meanings

Cuellar, John Marc
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5802-8052
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1590755109001934

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Communication Studies (Communication).
I explore connections made with mediated others, parasocial relationships, in this study. I was guided by Bakhtinian understandings of mediation between consummated parties. To investigate, I interviewed participants who connected with a parasocial figure(s). Engaging in crystallization, I layered my story onto the stories of others who make mediated connections, using autoethnography as an additional methodological tool. I interpretively categorized the themes using Rawlins’ dialectical perspective as a lens through which to analyze the findings. The themes that emerged included three overarching dialectical features: The Dialectic of the Freedom to be Independent and the Freedom to be Dependent, the Dialectic of Judgment and Acceptance, and the Dialectic of the Ideal and the Real. The first overarching dialectic encompassed three subthemes: the Dialectic of Pride and the Need for Recognition, the Dialectic of Availability and Disengagement, and the Dialectic of Stalker and Fan (Stan). The second overarching theme included two subthemes: the Dialectic of the Freedom to Share and the Freedom to Keep for Oneself and the Dialectic of Satisfaction and Cancellation. Finally, the last overarching theme also comprised two subthemes, which included the Dialectic of Emotionality and Rationality and the Dialectic of the Real and the Unreal. These dialectical features emerged when participants spoke of competing tensions within their mediated connections. When making sense of the dialectical features, I recalled personal stories that resonated with the same tensions experienced by the participants.
William Rawlins, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Christina Beck, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Lynn Harter, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Theodore Hutchinson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
217 p.
Communication
parasocial relationships; autoethnography; crystallization; interpretive; dialectical perspective

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cuellar, J. M. (2020). Mediating Relationships with Parasocial Others: Relating, Connecting, and Making Meanings [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1590755109001934

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cuellar, John. Mediating Relationships with Parasocial Others: Relating, Connecting, and Making Meanings. 2020. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1590755109001934.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cuellar, John. "Mediating Relationships with Parasocial Others: Relating, Connecting, and Making Meanings." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1590755109001934

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1590755109001934
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.