PARASOCIAL STRANGERS. Storytelling in Digital Music Comment Spaces
(2026) MKVM13 20261Department of Communication and Media
Media and Communication Studies
- Abstract
- This thesis examines why listeners publicly share personal experiences within digital fan communities organised around music. Using the fan community of Hindia, the musical project of Indonesian artist Baskara Putra (Bas), as a case study, the research explores how storytelling unfolds in online comment sections among strangers connected through shared engagement with songs. The study asks how listeners narrate personal experiences in digital spaces, how these expressions are shaped by the presence of socially distant others, and how the artist becomes positioned within these interactions.
The study uses a qualitative case study approach based on comments collected from YouTube and Instagram under Hindia’s song Everything U Are. Using... (More) - This thesis examines why listeners publicly share personal experiences within digital fan communities organised around music. Using the fan community of Hindia, the musical project of Indonesian artist Baskara Putra (Bas), as a case study, the research explores how storytelling unfolds in online comment sections among strangers connected through shared engagement with songs. The study asks how listeners narrate personal experiences in digital spaces, how these expressions are shaped by the presence of socially distant others, and how the artist becomes positioned within these interactions.
The study uses a qualitative case study approach based on comments collected from YouTube and Instagram under Hindia’s song Everything U Are. Using qualitative text analysis and a hermeneutic approach, the analysis examines how listeners articulate emotions, memories, and experiences through storytelling practices within the comment environment. The comments reveal recurring forms of personal narration, where listeners relate music to experiences of heartbreak, loneliness, grief, emotional struggle, healing, and self-reflection.
Drawing on theories of music in everyday life (DeNora, 2000), wounded storytelling (Frank, 2013), symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1962), the stranger as a social type (Simmel, 1950), and parasocial relations (Giles & Stever, 2024), the thesis argues that listening extends beyond individual interpretation and becomes a social process of storytelling. The findings show that listeners use music to organise emotional experiences, manage feelings, seek recognition, and create belonging through shared narratives expressed publicly within the fan community. Storytelling emerges among strangers who remain socially distant yet emotionally meaningful within the mediated environment.
The thesis develops the concept of “parasocial strangers” to describe these mediated relations. This concept refers not only to the relationship between listeners and the artist, but also to relations among listeners themselves, where strangers become emotionally significant through shared storytelling despite the absence of direct reciprocal intimacy. The study argues that contemporary digital platforms make these stranger relations continuously accessible, allowing personal experiences to become publicly communicable through music within online fan communities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9231149
- author
- Putri, Clara Emylia Hatu LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9231149
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-04 11:19:25
- date last changed
- 2026-06-04 11:19:25
@misc{9231149,
abstract = {{This thesis examines why listeners publicly share personal experiences within digital fan communities organised around music. Using the fan community of Hindia, the musical project of Indonesian artist Baskara Putra (Bas), as a case study, the research explores how storytelling unfolds in online comment sections among strangers connected through shared engagement with songs. The study asks how listeners narrate personal experiences in digital spaces, how these expressions are shaped by the presence of socially distant others, and how the artist becomes positioned within these interactions.
The study uses a qualitative case study approach based on comments collected from YouTube and Instagram under Hindia’s song Everything U Are. Using qualitative text analysis and a hermeneutic approach, the analysis examines how listeners articulate emotions, memories, and experiences through storytelling practices within the comment environment. The comments reveal recurring forms of personal narration, where listeners relate music to experiences of heartbreak, loneliness, grief, emotional struggle, healing, and self-reflection.
Drawing on theories of music in everyday life (DeNora, 2000), wounded storytelling (Frank, 2013), symbolic interactionism (Mead, 1962), the stranger as a social type (Simmel, 1950), and parasocial relations (Giles & Stever, 2024), the thesis argues that listening extends beyond individual interpretation and becomes a social process of storytelling. The findings show that listeners use music to organise emotional experiences, manage feelings, seek recognition, and create belonging through shared narratives expressed publicly within the fan community. Storytelling emerges among strangers who remain socially distant yet emotionally meaningful within the mediated environment.
The thesis develops the concept of “parasocial strangers” to describe these mediated relations. This concept refers not only to the relationship between listeners and the artist, but also to relations among listeners themselves, where strangers become emotionally significant through shared storytelling despite the absence of direct reciprocal intimacy. The study argues that contemporary digital platforms make these stranger relations continuously accessible, allowing personal experiences to become publicly communicable through music within online fan communities.}},
author = {{Putri, Clara Emylia Hatu}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{PARASOCIAL STRANGERS. Storytelling in Digital Music Comment Spaces}},
year = {{2026}},
}