Abstract:

The interaction integrity of digital communication technologies, which the Internet has brought into our daily lives, is the concept of a "network society". Apart from its technological convenience, this holistic concept has serious consequences for political, sociological, and economic fields. The internet is the basic ground that enables the formation of the network society. Large social masses have access to places and statuses on the Internet that they cannot go to. Social media offers opportunities to large but silent or unheard masses of society through applications. Individuals can express their opinions with substitute identities without revealing their own identities in these areas. This form of communication makes the network society an important center for parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction is based on the relationship of the large masses of society with the real or fictional characters they see in the media content or channels. Social media applications offer areas where individuals can express their feelings, thoughts, and wishes. In this study, "Twitter user comments", which is a social media application in which the intellectual plane is dominant, have been determined as a sample in the context of the network society's response to parasocial interaction. On the axis of parasocial interaction and network society, user comments about the program characters under the hashtag @Survivor 2022 All-Star were categorized and analyzed in an emotional context. The study was conducted using the qualitative research method. The data obtained from the Twitter comments were evaluated in the Maxqda qualitative analysis program. As a result of the study, it was seen that the users were in parasocial interaction with the characters they saw, and the comments were mostly shaped by hate speech and negative emotions.

Keywords: