“I’ve Grown up with the Queen”: Responses to Media Coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s Death

Abstract

This study employs uses and gratifications theory and the news value of celebrity to explore comments from New Zealanders on the news coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, New Zealand’s constitutional Head of State. Twenty-five participants kept a weekly diary of their news consumption and participated in focus groups to discuss their understanding of news. As the focus groups coincided with the media coverage of the Queen’s death, the participants discussed their responses to the news coverage of this event. These comments were classified by the sentiment expressed and analyzed in two age cohorts to explore the cognitive and affective responses of the participants. Overall, the participants over 26 years had more affective responses, and those under 26 years had more cognitive responses. With the older cohort, the participants experienced more media interactions with Queen Elizabeth II and had stronger grief responses and connections to her death, but it was hard to determine the full extent of any parasocial relationships. This paper concludes that uses and gratifications theory and news values can assist in understanding how audiences form connections to celebrities through the news media. In turn, these connections will impact how the news media cover celebrity deaths and the public mourning rituals of audiences.

1. Introduction

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, aged 96, after a 70-year reign, was a significant global news event and aligned with the news value of celebrity. Over 33 million people worldwide watched television coverage of the Queen’s death (Yossman, 2022). This paper uses responses to the media coverage of her death to explore the links between uses and gratifications theory, the news value of celebrity, and the formation of parasocial relationships.

Uses and gratifications theory specifies that audiences seek media to meet specific needs and obtain gratifications such as surveillance, information seeking, and keeping up with others (Katz et al., 1973, 1974; McQuail et al., 1972). When a celebrity dies, audiences will choose to use media to meet their needs and will change their choices if their needs are unmet. Audiences may show affective reactions such as adding public comments on media platforms (Papacharissi, 2019) or acting on causes championed by the celebrity (Brown et al., 2023; Myrick & Willoughby, 2019). Research has examined memorializing on Facebook following the deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Prince (Gil-Egui et al., 2017); media discourse following Amy Winehouse’s death (Hearsum, 2012); and public mourning rituals for Steve Irwin (Gibson, 2007) and Princess Diana (Brown et al., 2003). Previous research has shown responses are significantly influenced by the person’s demographics and connection to the celebrity (Myrick & Willoughby, 2019; Myrick et al., 2024).

A category of people who are elite or famous has been considered a news value since 1965, when Galtung and Ruge included it in their predictors of news selection factors (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). While other news values have been redefined, it has remained consistent as a factor determining the newsworthiness of a story (Harcup & O’Neill, 2001, 2017) and has evolved to cover all those considered celebrities. In recent years, more celebrity news can be found across many news sources (Dubied & Hanitzsch, 2014; O’Neill, 2012). Celebrities have become primary role models (Brown et al., 2003), and the category includes politicians, people famous for their achievements, and people using social media to build their celebrity status (Hou, 2019). The Queen and the royal family are considered celebrities but they also seem to be above some of the usual celebrity status because they represent an institution (Carlson, 2021).

News items with high levels of news values, such as the category of celebrity, increase the affective and cognitive involvement of audiences and audiences’ engagement with others about news (Ziegele et al., 2020). As celebrity news resonates with audiences, they have more media interactions with celebrities, and these interactions can lead to a parasocial relationship with the person. The term ‘parasocial’ was first introduced by Horton and Wohl (1956) to describe the one-sided relationship between a spectator and performer in regard to television and radio. It is defined as “the process of developing an imaginary relationship with a mediated persona both during and after media consumption” (Brown, 2015, p. 275). Parasocial relationships are a distinct form of personal relationship, shaped by repeated instances of media interactions between the viewer and the performer (Dibble et al., 2016). They are considered a physiological phenomenon and a media phenomenon. People often feel they ‘know’ the people they have a parasocial relationship with, even if this acknowledgement is not reciprocated (Lotun, 2022).

