Dissertation
“The woke police are out there”: parasocial experience, cancel culture, and The Bachelor
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Summer 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007673
Abstract
This dissertation is a mixed methods study that seeks to investigate how fans of The Bachelor conceptualize their parasocial relationships with individuals from the show and how/if they decide to initiate a parasocial breakup when Bachelor contestants share political views on social media that violate their own. The first phase of this study consisted of qualitative analysis of interviews (N = 26). Analysis of the interview data revealed that many of the current scales used to measure parasocial relationships do not accurately reflect how people conceptualize the phenomenon. The data also revealed that parasocial relationships that are mediated through social media platforms such as Instagram reflect both the feeling of an interpersonal relationship as well as the acknowledgment of a consumer-based relationship. Thus, the second phase of the study used scales that reflect both of these aspects to measure a parasocial breakup.
The second phase of the study was an experiment where participants (N = 436) were sorted into one of four conditions or a control group. The conditions each contained manipulated Instagram posts from a popular Bachelor contestant that promoted the following viewpoints: support of Blackface, opposition of Blackface, support of purity culture, or opposition of purity culture. These conditions were selected based on data from the interviews that revealed that these two social issues are most commonly the reasons that Bachelor fans choose to end parasocial relationships with contestants. The results of the experiment revealed that while participants may be less satisfied with their parasocial relationships when an influencer promotes Blackface, they are not more likely to end the consumer aspect of their relationship compared to the other conditions or the control. None of the other conditions resulted in a difference in relational satisfaction. Ultimately, this study revealed that while people may say they would unfollow influencers who promote Blackface on Instagram, one post that expresses that viewpoint may not be enough to lead a fan to end a parasocial relationship. Data from both phases of the study reveal that fans put a lot of thought into their decision to consume (or continue to consume) media from certain influencers and that they are fairly forgiving when influencers promote views that go against their own. This has implications for the study of “cancel culture,” parasocial breakups, and influencer studies.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- “The woke police are out there”: parasocial experience, cancel culture, and The Bachelor
- Creators
- Katy Biddle
- Contributors
- Brian Ekdale (Advisor)Timothy Havens (Committee Member)Melissa Tully (Committee Member)Bingbing Zhang (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Mass Communication
- Date degree season
- Summer 2024
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007673
- Number of pages
- ix, 118 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Katy Biddle
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 07/23/2024
- Description illustrations
- Illustrations, tables, graphs, charts
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-112).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how fans of The Bachelor conceptualize their illusionary relationships with influencers from the franchise and to investigate how these fans feel when the influencers they feel closest to share political opinions that go against their own. The majority of research focusing on these types of relationships is quantitative in nature, so I conducted interviews in order to assess the current quantitative scales that are used to measure this phenomenon. The interviews revealed that many of the scales do not accurately reflect how real people conceptualize their relationships with online personalities. The interviews also revealed that Bachelor fans feel closest to the contestant they share similar backgrounds and values with and that many do not want to financially support those they disagree with through Instagram “likes” and “follows.” According to the interviews, the two social issues that Bachelor fans cared about the most were racism and purity culture. In the second part of this study, fans were shown falsified Instagram posts from a Bachelor contestants that promoted different viewpoints regarding those two issues. This part of the study showed that while fans may like someone less for promoting blatantly racist viewpoints, they are not more likely to unfollow that person on Instagram than if they had shared anti-racist viewpoints, any viewpoint about purity culture, or no opinion whatsoever. Ultimately, this project highlights the complicated nature of when fans decide to unfollow a celebrity over a difference in political views.
- Academic Unit
- School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Record Identifier
- 9984698151602771
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