Reaction media imaginaries - future trajectories
Doona, Joanna LU and Rübsamen, Michael LU
(2026)
IAMCR- International Association for Media and Communication Research
- Abstract
- As media consumption becomes increasingly individualized, people’s desire for shared cultural experiences remains. Reaction media provides one way to fulfil that need, fostering transnational community (Swan 2018) and a sense of co-presence and immediacy. In their most basic form, reaction media show people filming themselves or being filmed while reacting – viewing, eating, playing, trying out or listening to something. While not entirely new, reaction media forms flourish in digital environments. Here, it invites and achieves a specific type of media engagement in the sense described by Dahlgren and Hill, where individual and collective levels of engagement overlap and interact with affective and cognitive modes (2024)
While... (More) - As media consumption becomes increasingly individualized, people’s desire for shared cultural experiences remains. Reaction media provides one way to fulfil that need, fostering transnational community (Swan 2018) and a sense of co-presence and immediacy. In their most basic form, reaction media show people filming themselves or being filmed while reacting – viewing, eating, playing, trying out or listening to something. While not entirely new, reaction media forms flourish in digital environments. Here, it invites and achieves a specific type of media engagement in the sense described by Dahlgren and Hill, where individual and collective levels of engagement overlap and interact with affective and cognitive modes (2024)
While reaction media is increasingly popular, attention from media, culture and communication scholars is still limited. Some notable exceptions include studies of reaction forms, production and labor (Bliss & Nansen 2023, Bliss 2022; McDaniel 2021; Goddard 2023) and related identity work (Oh 2017; Lorenzana 2022). Other issues remain underexplored, including how digitally mediated co-creation of experiences facilitate relationships and a form of imagined community (Anderson 1983), shaping what we call reaction media imaginaries. Drawing on imagination’s relationship with consumption (Appadurai 1996) and the frameworks of social and media imaginaries (Taylor 2004; Chambers 2016), we use a phenomenological lens (cf. Schütz & Luckmann 1973) and digital ethnography to understand reactors and users’ emerging relationships and community formation processes, responding to Hills’ (2014) call for phenomenological research on fan socialization. The study is guided by the following research questions: 1) In what ways does reaction media engagement encourage emotional engagement and parasocial relationships? 2) How do reaction media imaginaries facilitate fan socialization?
The paper presents a pilot study, where reaction media as a form is first introduced briefly, from the precursors like Let’s play-videos in the mid-2000s, to the Youtube-show Kids react (2010-) and broadcast television show Gogglebox (Channel 4, 2013-), gradually turning into what Bliss and Nansen (2023) term inter-medium, a complex multi-platform in-between media phenomenon, boosted by prolonged periods of social isolation and distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic (Hermes & Hill 2020). The main analysis examines reactions and comments to the television programme Bridgerton (Netflix, 2020–), chosen for its counter-factual and fantastical approach to historical romance. By unpacking the reaction-as-socialization, its inherent social dimensions are highlighted; built on mutual exploration and ongoing discussions about tropes, craft, moral and political issues, tastes and more. Engagement itself is co-created, and comment sections become spaces for friendship, debate, and learning; an opposing force to contemporary hyper-individualization. The study highlights emergent fan relations and negotiations, offering further understanding of the empathic communities that are implied in sharing cultural experiences through reaction media.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5e57346c-24fe-43cc-9154-9b450fa24064
- author
- Doona, Joanna
LU
and Rübsamen, Michael
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- reaction media, media engagement, fandom, popular culture, imaginaries
- conference name
- IAMCR- International Association for Media and Communication Research
- conference location
- Galway, Ireland
- conference dates
- 2026-06-28 - 2026-07-02
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5e57346c-24fe-43cc-9154-9b450fa24064
- date added to LUP
- 2026-03-31 12:58:13
- date last changed
- 2026-04-01 19:39:12
@misc{5e57346c-24fe-43cc-9154-9b450fa24064,
abstract = {{As media consumption becomes increasingly individualized, people’s desire for shared cultural experiences remains. Reaction media provides one way to fulfil that need, fostering transnational community (Swan 2018) and a sense of co-presence and immediacy. In their most basic form, reaction media show people filming themselves or being filmed while reacting – viewing, eating, playing, trying out or listening to something. While not entirely new, reaction media forms flourish in digital environments. Here, it invites and achieves a specific type of media engagement in the sense described by Dahlgren and Hill, where individual and collective levels of engagement overlap and interact with affective and cognitive modes (2024)<br/><br/>While reaction media is increasingly popular, attention from media, culture and communication scholars is still limited. Some notable exceptions include studies of reaction forms, production and labor (Bliss & Nansen 2023, Bliss 2022; McDaniel 2021; Goddard 2023) and related identity work (Oh 2017; Lorenzana 2022). Other issues remain underexplored, including how digitally mediated co-creation of experiences facilitate relationships and a form of imagined community (Anderson 1983), shaping what we call reaction media imaginaries. Drawing on imagination’s relationship with consumption (Appadurai 1996) and the frameworks of social and media imaginaries (Taylor 2004; Chambers 2016), we use a phenomenological lens (cf. Schütz & Luckmann 1973) and digital ethnography to understand reactors and users’ emerging relationships and community formation processes, responding to Hills’ (2014) call for phenomenological research on fan socialization. The study is guided by the following research questions: 1) In what ways does reaction media engagement encourage emotional engagement and parasocial relationships? 2) How do reaction media imaginaries facilitate fan socialization?<br/><br/>The paper presents a pilot study, where reaction media as a form is first introduced briefly, from the precursors like Let’s play-videos in the mid-2000s, to the Youtube-show Kids react (2010-) and broadcast television show Gogglebox (Channel 4, 2013-), gradually turning into what Bliss and Nansen (2023) term inter-medium, a complex multi-platform in-between media phenomenon, boosted by prolonged periods of social isolation and distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic (Hermes & Hill 2020). The main analysis examines reactions and comments to the television programme Bridgerton (Netflix, 2020–), chosen for its counter-factual and fantastical approach to historical romance. By unpacking the reaction-as-socialization, its inherent social dimensions are highlighted; built on mutual exploration and ongoing discussions about tropes, craft, moral and political issues, tastes and more. Engagement itself is co-created, and comment sections become spaces for friendship, debate, and learning; an opposing force to contemporary hyper-individualization. The study highlights emergent fan relations and negotiations, offering further understanding of the empathic communities that are implied in sharing cultural experiences through reaction media.<br/>}},
author = {{Doona, Joanna and Rübsamen, Michael}},
keywords = {{reaction media; media engagement; fandom; popular culture; imaginaries}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Reaction media imaginaries - future trajectories}},
year = {{2026}},
}