Presumed intimacy: Para-social relationships in media, society & celebrity culture by Chris Rojek (original) (raw)

Chris Rojek's "Presumed Intimacy" critiques the concept of presumed intimacy in mediated interactions, especially in political rhetoric, where leaders express pseudoemotional empathy towards statistical individuals. The work extends to para-social relationships formed with celebrities and familiar strangers in a media-saturated culture. Through extensive examples, Rojek highlights the hypocrisy of such emotional displays and warns that passive empathy can lead to social inaction, thus urging a greater need for authentic engagement and social change.