Presumed Intimacy: Parasocial Interaction in Media, Society and Celebrity Culture

Description

‘Presumed intimacy’ refers to a relationship that requires instant trust, confidence, disclosure and the recognition of vulnerability. Chris Rojek investigates the impact of relationships of ‘presumed intimacy’, where audiences form strong identifications with mediated others, whether they be celebrities, political personae or online friends. Arguing that the way the media are able to manage these relationships is a significant aspect of their power structure, the core of the book is an investigation into the complicity of the media in encouraging presumed intimacy and the cultural, social and political consequences arising from this. Beyond this, it examines how intimacy is performed as a masquerade in many social settings – the scripts we follow in social settings that try to manufacture a shortcut to intimacy. A compelling look into mediated relationships in the network society, Presumed Intimacy will be a key contribution to the critical analysis of society, media and culture. Cover Epigraph Title page Copyright Page Contents 1: Living with Statistical Men and Women Familiar Strangers Moral Density and Human Sympathy Para-Social Interaction The Cult of the Individual 2: Chimerical Risk Management Fugitive Democracy Bystander Mentality The Unity of Nearness and Remoteness 3: The Shockwaves of Trauma What About Category A Responses? 4: The Lost Neighbour Proposition and the Collateral Damage Problem Collateral Damage Panoptical Intimacy 5: Horizontal Frontierism: The Juggernaut of Character Mythical West All Hail the Horizon 6: The Accentuation of Personality Carl Schmitt: The Charm of Romanticism Personality Cult Lifies Mediation and Mediatization 7: Vertical Frontierism: Four Case Studies The Inimitable The Sorcerer The ‘Cyclone’ The Sex Symbol Head Tennis Among the Union of Watchers 8: Cracks in the Mirror The Ordeal of Kenneth Bigley and the Psychology of Torture ‘Sub-optimal’ Presumed Intimacy: The Hurricane Katrina Speech Institutionalized Intimacy 9: The Gestural Economy Speech Illustrators and Emblems 10: Institutional and Counter-Institutional Gestural Economies Kowtow The British Academic Research Excellence Framework (REF) Counterfeit Commerce 11: Nuda Veritas The Invisible Committee The Road Ahead Notes 1 Living with Statistical Men and Women 2 Chimerical Risk Management 3 The Shockwaves of Trauma 4 The Lost Neighbour Proposition and the Collateral Damage Problem 5 Horizontal Frontierism: The Juggernaut of Character 6 The Accentuation of Personality 7 Vertical Frontierism: Four Case Studies 9 The Gestural Economy 10 Institutional and Counter-Institutional Gestural Economies 11 Nuda Veritas References Author Index Subject Index EULA