University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2006 Surviving Reality: Survivor & Parasocial Interaction Pedro Davila-Rosado University of Central Florida Part of the Communication Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STARS Citation Davila-Rosado, Pedro, "Surviving Reality: Survivor & Parasocial Interaction" (2006). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 866. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/866 SURVIVING REALITY: SURVIVOR & Parasocial Interaction by PEDRO N. DÁVILA-ROSADO B.A. University of Central Florida, 2001 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Nicholson School of Communication in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2006 © 2006 Pedro N. Dávila-Rosado ii ABSTRACT Parasocial interaction is the name that Horton & Wohl coined to describe a viewer’s attachmentent toward onscreen persona that they had never physically interacted with (1956). A. Rubin, Perse, & Powell (1985) continued the research and created the Parasocial Interaction Scale. The scale has become the standard in gauging parasocial interaction in various forms of media from soap operas to newscasts. The purpose of this study was top examine parasocial interaction and see if the concept could be applied to the current television trend of reality television.