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THE VOICE CREATES A SOCIAL ENTITY
[LISTEN TO A SUMMARY]
In a classic 1956 article, (Horton and Wohl) suggested that even though the relationship between a television personality and a television viewer is one-sided, with no possibility of real time interaction, skilled personalities use direct address camera views (in which the personality seems to be looking at the viewer), informal speech patterns, sincerity, and simplicity to generate a '(sense) of conversational give and take [that] may be called para-social interaction.' In a para-social interaction media users respond to social cues presented by persons they encounter within a medium even though it is illogical and even inappropriate to do so. Studies have shown that people respond to ... and even talk to, the pictures of people on the television screen. The mediated nature of the 'interaction' is ignored and the media personality is incorrectly perceived as a social actor.
In the previous passage the authors are talking about television, but of course 'virtual actors' can exist in any kind of media that provides visual images and audio. Computer avatars, helpers on our desktops, animated characters all give us a sense that we are interacting with a social entity.
Words on screen are open to the interpretation of the reader. Words spoken are rich with interpretation, interpretation the media developer controls. The spoken word can convey trust, and touch the listener in a way that the written word simply cannot.
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