New media forms and social media platforms have amplified opportunities for audiences to connect with celebrities and potentially form parasocial relationships (Boyd et al., 2024; Marwick, 2015; Xu et al., 2022). These opportunities mean that parasocial relationships may not be as one-sided as they used to be. Celebrities and famous people can share personal details back to their followers in real time, enhancing the connection (Jarzyna, 2021; Lotun, 2022). Following a celebrity death, there is a positive correlation between the strength of the parasocial relationship with that person and the impact of grief: the deeper the connection, the deeper the grief (Hoffner, 2020). Research by Baker and Cohen (2023) found that parasocial grief is comparable to grief for deaths in other social relationships. With new forms of media, any message can be sent instantly and globally, meaning more opportunities for private grief to become public. This has led to celebrity deaths becoming a communal memorial activity (Walter et al., 2012).

1.1. The Significance of the Queen’s Death for New Zealand

As the Head of State of New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth II’s death had a significant cultural and political impact on New Zealand. The Queen features on New Zealand’s currency, she features in its legislative framework, and her role is represented in the country by a Governor-General. The Queen’s formal constitutional role meant her death brought other dimensions to audiences’ responses, alongside it being the death of a famous person.

The Queen’s death was covered extensively by New Zealand media, and it contained many of the characteristics of a major media event as described by Dayan and Katz (1992). They describe a media event as taking place in public spaces, often live, confirming traditional authority and focused on the past. Dayan and Katz’s (1992) media event definition was proposed when television dominated news consumption and before the advent of new media forms. They described media events as having three actor types: the organizers (mainly large actors like public bodies), the broadcaster, and the audience (Brügger, 2022). Dayan and Katz divide media events into contests, conquests, and coronations. Any sort of competitions are defined as contests, conquests are triumphant missions, historical accomplishments of extraordinary individuals. Coronations relate to rituals of passage such as weddings, coronations, and funerals of personalities. The Queen’s death can be considered to be in the coronation category proposed by Dayan and Katz. While the timing of the event was uncertain, there had been significant planning into the announcements and events that would comprise the media coverage for the two-week period of mourning and formal proceedings (Hallgren, 2024).

1.2. Media Context

The media coverage of the Queen’s death highlighted the symbiotic relationship between the royal family and the news media and their special celebrity status (Turner, 2014). Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 was one of the first major events to be televised. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011 was a worldwide media event, watched live by two billion people (Clancy, 2019), and was the first royal wedding to be watched on new forms of media (Şuţu, 2012). The media’s focus is often on their personal lives as well as their constitutional duties (Randell-Moon, 2017).

New Zealand is a Western democracy with approximately five million people. The news media environment has several organisations with a large audience share (including government-owned television and radio) and many small independent outlets (Hope et al., 2023). Over the last few years, New Zealand media organisations have faced increased competition from international news sources and social media platforms, declining advertising revenues and significantly changing audiences’ news consumption habits (Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2022; Myllylahti & Treadwell, 2024; Newman et al., 2024). As new forms of media and social media have emerged, different ages are engaging with media in different ways. Young people have less interaction with traditional news and a strong focus on commentators, influencers, and news creators on social media platforms (Eddy, 2022; Geers, 2020; Newman et al., 2024; Swart & Broersma, 2023). The high-choice media environment can also lead to more personalization of news selection and more news avoidance in younger groups than older cohorts (Edgerly et al., 2018a, 2018b).

1.3. Media Impact of Queen Elizabeth II’s Death

When a famous person passes away, especially a person of significance like Queen Elizabeth II, the intense media coverage and memorializing focuses people on what that person meant to them. When the Queen’s death was announced, media coverage of the news monopolized many programmes and platforms (Frandsen et al., 2022), audiences stopped their daily routines, and the event was considered to have historical meaning. Narrations are a means for meaning-making (Ninan & Sergeeva, 2022; Zilber, 2007) and often support a dominant narrative that is generally accepted as a universal truth (Harper, 2009). However, social media platforms have increased the opportunities for people to offer resistance to the dominant narrative and these are called counter-narratives (Andrews, 2008). Counter-narratives can, over time, with sustained focus, impact the dominant narrative (McLean & Syed, 2016). On this occasion, alongside the mainstream media narrative of the Queen’s death that evoked nostalgia and reverence, there was also a viral counter-narrative that emerged, which is part of today’s modern media event (Hallgren, 2024).

