“We have an Ondas Award and a lot of anxiety”: Engagement strategies and parasociality of the Estirando el chicle podcast

Abstract

The Estirando el chicle [Stretching the chewing gum] audiovisual podcast is analyzed as a success story that focuses on the connection between the program and its social audiences to determine whether elements of parasociality exist. The case study method is used, with a mixed design that combines discourse analysis and content analysis to understand: 1) the discursive strategies used by the creators, searching for a co-orientation effect with their audience, and 2) whether fandom expresses the existence of parasociality on Youtube. The results show that the hosts use five strategies to be perceived as authentic and to connect with their audience: self-revelation, the “behind-the-scenes” narrative subgenre, visibility of mental health issues, rejection of the aspirational discourse of influencers, and the simulation of interaction. As regards signs of parasociality among the fandom, it is found that 63.8% of comments address the hosts with familiarity, 14.4% of the texts express affectivity belonging to the primary group, and the gratifications from the podcast obtained are entertainment (46.5%), the sense of belonging to the community (18.9%), self-expression (11%), identification (4.7%), and an improvement in some aspect of their life (4.7%).