Understanding the Nature of the Relationship Established with Turkish TV Serial Characters

The aim of this study is to explore the underlying motives and patterns beneath the interaction established with Turkish TV serial characters. Turkish people generally give importance to the TV serials, and sometimes these serials affect individuals’ life exceptionally. Parasocial interaction is a one-way relationship which the audience establishes with the characters of TV serials. This qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in the context of parasocial interaction with 13 Turkish individuals. Both semi-structured interview and document review techniques were used. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The findings suggested that there are 2 main themes: viewing motivation as counseling, perceived realism, perceived similarity and comparison; and parasocial outputs as reinforcement of the previous attitudes, lessoning, modeling, and deviation in perception of the reality