ABSTRACT

Increasingly popular live-streaming applications, such as 17 Media, offer new mechanisms of social exchange through digital gifting in real time. The present study provides an advanced theoretical framework, which synthesizes parasocial interactions and community-driven gifting based on the concept of the consumer-brand-consumer triad to explore this new phenomenon in live-streaming environments. The study uses a mixed-methods qualitative approach with in-depth interviews and participatory observations. The 47 informants were divided into 11 streamers, 24 viewers, and 12 guardians. All informants expressed their experiences and narrated their stories. The results showed that three refined markers existed in the new mechanisms in personal brand communities of live-streaming, which played important roles in fostering viewer-streamer-viewer parasocial relationships. The implications of the findings for personal branding in live-streaming contexts, sociological theories of community, and digital viewer/consumer behavior are discussed.

摘要

越来越流行的直播应用程序，例如 17 Media，通过实时数字礼物提供了新的社交交流机制。本研究提供了一个先进的理论框架，该框架基于消费者-品牌-消费者三元组的概念综合了准社会互动和社区驱动的送礼，以探索直播环境中的这一新现象。该研究使用混合方法定性方法进行深入访谈和参与式观察。47名线人分为主播11名、观众24名、监护人12名。所有线人都表达了他们的经历，讲述了他们的故事。结果表明，直播个人品牌社区的新机制中存在三个细化标记，这在培养观众-主播-观众准社会关系方面发挥了重要作用。讨论了这些发现对直播背景下的个人品牌塑造、社区社会学理论和数字观众/消费者行为的影响。