Children's future parasocial relationships with media characters: the age of intelligent characters

Children experience emotionally tinged parasocial relationships with their favorite media characters across a constantly changing media landscape. On the frontier of this landscape are intelligent agents: digital companions that can socially interact with and educate children. We discuss how researc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of children and media Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 181 - 190
Main Authors Brunick, Kaitlin L., Putnam, Marisa M., McGarry, Lauren E., Richards, Melissa N., Calvert, Sandra L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.04.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
attachment
Child development
children's media
Educational technology
Intelligent agents
media characters
parasocial relationships
Social interaction
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Summary:Children experience emotionally tinged parasocial relationships with their favorite media characters across a constantly changing media landscape. On the frontier of this landscape are intelligent agents: digital companions that can socially interact with and educate children. We discuss how research on parasocial relationships with media characters can influence the design of intelligent "characters" for children. We discuss the components of parasocial relationships-including attachment, character personification, and social realism-and how these may play a role in developing intelligent characters as effective educational tools. We also examine the development and dissolution of parasocial relationships, and how these factors can inform intelligent character design. Educational and social implications for these technologies as teaching tools are also discussed.
ISSN:1748-2798
1748-2801
DOI:10.1080/17482798.2015.1127839