Significant mass media events can lead to the amplification of content on an issue, produced not by the mass media and other digital media and conversations online about the event (Hepp & Couldry, 2009). In the case of celebrity deaths, social media platforms can allow mourners from different backgrounds and locations to mourn collectively and contribute to the memorialization of the person (Papacharissi, 2015; Uwalaka, 2023). This social media engagement can then form part of the mainstream media coverage. A study by Uwalaka (2023) on users’ comments on the Queen’s death categorized people who responded on public forums as either grievers, who were sad; lauders, who adored her; accusers, who expressed anger towards the monarchy; and defenders, who posted justification for the accusations against the Queen.

In the United Kingdom, the BBC led the coverage of the Queen’s death and set the tone for public mourning, which became symbolic with shaping national belonging (Clancy, 2024). The worldwide news coverage included reminiscing on her lifetime achievements and public displays of mourning. Ten days after her death, her funeral was the most-watched broadcast event ever, watched by 4 billion people in over 200 countries (Jackson, 2022). In relation to the Queen’s death, scholars have examined the framing of death notices (Prasadini & Palupi, 2023), death metaphors in the media (Nuzulia & Firmonasari, 2023), condolences on Facebook (Mentari & Susiati, 2024), sentiment analysis in tweets and its impact on identity construction dynamics (Bellés Calvera, 2024), and the impact of parasocial relationships on worshipping and charity donations (Brown et al., 2023).

The New Zealand media have consistently covered royal family news, particularly during her ten royal tours to New Zealand. Their response was similar to the United Kingdom: breaks to normal programming to cover the details, continuing live coverage, and special programmes and commemorative newspapers (Basagre, 2022).

This study explores how the responses of New Zealanders in focus groups align with uses and gratifications theory and news values, and if they reflect audiences’ parasocial relationships with the Queen. It particularly explores the reactions to the media coverage of focus group participants under 26 years of age with those of participants aged over 26 years. Therefore, the following research questions are put forth:

• RQ1: What were the participants’ experiences of the Queen’s death through news media?
• RQ2: Were there age-related differences in the participants’ experiences?

2. Method

This study used focus groups and diaries to generate discussion and gain audiences’ opinions on concepts (Antunovic et al., 2018). Diaries and focus groups were used to understand people’s individual thoughts and preferences on news consumption. The triangulation of methods to check the responses (diaries and focus groups) produced a robust method of analysis. Twenty-five New Zealanders (13 men and 12 women) participated in focus groups and completed a media diary for one week in September 2022. The diaries were used to analyze the news consumption by each participant and as background information to support their discussion in the focus groups. The focus groups were held after the diary collection period. There were no incentives for the participants.

Participants were recruited by a research company, and all participated in other forms of research (but not on this topic). The screening ensured that they were regular news consumers. The recruitment ensured a range of participants across ages, sex, geographical locations, and ethnicities. They had a range of highest education levels—professional or trade qualifications, tertiary, and secondary level—and this did not seem to impact on their average hours of news consumption. Thirteen participants stated that they spent, on average, two hours or more on news each day, and the other twelve reported, on average, one hour a day. Nine participants were aged 26 years and under, and 16 were over 26 years. The cohorts were split at 26, as people aged 18 to 26 are forming new media habits at that life stage (Antunovic et al., 2018).

2.1. Data Collection

Participants took part in online five-person focus groups for 1.5 h within two weeks of the diary collection week. Participants were asked about their definitions of news, what news sources they used, what they did with news, and their emotional responses to news. These questions were asked in a consistent conservational style in each of the three focus groups. The data were collected in line with appropriate privacy and ethical standards.

Participants noted the time, source, and topic of their news consumption in hourly units from 6 a.m. Monday, 5 September 2022 until 11.59 p.m. Sunday, 11 September 2022 into an electronic spreadsheet with existing labels for the days and times. Instructions were given to participants. There were minor variations in the type of entries but there was enough information to identify participants’ patterns of news consumption. The spreadsheet information was sorted by person, time and date, and news source, against the specified time. The sources were categorized into New Zealand traditional media, international traditional media, social media, and new media. Traditional sources were formal, branded journalism news sources in New Zealand and overseas. Social media included platforms where people could connect and comment, and new media were other forms of media such as YouTube and Telegram. Each time slot was considered a unit and totalled for each person, news source, and day. The news sources by person and day were converted to percentages using Excel for each person and averaged over the week to manage a participant’s strong liking for a news source. This meant that for each person, there was a percentage breakdown of their weekly news consumption, by news source.

