Parasocial Interaction on Social Media: Can It Affect Parasocial Relationship?

JURNAL INTERACT - VOL. 8 NO. 2 (2019)

Available online at: http://ojs.atmajaya.ac.id/index.php/fiabikom/index Jurnal InterAct

| ISSN (Print) 2252-4630 | ISSN (Online) 2614-1442 |

PARASOCIAL INTERACTION ON SOCIAL MEDIA: CAN IT AFFECT PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIP?

Oktavia Nur’afifah, Nuke Farida, Fitri Dwi Lestari Faculty of Communication Sciences Gunadarma University

INFORMASI ARTIKEL ABSTR AK

Media sosial dapat digunakan sebagai saluran untuk melakukan interaksi Diterima: September 2019 parasosial antara influencer sosial dan pengikutnya, dan kemudian interaksi Direvisi: December 2019 mereka dapat berkembang menjadi hubungan parasit. Penelitian ini bertujuan Tersedia: online: February 24, 2020 untuk mengetahui pengaruh interaksi parasosial pada media sosial, yaitu

YouTube dan Instagram influencer sosial kecantikan, Rachel Goddard KATA KUNCI terhadap hubungan parasosial. Metode yang digunakan regresi linier berganda untuk menemukan efek perbandingan dari platform media sosial yang berbeda Beauty Vlogger, Instagram, Parasocial pada interaksi parasosial untuk membentuk hubungan parasit. Sampel Interaction, Parasocial Relationships, penelitian adalah 388 mahasiswi Universitas Gunadarma menggunakan YouTube purposive sampling. Penelitian ini juga menggunakan pendekatan Penetrasi Sosial untuk menganalisis bagaimana interaksi parasit mempengaruhi KORESPONDENSI hubungan parasosial melalui media sosial. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa secara bersamaan, interaksi parasosial di YouTube (X1) dan di E-mail: [email protected] Instagram (X2) terhadap hubungan parasosial (Y) memiliki efek positif dan signifikan. Ini menunjukkan bahwa mereka memainkan peran penting sebagai media untuk interaksi parasosial untuk membentuk hubungan parasosial. Semakin banyak Anda berinteraksi di YouTube dan Instagram, semakin banyak hubungan parasosial yang Anda miliki. Secara parsial, interaksi parasosial di Instagram memiliki t-hitung yang lebih besar daripada t-hitung interaksi parasosial melalui YouTube, itu berarti interaksi parasit di Instagram memiliki efek yang lebih kuat daripada YouTube pada hubungan parasit. Kami menyimpulkan bahwa secara umum menggunakan saluran media sosial yang berbeda. melakukan interaksi parasosial dapat menembus tingkat hubungan parasosial, dan Instagram terbukti lebih efektif untuk memiliki hubungan parasosial yang lebih dalam daripada YouTube.

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INTRODUCTION Parasocial Interaction YouTube channel can be used The concept of parasocial to drive social and physical attraction interactions has become well that form parasocial relationship established in media literature and (Kurtin, O’Brien, Roy & Dam: 2018). communication since this term first Parasocial interactions on social media appeared in an article by Horton and will lead to parasocial relationship Wohl (1956). The parasocial between celebrity and its audience interactions were initially defined as (Cohen, 2009). Not only YouTube but real face-to-face interactions that could also Instagram is used to build and occur between media characters and maintain social relationships with other their audiences. While the audience people" (Lee et al., 2015). Yuni (2015) consists of mass media users, media found that the use of social media has a figures can include several types of positive and significant relationship media figures (or personae) such as towards parasocial relationships. presenters, actors, or celebrities. Persona behaviour during any Parasocial relations develop when interaction event (for example, a audience thinks that the character television program, commercial, or talk portrayed by the media "as if they were show interview) helps viewers to form in their circle of peers" (Horton and an opinion about the character, which is Wohl, 1956 in Chung and Cho, 2014). then followed by the viewer to the next Thus, this parasocial relationship level of parasocial (Auter, 1992). increasingly emerges through social As with interpersonal media, such as sharing video sites and interactions, this opinion will then Instagram to make fans of a famous affect the audience's feelings about person or celebrity easy to connect and persona's behaviour, which will then interact with their favorite celebrity affect the parasocial relationship with (Cohen, 2014). Todays, YouTube and the person (Alperstein, 1991). In Instagram content about make-up and addition, although each encounter with cosmetics ranked first so that beauty a media persona will cultivate some and fashion vloggers also emerged level of parasocial interaction, a strong (Pradika, 2017). Previous research feeling of media figures will occur only findings showed that when consumer after a person has been exposed to a of products feel connected to the brand number of parasocial meetings (Auter through individual interactions on 1992). With recurring meetings, the social media, they also feel a deeper viewer will gain an improved sense of loyalty to company products attribution trust about the personality in (Labrecque, 2016). the media (Perse & Rubin, 1989). This research aims to compare Conceptually, parasocial the influence of parasocial interactions interactions can be considered the same on YouTube and Instagram towards as interpersonal social interactions or parasocial relations between relationships, although they usually Indonesian beauty vlogger, Rachel consist of much weaker bonds. When Goddard and her followers. viewers preview even meet with their idol celebrities and over time, the LITERATURE & METHODOLOGY meeting can make the viewer begin to

