https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1236-8761
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Abstract
This study critically examines the Missing Richard Simmons podcast to explore how producers and participants use media to define and process complex relationships with celebrity figures. Employing qualitative textual analysis, this research demonstrates how audiences mediate celebrity interactions and the potential role these relationships play within a marginalized and fragile community. This project qualitatively explores parasocial interactions to demonstrate the ways expressions of grief and loss are mediated by audiences when a celebrity “relationship” disappears. In using a podcast to rekindle a celebrity connection, this study shows the impact that podcast hosts may have on messages presented to the audience.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kelli S. Boling
Kelli S. Boling (MMC, University of South Carolina) is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Carolina. Her research interests include the intersection of emerging media and society, focusing on gender-specific implications, and audience impact on media.
Kevin Hull
Kevin Hull (PhD, University of Florida) is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. His research primarily focuses on the sports media.
Leigh M. Moscowitz
Leigh Moscowitz is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of The Battle over Marriage: Gay Rights Activism through the Media and the co author of Snatched: News Coverage of Child Abductions in U.S. Media as well as Media and the Coming Out of Gay Male Athletes in American Team Sports. Her work has appeared in journals such as Feminist Media Studies, the Journal of Communication Inquiry, the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.