2.2. Data Analysis

The data were analyzed to explore the participants’ experiences of the Queen’s death through news media and if there were any age-related differences in the participants’ experiences. All comments from the focus groups were recorded and transcribed and copied into a master spreadsheet. The comments were sorted into four areas: definitions of news, actions from news, emotions from news, and comments on the Queen’s death. Comments could be counted in more than one category (for example, a participant using the Queen’s death to explain what news is to them and their particular emotional comment on the media coverage of the Queen’s death).

This article’s focus is the 36 comments specifically on the media coverage of the Queen’s death. These were categorized into three themes: sad responses, annoyed responses and cognitive responses. Sad responses were emotional comments on participants’ grief, annoyed responses were emotional comments that the media coverage was overwhelming, and cognitive responses were seeking knowledge on the implications of the Queen’s death. These comments were analyzed by age and sex.

3. Results

In the week analyzed, the participants used 63 news sources and consumed 648 units of news (based on the timeslots in which they said they consumed news). The majority (73%) were from traditional New Zealand and overseas news sources, 18% were from social media, and 9% were from new media sources. Traditional sources were branded journalism news sources in New Zealand and overseas. Social media included platforms where people could connect and comment, and new media were other forms of media (not branded as legacy news products, such as YouTube and Telegram). The results showed high news consumption on Friday and increased consumption of international news sources from Friday to Sunday (Figure 1). More than half (56%) of the younger cohort’s news consumption was from non-traditional news sources.

The first research question explored the participants’ experiences of the Queen’s death through media. The focus groups had 36 comments specifically on the media coverage of the Queen’s death. The participants described it as a major news event due to its magnitude, significance to New Zealand, and emotional impact. The majority of the comments (26) were from women, with 19 from women over 26 years of age. Ten comments were from men: eight from those over 26 years of age. The comments were categorized into three categories: sad responses, annoyed responses, and cognitive responses.

3.1. Cohort Engagement

In regard to the second research question of age-related differences in the responses of the participants, over 75 percent of the comments came from the older cohort. This may have been because they had sustained media exposure to the Queen through traditional news media, including on tours to New Zealand. For example, one participant said,

“I’ve grown up with the Queen, my whole life. When we went to the movies, we would stand up before the movie began, and they would play God Save the Queen. I grew up watching her when special events happened.”

(Female, 69)

A 39-year-old participant made sure everyone heard the news as soon as possible, in the same way as she would for the death of a person she had a direct relationship with: “When the Queen died, it was a shock to me. I was messaging everybody to ask if they had heard about the Queen. Everybody had heard except for one person.” Another participant (47 years) said, “It’s a very stark, historic occasion, and it’s bringing a lot of people together.”

During the data collection week, more than half (56 percent) of the news consumption by the younger cohort was on non-traditional news sources (Anderson, 2024), and the Queen’s death was perceived as less important to them. They had not had the same media exposure to the Queen over their lives and therefore, they did not have the emotional response and parasocial relationship that the older participants had. For example, a young participant stated that royal news was more of interest to people older than him and news had to be personally relevant for him to be interested in it.

“News that interests me would be Nate Diaz winning his fight in the UFC against Max Holloway. That’s news to me, but that’s not news to my auntie. In the same way, I don’t have much interest in any of the Queen’s dealings.”

(Male, 21)

3.2. Affective Responses and Media Choices

The media coverage of the Queen’s death included the mourning rituals, funeral details, and topics that directly impacted New Zealand audiences, such as videos of her past visits to New Zealand. Given her 70-year reign, for most New Zealanders, she was the only monarch that they had known. Thirteen comments related to the participants having sad responses. Nine of these comments contained emotion to describe the participants’ reactions, such as “very sad,” “big feel,” “shock,” “royalty as a shared passion,” and “grieving.” One person said she was surprised by the strong reaction to her death.

“I think that a large part of the people’s reactions has been the impact of the historical nature of the situation because she was in power for so long. Everyone knew she was going to die, and most people don’t really care about the monarchy. It’s been surprisingly impactful, and a lot of people are surprised at how sombre they felt.”

