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. Simultaneously, the study also examined parasocial interaction and its possible connections to loneliness, interpersonal functional alternatives, television viewing motives, exposure, gender, age, and spokesperson selection. The data for this study was collected on the Internet website www.Survivorthesis.com. More than 450 respondents attempted the survey, but only 444 were viable due to incomplete data, repetition, and lack of proof of age. The results of the study found that there was a link between parasocial interaction and loneliness, exposure, spokesperson selection, and television viewing motives. There was no correlation found between parasocial interaction and interpersonal functional alternatives, age, gender. iii To my loving and supportive family. I would never have made it as far as I have in life without your ever present strength and example. Every word of this thesis has been made possible because of your belief in me. Thank you. I love you all. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There is not enough time or paper to thank every single person that has been involved with this thesis. I am thankful for the blessings and the lessons I have learned with you by my side. I would like to start off by thanking my parents: You both worked so hard to make sure that I got to this point (even when I didn’t want to finish) and I am eternally grateful to you for that. Thank you to my sister, Iris, for being the best example for me possible. To Charlie, thank you for pressuring me to finish my thesis and your undying support throughout the process. I have a huge debt of gratitude to my committee who supported and guided me from my first semester in college to my graduating semester inn grad school. Thank you Dr. Collins for making me rewrite, reword, and redo everything until it was ready. Dear Sally (Joan McCain), thank you for constantly editing my words and making me sound smarter than a TV Guide. Kirsten Seitz: You are a miracle worker. Thank you for constantly hearing me complaining and whining and telling me to get over it and just get it done. I would never have made it without you. Thank you to my brothers-in-arms Amanda, Regan and Q for always helping me with anything involved in this process. I would also like to thank Kelly Monaco, Ingo Rademacher, Rupert Boneham, Kyle Brandt, Kelly Clarkson and Susan Lucci for the willingness to take time out of their schedules to discuss with me the phenomena of parasocial interaction and their experiences with it. To the most important person involved in this thesis: Alicia, you brought me coffee when I spent nights at the computer lab; you stood with me for hours for 15min interviews; you kidnapped my remote control; you pushed me harder than I have ever been pushed before and I adore you for it. I can never repay you for all of the time and support you have given. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................ vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION............................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................. 4 Uses & Gratification ................................................................................................................... 4 Parasocial Interaction.................................................................................................................. 8 Reality Television & Parasocial Interaction ............................................................................. 18 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 25 Participants................................................................................................................................ 25 Hypothesis Testing.................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS.................................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION............................................................................................... 39 APPENDIX A: TABLES............................................................................................................. 52 APPENDIX B: WEBSITE........................................................................................................... 86 APPENDIX C: HIGHLIGHTS CHRONICLING THE MEDIA’S COVERAGE OF BRKICH & MARIANO’S RELATIONSHIP .................................................................................................. 92 APPENDIX D: OTHER REALITY TELEVISION SHOWS COVERAGE .............................. 98 APPENDIX E: IRB INFORMATION....................................................................................... 102 LIST OF REFERENCES............................................................................................................ 107 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Age and Television Viewing Habits............................................................................... 53 Table 2: Means and standard deviations for parasocial interaction, loneliness, television watching motives, media alternatives, and spokesperson scales.......................................................... 54 Table 3: Percentages of parasocial interaction for the entire sample............................................ 55 Table 4: Percentages of parasocial interaction for male respondents........................................... 58 Table 5: Percentages of parasocial interaction for female respondents........................................ 61 Table 6: Percentages of loneliness for entire sample.................................................................... 64 Table 7: Percentages of loneliness for male respondents ............................................................. 67 Table 8: Percentages of loneliness for female respondents .......................................................... 70 Table 9: Percentages of television viewing motives for entire sample......................................... 73 Table 10: Percentages of interpersonal functional alternatives for entire sample ........................ 80 Table 11: Percentages of spokesperson affinity for entire sample ............................................... 83 Table 12: Correlations for Parasocial Interaction ......................................................................... 85 vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Survivor is arguably the show in the new millennium that has impacted the television landscape more than any other. The show remains a ratings juggernaut that’s managed to create a Super Bowl level audience. According to author Peter Lance, “Survivor, watched by 71 million Americans in the last of its 13 episodes: the runaway hit made instant celebrities of its 16 Castaways, shifted CBS’s demographic from a Reader’s Digest base to MTV’s and grossed $52 million for the network’s parent company, Viacom.” Former Castaways have graced everything from magazine covers to the small and silver screen. On October 7, 1999, the CBS publicity department announced the creation of a summer series with a one page press release that was given to various media outlets. “One of 16 men and women stranded on an uninhabited island will outlast the others and win $1,000,000 on the new CBS reality adventure series SURVIVOR (Press Release http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/buzz/press_release100799.shtml). The second press release on December 16, 1999, announced that over 6,000 submissions had been received for the series. It wasn’t until March 13, 2000, that more than 1000 interviews