The Presence of Political Parasocial Interaction in the Websites of U.S. Senators

Abstract

The growing trend of parasocial activity in the digital age raises the question of its role in the relationship between website interface and website user, with specific regard to parasocial activity in politics and the implications of the former. To address this gap, I conducted a QUAL-QUAN content analysis on the campaign websites of each member of the U.S. Senate to identify trends in website interface design that may foster parasocial interaction. Consequently, I validated the findings of the content analysis through a qualitative comparative analysis that utilized accredited sources as a model for what constitutes parasocial interaction. My results were conclusive, with certain website components (call-to-action, social media content, biographical content, newsletter forms, and constituent services) appearing with significant frequency across all campaign websites. When compared with the models of the accredited sources, they revealed that the placement and content of these website components can be purposed to foster parasocial interaction between website interface and website user. However, the results may have been influenced by political bias or the errors of manual content analysis of various website components at a large scale. On a broader scope, this paper hopes to draw attention to a less commonly analyzed form of media, the website, in the field of research on parasocial activity. Furthermore, it may serve as a basis for reflection on the possible effects of the presence of political parasocial interaction on websites on the website user, and the United States’ political processes in an increasingly digital era.