RRR Stever and Lawson

In the article “Twitter as a way for Celebrities to Communicate with Fans: Implications for the Study of Parasocial Interaction” (2014), written by Gayle S. Stever and Kevin Lawson, they explore the relationship between celebrities and their fans and assert that “Twitter” can be utilized in educating us about unreciprocated interactions. Stever and Lawson support their theories by selecting a small group of celebrities, with an abundance of followers and, monitor their activity or ‘tweets’. Additionally, they obtained people that were familiar with Twitter, the coding methodology that they would use, and the celebrities that were to be selected. The authors also emphasize the difference in Twitter in comparison to other social media sites in order to implicate a safe way for celebrities to market themselves and create a safe relationship with their fans. This article is intended for an audience that is interested in social media and its social implications. I found this article very enlightening in breaking down the amount of impact that Twitter has on Parasocial Interaction. I agree with the fact that Twitter has a positive impact on the way that celebrities can now safely form bonds with their fans without risking their personal privacy. The information in this article was strengthened by the extensive research provided throughout. The research was validated with numerous tables illustrated and thoroughly explained (215,219,223). Stever and Lawson also utilized various celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey and MC Hammer to substantiate their findings (212). The pair use clear statistics when illustrating how the different celebrities utilized their personal Twitter accounts (220). This particular article was extremely informative and filled with interesting facts regarding Twitter.