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JURNAL INTERACT - VOL. 8 NO. 2 (2019) feel intimate feelings with celebrities as Horton and Wohl proposed that if they were close friends. When the a symbolic relationship evolved 'relationship' increased, watching between media personas and audiences impressions about the celebrity could who played interactive roles with each increase to retain friendship (Rubin, other (Nabi & Oliver, 2009). Perse, 1989). In addition, repetitive Weaver (1993) reveals a viewing can be a natural habit, where relationship has emotions with varying watching this repeatedly can be degrees of proximity (intimacy). planned by the viewer, and that Emotions in interpersonal relationships impression can be an important part of occur if they involve: the viewer's daily life. 1. Repeated interaction. There is an interaction that occurs repeatedly, it Parasocial Relationship is related to the intensity and Various forms of involvement frequency of the meeting. Repeated with media persona in parasocial interactions will make interactions are also a response of communication in the relationship mediated characters such as feel more individual. identification, imitation, and attraction. 2. High self-disclosure. There is a high It is considered to represent the level of freedom to reveal all complement of social interactions and information concerning him. the form of mass media dependence to 3. High interdependence. A high sense meet the needs of social interactions of dependence on couples. (Nabi & Oliver, 2009). Interdependencies become very The presence of social media high because there is negotiation and fan sites meet the desire of the going on. audience to continue learning about his 4. High emotional involvement. idol, the use of social media has Where there are strong emotions changed the relationship that makes it that are felt and expressed easy for celebrities to communicate spontaneously. constantly with her followers. From an audience perspective, the intensity of a parasocial Social Penetration Theory relationship resembles the intensity of Social penetration theory romantic social relationships and other emerged first in 1973 through the social relationships, relating to adult writings of Irwin Altman and Dalmas bonding patterns. When a parasocial Taylor which was published in the relationship is formed, they try to book titled "Social Penetration: The develop a way similar to the social Development of Interpersonal connections they usually live. The Relationships" (Altman & Taylor, effects of a media persona are not 1973). They explain the thesis on a confined to the behavior of media interpersonal relationship will end as a messages, but include emotional best friend (intimate) if they perform a effects that affect our lives and how series of processes systematically or audiences relate to them. orderly in a stage and form, where this

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NUR’AFIFAH / JURNAL INTERACT - VOL. 8 NO. 2 (2019) 66-77 first process must go through initial involving a person, in a particular surface levels then through more context situation, by engaging in the intimate exchange tiers as a function of process to form the media as a immediate and approximate results destination (Thurlow et al., 2004). (Miller, 2002). The thing here is not how two In this way the social or more machines can interact with penetration process describes the stage each other, but how two or more people of the relationship in which individuals can communicate with each other using move from a supervised a computer tool through an application communication to a more intimate program on the computer The. In fact, communication (Altman & Taylor, it is not only a computer and an Internet 1973). network, but in such a computer there The social penetration theory must be certain programs or also explains that with the proliferation applications that allow communicators of relationships, expanse and depth will to interact with their community. increase. When a relationship becomes According to CMC experts, Joseph corrupted, expanse and depth will often Walther and Malcoms Parks, the (but not always) decline, this process is following is a form of internet called dependent (Devito, 1997). technology that tends to be interesting Altman and Taylor use the in the CMC i.e. 1) E-mail, mailing lists; analogy or model of onion (union 2) Weblog; 3) Instant Messaging model) in explaining the social (Thurlow et al., 2004). Nowadays, penetration phases. The first layer is a there are many online media companies layer that can be accessed by everyone. that open tools or containers to The outer layer is a common self that encourage CMC to a wider audience, can be reached by everyone who cares including Facebook, Twitter, to see it. The main pathway to conduct Instagram, YouTube, and Weblog. social penetration in greater detail is The internet can be seen as a self-disclosure, which is the disclosure mass media that adds one-to-one, of personal things from us to others many-to-many and many-to-one voluntarily (Griffin, 2006). relationships. In other words, looking at the internet as mass media has helped Computer Mediated explain some aspects of the online Communication events (Wood, 2005). The Computer Mediated development of internet technology Communication (CMC) is a term used requires people to use the computer as for communication between two or information media, make the more people who can interact with each convergence of the internet divided other through a different computer. into three parts, namely: cyberspace, According to John December (1997) cybersociety, and cyberculture CMC is an interhuman interaction (Thurlow et al., 2004). through computer technology and interrelated in the process of forming Type of Research media for a wide range of purposes. In The research approach used in addition, CMC is a human process of this research is quantitative assessment. communicating using via computer, Data collection techniques in this study

