Media Marathoning Through Health Struggles: Filling a Social Reservoir

Abstract

This essay uses grounded theory to analyze interviews with a dozen people who media marathoned while going through a health struggle. Three prominent relationship-focused themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Interviewees experienced “parasocial encouragement,” drawing inspiration from characters’ perseverance; (2) interviewees often marathoned stories recommended by family or friends, which led to conversations about the stories; and (3) interviewees struggling with depression or anxiety were able to learn more about human relationships through media and to use media engagement experiences as springboards for communication. In sum, through the cultivation of social support and social capital, media marathoning experiences helped study participants buildup and draw from a meaningful social reservoir in their time of enhanced need for connection. The social reservoir metaphor captures media marathoning’s embeddedness in a rich social environment of real and fictive others, with relationships that can both precede and live on beyond the media engagement experience.

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