“As American idols, media figures do not merely influence one narrow aspect of life. They influence values, goals, and attitudes, and through this they exert a pervasive influence on social conduct” (Caughey, 1984, p. 60). I argue that as active audience members, we readily latch on to their influence and process it in a way that leads us to develop internal scripting that we then use in our interpersonal relationships.
Caughey (1984) examined parasocial relationships using terminology outside the language of media research. His chapter is a collection of case studies that he analyzes and is an important work that could lead to an understanding of the functions and characteristics of PSI/PSR.
II literature refers to the use of IIs for the compensation of lack of communication. Caughey (1984) posited a “substitute lover” explanation. The main assumption of such an explanation is that the substitute (imaginary) lover will disappear once a person finds a real lover. The author argues that this assumption is not true.It also assumes that real lovers are better than imaginary ones. This is not necessarily the case, as people have to put up with a real lover’s burps, problems, etc. “In some ways, fantasy lovers are better than real lovers” (p. 50). Real people carry warts, but imaginary ones generally do not. Plus, imaginary lovers are carefully photographed and packaged for sale, unlike real people. Through the fantasy process we tend to make these types of relationships superior to real ones; “a media love relationship is exquisitely tuned not to the needs of the celebrity, but to the needs of the self” (p. 51). Caughey (1984) argues that the fantasies run over and over again from first meeting of the celebrity to courtship to marriage and living happily ever after. This echoes the rehearsal function of IIs in which we run through imagined interactions and build scripts for behavior. Though fantasizing about celebrities may lead to building scripts, we are often aware that we will never use those scripts, yet we enjoy them just the same.
Sometimes, relationships with celebrities take on a negative valence. We may watch televangelists, talk show hosts, or others on television and have negative fantasies. This may be related to the self-dominance characteristic of IIs. Some of Caughey’s (1984) informants “have developed antagonisms to local talk show hosts, and sometimes they watch such shows for the pleasure of hating the celebrity … soap opera fans are often as interested in characters they dislike as those they admire” (p. 52). This observation is supported by Raney’s (2004) addenda to affective-disposition theory (we tend to like characters with whom we identify and give them moral latitude), as well as Weber, et al.’s (2008) affective disposition study of soap operas. “It may seem amusing that an actor who plays a villainous soap opera husband is regularly stopped on the street and berated for treating his ‘wife’ so badly. Unfortunately, serious attacks sometimes result from such imaginary relationships” (p. 53).
By far the most common group of relationships with media characters involves simple admiration. Caughey (1984) cites people such as John Wayne, James Dean, and Bruce Springsteen as celebrities whose work we feel teaches us to be better people. One of his participants looked to Mary Tyler Moore for guidance on “how to be a woman,” another looked to John Wayne for guidance on how to be a man. This points toward looking to television characters to help us write our own internal scripts for behavior in our private interpersonal relationships with real people.
Sometimes, media effects on the people around us may lead them to treat us in a manner that helps us develop our own internal scripts. One of Macaughey’s (1984) interviewees naturally looked and acted like a popular television character, though he himself was unfamiliar with the show. His peers noticed the resemblance and started calling him “Tony,” telling him they saw him on TV the night before. The interviewee soon found himself playing the part in real-life:
Often I would dress like him … naturally I was soon anxiously awaiting the weekly airing of the series and soon had assimilated many of his mannerisms. Although I never sounded like him, I do say many of his phrases … the TV character probably helped cement my character into the mold that is now me. (p. 55).
Caughey (1984) further argues that “once the initial identification has been made, patterned forms of behavior typically develop” (p. 55). This is a direct link between media effects to internal scripting. Initial contact with a persona may lead to a parasocial relationship, which is reinforced by further media consumption, leading to internal scripting, leading to scripted thinking and behavior.
The third type of celebrity fantasy involves actually becoming the celebrity. A person begins to dress, think, and act like their favorite character; this may be the type of fantasy that drives Elvis and Michael Jackson impersonators. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some impersonators go so far as to have plastic surgery to look more like their idols. Often people prone to these types of fantasies derive comfort when behaving in a way they feel their celebrity idol would behave.
Perhaps most importantly is that Caughey’s (1984) work demonstrates that obsession with celebrities, modeling, and building internal scripts is not a characteristic unique to Western audiences. Interviewees in Pakistan expressed a similar process of modeling celebrities and trying to live up to the ideals of these characters. This suggests that it is a human function to look to celebrities for guidance in our own interpersonal lives. Script-building is one result of looking at such guidance, and suggests that media have powerful effects on our interpersonal communication through our fantasies and intrapersonal communication.