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JURNAL INTERACT - VOL. 8 NO. 2 (2019) were carried out using a questionnaire - Understanding persona actions and list or structured written statement. situations This questionnaire is distributed - Previous media activation and life directly to respondents with the aim of experience obtaining data. The questionnaire - Personnel evaluation and personal distributed was closed and was a action questionnaire with a Likert Scale. - Anticipatory observation - Construction of relationships Conceptual Definition between persona and audience In this research there were 2 Affective independent variables consisting of - Sympathy/antipathy Parasocial Interaction on YouTube - Empathy/opponent empathy (X1) and Parasocial Interaction on - Emotional Transmission Instagram (X2). Rosengren and Behavior Windahl (in Oelfy, 2015) define - Nonverbal behavior (example: parasocial interaction as a form of expression, gestures) interaction with a figure from the world - Verbal behavior of mass media, and feel that the media - Behavioral intention figure seems to be present in person. Parasocial Relationship (Y) The dependent variable (Y) in this Parasocial Relationship can be study is Parasocial Relationship. measured based on measurements from Parasocial relations are "simulacrum of Horton and Wohl (1956 in Chung and giving and receiving conversations" Cho, 2014), namely: (Horton and Wohl, 1956 in Chung and - Feeling friendship: Being a good Cho, 2014) between the audience and friend the media of the characters made. - Self-disclosure: Persona reveals Horton and Wohl argue that using himself media characters, direct and personal - Understanding: Knowing the conversation styles, persona can create reasons for person behavior strong intimacy with media viewers. Population and Samples Operational Definition The population in this research Parasocial Interaction (X) was 12982 active students of In this study there are 2 independent Gunadarma University. The sampling variables consisting of Parasocial technique used was purposive Interaction on YouTube (X1) and sampling technique using the Yamane Parasocial Interaction on Instagram formula, the samples taken were 388 (X2), both of which can be measured female students with the required by measurement of parasocial sample criteria were active students of processing users from Schramm and Gunadarma University who were Hartmann (2008), as follows: Rachel Goddard's beauty vlogger Cognitive: follower/subcriber on YouTube and on - Attention allocation Instagram.

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Table 1. F Test Result (Simultaneous)

Table 2. 2-Tailed T Test Result (Partial)

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(Source: results of data processing through IBM SPSS version 21)

Table 3. Multiple Linear Regression Test

(Source: results of data processing through IBM SPSS version 21)

Determination Coefficient Test Parasocial Interaction on Instagram is The coefficient of 36.2%. While the remaining 0.638 or determination essentially measures 63.8% is influenced by other variables. how far the model's ability to explain In this study the Standard Error of the variation of the dependent variable. estimated is 2.001. With a confidence In the test the coefficient of level of 95%, this study can be stated as determination Adjusted R Square value good, because the error rate is less than is 0.362 or 36.2%, indicating that the 5%. Parasocial Relationship variable that can be influenced by the Parasocial Interaction variable on YouTube and

Table 4. Determination Coefficient Test Result

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(Source: results of data processing through IBM SPSS version 21)

Correlation Test While the correlation between In the correlation test, Parasocial Interaction variables on information is obtained that the Instagram with the Parasocial correlation between the Parasocial Relationship variable is 0.697. The Interaction variables on YouTube and value of 0.697 is in the interval of 0.60 the Parasocial Relationship variable is - 0.799 which means that the value of 0.556. This value of 0.556 is in the the correlation between the Parasocial interval 0.40 - 0.599 which means that Interaction variables on Instagram and the value of the correlation between the the Parasocial Relationship variable is Parasocial Interaction variables on strong. YouTube and the Parasocial Relationship variable is moderate.

