In 1956, sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl published a paper describing a phenomenon they had observed in the early decades of television broadcasting. Audiences were forming what appeared to be genuine relationships with television personalities. Viewers spoke about hosts and performers as if they knew them personally, felt concern when they were absent, celebrated their successes, and mourned their failures. Horton and Wohl called these one-sided connections parasocial relationships, para meaning alongside or beside, to distinguish them from genuine social relationships where interaction is mutual. The audience member knew the media personality. The media personality did not know the...