From Para‐social to Multisocial Interaction: Theorizing Material/Digital Fandom and Celebrity

Chapter 25 From Para-social to Multisocial Interaction: Theorizing Material/Digital Fandom and Celebrity Matt Hills, Matt HillsSearch for more papers by this author Matt Hills, Matt HillsSearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):P. David Marshall, P. David MarshallSearch for more papers by this authorSean Redmond, Sean RedmondSearch for more papers by this author First published: 05 October 2015 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118475089.ch25Citations: 5 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary This chapter focuses on how fan-celebrity para-social interactions have been theorized. It argues that the concept of the “para-social”, a type of imagined rather than co-present social relationship, has not only been spuriously contrasted to “actual” sociability, but that attempts to view para-social interactions between fans and celebrities as “truly” social fail to adequately consider how the social itself involves imaginary and fantasized aspects. Both attacks on, and defenses of, fan-celebrity “para-social” interactions have tended to reductively characterize “social” relationships. It then considers how digital fandom has reconfigured debates around the “para-social”: if this has been positioned as “mediated quasi-interaction”. The chapter also argues that the concept of para-social interaction is problematized not only by the social/para-social binary, but also by its focus on an assumed social dyad. The para-social is neither wholly normalized nor displaced within a Web 2.0 social media environment; instead, it becomes multisocial. Citing Literature A Companion to Celebrity RelatedInformation