Table 5. Correlation Test

(Source: results of data processing through IBM SPSS version 21)

So the results of the comparison while YouTube was in third place state that the correlation value of the which only has 14.5 million assessors. Parasocial Interaction variable on Instagram (X2) is stronger against Description Analysis Parasocial Relations (Y) than Parasocial Based on data from 388 Interaction on YouTube (X1). In line respondents to the University of with the results of a survey conducted Gunadarma that researchers collect, it is by the Indonesian Internet Service found that respondents had a range of Providers Association (APJII) in 2017 ages 18-23 years, with the highest the data statistics showed that Instagram percentage at the age of 22 years of became one of the most widely accessed 27.3%. It is very natural to happen social media by Indonesians with 19.9 because the age of 22 is adolescence in million in second place after Facebook, the world of interactions because according to Maltby (2001) that a

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natural idolatry occurs at the age of well under the surface of the person will adolescence, but will decline as it grows be able to depict the true truth regarding older. In line with the population and himself to others, that is what Family planning agency (BKKBN, researchers find on the figure of 2011) stating that the age of the teenager Rachel Goddard. was in the 18-24-year range, so the age Overall, the comparison of these of 22 years into the late teenage phase. two platforms, stating that the variable In addition, according to surveys The correlation value of parasocial Renfrew Center Foundation in 2013 interactions on Instagram is stronger mentioned that the 65% of teenage girls against the parasocial relationship from who began to wear makeup from at age parasocial interactions on YouTube. In 8, 13, to 27 years old hardly ever leave line with the survey results conducted home without wearing makeup. by the Indonesian Internet Service Especially the respondents of this Provider Association (APJII) on 2017 research are sorority then it is natural if data statistics show that Instagram they seek makeup reference that became one of the most widely accessed matches herself to go to college. social media by Indonesians with a The phenomenon of parasocials turnover of 19.9 million which was relationship is in accordance with social second in position after Facebook, penetration theory. Altman & Taylor (in while YouTube was third in the 14.5 Kadarsih, 2009) states that unintimate million users. In addition, there are relationships move towards intimate many advantages that Instagram has relationships due to self-openness. This compared to YouTube, namely: (a) process allows people to get to know Instagram has many features and each other in a relationship. This self- advantages that are not owned by disclosure helps to shape the present YouTube. Even if the content appearing and future relationship between two on YouTube is as strong, but the people, and "make oneself open to flexibility of Instagram users using others gives intrinsic satisfaction ". In more smartphone media easy on this case, Rachel Goddard is indeed Instagram and doesn't need a large openly revealing himself on social bandwidth like access YouTube; media, making his followers come to (b)There are not very few Instagram know more in Rachel Goddard's true users whose last photo or video post is and increasingly making relationships long, but they still upload a lot of other become more intimate, coupled with things through Instagram Stories (snap constant interaction will further grams) in the last 24 hours. This improve the relationship. A person tendency indicates that users are very becomes reachable by someone else fond of the Stories feature and they are because he is loosing the limit tight and more hyperactive when the persona they make herself easily influenced. This can follow update there, as well as other be a process scary, but Altman and important things that users are more Taylor (in Kadarsih, 2009) believe that likely to interact more personally with only by allowing others to penetrate related persona; (c) "The first minute of

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with the figure of his idol, because (self-disclosure) is the core of the through social media they can get a development of relationships, where the picture of the figure of the idol with a self-disclosure of Rachel Goddard's more natural setting and obtained figure towards others provides intrinsic various other information that cannot be satisfaction for his followers. obtained through other mass media . For further research, it can also This is in accordance with one of the analyze attidute towards advertisement assumptions of the theory of Social and purchase intention. Penetration, namely Self-Disclosure

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Available online at: http://ojs.atmajaya.ac.id/index.php/fiabikom/index Jurnal InterAct

| ISSN (Print) 2252-4630 | ISSN (Online) 2614-1442 |

JURNAL INTERACT - VOL. 8 NO. 2 (2019)

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