(Female, 47)

The participants’ relationship with the Queen affected their actions on the media coverage. When her death was announced on the news, one participant used social media to pass on the news to her family to make sure everyone had heard, as they all had a shared interest in the royal family. The participants made media choices based on the type of coverage they wanted. For example, a 37-year-old participant said, “It was great to watch the full-day coverage from One News as soon as she passed away, but from there it was nice to watch BBC live because it’s direct from the source.” Another discussed paying for an international news source because they wanted more coverage: “We didn’t have Sky television at the time, but we put it back because we wanted to watch the Queen.” This increased need to watch the news live and at length reflected these participants’ strength of relationship with the Queen and their emotional need for more news coverage.

Eight of the comments were annoyed responses and described the participants’ annoyance with the volume and extent of the news coverage, as they did not see relevance for them. One participant stated the Queen was an important person; however, he did not like the wall-to-wall coverage and stated the news needed to maintain focus on other significant events like the Ukraine war, the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, and an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the moon (other news items at the time). Another participant opted to watch more comedic reflections of the media event with counter-narratives, i.e., different narratives to the mainstream media. As an example, one participant said: “I remember Trevor Noah [a talk show host] was trending on Twitter because of his opinion on the Queen passing. It was all over social media—everyone was really engaged and sharing it” (Male, 31). These comments reflect the changing nature and the competitiveness of the current news media environment. While the news sources make it a major news event, some consumers will seek out other voices and opinions on the event that are relevant to them.

3.3. Cognitive Responses

Fifteen comments were focused on obtaining more knowledge about the Queen and the implications of her death for New Zealand. This is consistent with uses and gratifications theory, which suggests that people consume news for knowledge and personal relevance. In today’s environment, the internet and digital technologies enable citizens to very quickly search for information on a topic. This need for information can increase in times of crisis or uncertainty, when people are trying to make sense of the situation and reduce their feelings of confusion or helplessness (Uwalaka, 2023). New Zealand had a public holiday recognising the Queen’s birthday and its currency has images of Queen Elizabeth II. Some participants focused on what will change in New Zealand as a result of the Queen’s death. As an example, one participant said the following:

“Some of my news questions were based around the following issues: what does this mean holiday wise? Is the $20 Kiwi note still valid?”

(Male, 24)

Given the constitutional implications for New Zealand, the participants discussed the new King’s role as Head of State, whether New Zealand’s currency would change, and if the Queen’s Birthday holiday would become the King’s Birthday.

4. Discussion

This study showed that the news coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death resulted in affective responses of sadness and annoyance and cognitive responses from the participants in the focus groups. This is consistent with uses and gratifications theory, which states that people seek news to meet their specific needs. In regard to age differences in the responses, the older participants used media to meet their social, emotional, and cognitive needs, and the younger people were focused on meeting their cognitive needs. The results also reflect celebrity as a news value, as the Queen’s death was a major worldwide news event. Several older participants expressed their connection to the Queen, reminisced, discussed previous royal family dramas, and sought more knowledge about the royal family. They had seen news coverage of the Queen their whole lives and expressed their grief for her, even when their relationship was only developed through media interactions. The participants described sad emotions and talking to others about the Queen, as part of their grieving process.

The younger cohort did not have the same emotional responses. This may be partly because they were more likely to use different news sources than the older cohort. Younger generations are highly personalized and mobile news consumers (Fedeli & Matsa, 2018; Harcup, 2023; Newman et al., 2024), and in this research, they used more social media and new media sources. Compared to previous generations, young people today are exposed to, and interacting with, a large range of influential figures through television, printed media, radio, popular culture, and the internet (Boon & Lomore, 2001). As such, they may have been exposed to less coverage of the Queen’s death and had different experiences of the news coverage. Their responses indicated that they were more likely to be exposed to counter-narratives on social media and new media, than in mainstream media coverage.

Reflecting the categories of Uwalaka (2023), the comments from the focus groups gave the impression of some of the participants being categorized as ‘grievers’, those who were sad; and ‘lauders’, people who adored her. None of the comments fell into the ‘accusers’ or ‘defenders’ category. This is likely because the focus groups were on news specifically, rather than the Queen’s role and legacy. However, there were comments from some participants about being indifferent to the Queen’s death and therefore annoyed at the domination of it in the news media.

