Expert available on Kobe Bryant and public grief

EVANSTON, Ill. --- As Kobe Bryant is being remembered today at a memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, many are mourning as though they lost a friend. 

Northwestern Professor Nathan Walter, an expert in the areas of the persuasive power of narrative and communication ecologies, explains the collective mourning around the death of Kobe Bryant. He can be reached via Erin Karter at erin.karter@northwestern.edu.  

Quote from Professor Walter

“The idea that people can engage in an illusionary give-and-take with media figures (i.e., parasocial relationships) is well-documented. Although these relationships are one-sided, they provide a lingering sense of intimacy and connectedness much like social relationships with family members and friends. We miss beloved characters if a show we follow is suddenly cancelled just like we miss real people if they unexpectedly exit our lives. 

“When a media personae we admire dies (e.g., Princess Diana, Robin Williams, David Bowie, Kobe Bryant), we tend to mourn their loss in a manner that resembles mourning the loss of a good friend. Interestingly, although in popular culture parasocial relationships are often associated with abnormal behavior, social anxiety, or inability to establish meaningful relationships, 60 years of research indicate that those that are more friendly and outgoing in real life are also more likely to feel closeness and warmth to media characters (parasocial relationships).”