A Symbolic Interactionist Investigation of (Para)social Interaction with Internet Celebrities

This thesis investigates the connection between parasocial interaction, microcelebrities, and their followers. Parasocial interaction scholarship often neglects the possibility of reciprocal interactions that might precede or follow such imaginary relationship with media personalities, while microcelebrity literature has long emphasized on either the cultural production or the receivers’ reactions to it without much attention on the dynamic processes in between. Using symbolic interactionism as the bridge between these two bodies of literature, this thesis examines the interactions between microcelebrities and their followers, hence exploring the construction of identities on both sides and what social values rest in people with microcelebrity status.