The responses of grief indicated that New Zealanders had a strong connection with the overseas monarch and, over the long time of her reign, many had developed emotional connections to her. Queen Elizabeth II made ten trips to New Zealand, including one in 1953, when she visited 46 towns and cities. Over her reign, she became a modern celebrity in New Zealand, with regular coverage in women’s magazines, on radio, television, and, more latterly, on social media platforms (The Conversation, 2022). This sustained media coverage assisted in maintaining her profile and popularity The media responses to her death in New Zealand echoed those of many other countries: Queen Elizabeth II was seen as a symbol of resilience, strength, and dedication, and an icon of stability (Adams, 2024). These responses would have supported those who had beneficial parasocial relationships with the Queen. Studies such as that by (Eyal & Cohen 2006; Eyal & Dailey, 2012), and Tukachinsky Forster (2023) found that women exhibited stronger parasocial relationships than men, but these studies were unclear if this difference was attributable to gender or other variables. Similarly, future research would be needed with younger cohorts to explore their lack of a perceived parasocial relationship with New Zealand’s monarch. This could be a result of changing attitudes to the monarchy, a general move away from being interested in traditional public figures (such as politicians), or that their media consumption habits have meant they have not been exposed to information on the monarchy and therefore have not formed parasocial relationships with the monarch.

There has been regular public discussion in New Zealand on what it would mean for the country to move from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. This would involve legislative and constitutional changes, including not having a hereditary Head of State. Public surveys have shown women that are slightly more likely to be monarchists than men, and older people are more likely to be monarchists (Cox & Miller, 2010). Many considered that the calls for a republic would be stronger after Queen Elizabeth II’s passing (Gullace et al., 2023; Palmer, 2023). While there was some discussion on a change to a republic (McClure, 2022), the main media narrative focused on the Queen’s legacy. The future public perception of the New Zealand’s monarchy may be influenced by how her successor, King Charles III, carries out his duties as the constitutional monarch of New Zealand.

Celebrity deaths have significant impacts because of the relationships people have with public figures, established through news and other media forms (Bingaman, 2020; Gibson, 2007). Celebrity as a news value continues to resonate with audiences, leading to more media interactions. Parasocial relationships with famous people can increase the sense of enjoyment that an individual feels when consuming media (Ravi & Patki, 2025), and subsequently lead to a feeling of loss if that person dies. In this case, there were strong reactions from the participants, including sadness and a sense of loss, indicating a connection with the Queen. However, there was not enough data to indicate the full extent of any parasocial relationships.

The deaths of significant public figures, such as Princess Diana in 1997 and Queen Elizabeth II, resulted in increased news consumption and public displays of sadness and aligned with the categorization of media events (Dayan & Katz, 1992). The participants in this study who wanted more news on the Queen used television as their main source of news, but also sought out other media forms. Overall, the mainstream news coverage created a shared news experience, building social and cultural context. Alongside this, participants used social media to connect with friends and family about the Queen’s death. This is consistent with Hepp and Couldry’s (2009) discussion on how the definition of a media event had expanded to include other digital media and conversations online as well as collective memorializing.

This study has limitations due to its small sample size of 25 participants living in New Zealand. The participants’ recall of their media consumption may have been impacted by selective memory, misreporting, exaggeration, or different semantic interpretations of the requirements. However, it provides insights into responses to a significant death and people’s connections with celebrities that are mostly formed through mass media. With the rise in social media platforms, there are many more ways for audiences to interact with and form parasocial relationships with a wide range of famous people. Further research would enable an exploration into age and gender differences, an exploration of parasocial relationships, and how people choose their news coverage of a celebrity death. It could also examine the differences between the mainstream media narrative (generally one-way communication) and other more interactive narratives on social media platforms.

Celebrity deaths will continue to be significant news events and covered by news sources (traditional and non-traditional). Television is often the leading news platform because of its visuals and its ability to bring live news to consumers. However, as consumption becomes more personalized, the coverage may become more diversified as audiences choose their level of coverage based on their connection with the person. Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation is considered to be the beginning of television news as a mainstream storyteller. Almost seventy years later, her death was a significant worldwide news event; it showed the power of mass media to draw citizens together, and enabled researchers to understand more about the form of celebrities, parasocial relationships, and audiences’ response to a major media event.