BBC Essex Reporter Interviews Media Students
- Posted 28 May 2024
On Thursday, we welcomed BBC Essex Reporter, Theo Beevers, to our Seevic Campus to interview some of our A-Level and Vocational Media Students. The BBC were investigating the power of parasocial relationships, a term used to describe one-sided relationships where one party is heavily invested in the relationship, and one unaware the other party exists. These relationships are usually experienced between celebrities and their fans.
The occurrence of these relationships has been on the rise, linked to the increased use of social media platforms such as YouTube, and could be having a detrimental impact on people’s real-life relationships as people are more often turning to social media rather than talking to friends and family when they are in need of cheering up.
What did our students have to say about this?
Jack, an A-Level Media Studies Student, offered that this could be seen as ‘a form of escapism’, but could have a dangerous impact on viewer’s social lives when ‘they prefer to sit at home on their own watching YouTube instead of going out’.
Emily, also an A-Level Media Studies Student, said ‘I can see why people feel more comfortable watching YouTube than talking to someone in real life because it is one way - you don't have to think about their reactions or think about how people perceive you.’
To read the full article, click here.
Or, to listen to the full feature on BBC Sounds, listen back here and scroll to 3:13.
I can see why people feel more comfortable watching YouTube than talking to someone in real life because it is one way - you don't have to think about their reactions or think about how people perceive you.