從虛擬到真實－遊戲直播中的擬社會互動、忠誠行為與互動感知之關聯性研究

Abstract

本研究以擬社會互動理論為基礎，並以Twitch遊戲直播平台作為研究對象，探討擬社會互動於此一新興媒介中的作用機制。首先根據過往研究，整理出可能影響擬社會互動的因素，包括實況主吸引力、觀看動機、依附類型與觀看時間，進而觀察擬社會互動對追隨、贊助與訂閱等忠誠行為的影響。 另外，本研究認為遊戲直播平台中，實況主與觀眾的互動形式介於擬社會互動與真實互動之間，而觀眾收看實況並對實況主產生擬社會互動感知後，會產生與實況主實際互動的意願，而忠誠行為即是和實況主建立連結與真實互動的方式。因此，本研究也觀察忠誠行為是否會影響閱聽眾的互動感知（包括控制性、互惠性、連結性、即時性與人際互動性），亦即，越多忠誠行為的觀眾，對於實況平台中的互動感知是否較為強烈。 本研究採用網路問卷調查法，共取得674份有效問卷，並以SmartPLS進行資料分析與假說檢定。結果指出，實況主之外型吸引力、社交吸引力、觀眾的社交性動機、觀看時間與焦慮依附傾向皆正向影響擬社會互動，而安全與排除依附傾向則負向影響擬社會互動。擬社會互動會負向影響觀眾的追隨行為，但會正向影響贊助與訂閱行為。另外，追隨行為對互惠性、連結性與人際互動性具有負向影響；贊助行為對五種互動感知皆不具影響；但訂閱行為對五種互動感知則皆具正向影響。 本研究的理論貢獻在於，證實閱聽人的擬社會互動可以透過採取部分忠誠行為而得到真實的互動感知。而基於傳播科技的進步，影響擬社會互動的因素也與過去研究不同，社交性動機取代了工具性動機，成為影響擬社會互動的關鍵因素；觀看時間在傳統媒體中難以影響擬社會互動，但在遊戲直播此一媒介中則能夠產生影響。本研究並對實況主經營頻道的策略也提供啟發，實況主可與平台合作，透過市場調查瞭解其目標市場，以作為經營個人形象並提升社交吸引力的參考依據，並在情況許可下盡量增加開台時間。在獲利目標上應以獲得訂閱作為主要目標，實況主可思考如何最大化訂閱者的福利與最小化其金錢成本，力求潛在觀眾的訂閱與已訂閱者的再次訂閱。另外，大部份的觀眾只是習慣性地開著實況而非專注收看，實況主可透過設計有意義的互動製造話題，平台方面則可提供能夠偵測實際觀看時間的功能並給予報酬，以增加觀眾確實收看的時間。

This study uses parasocial interaction perspective to observe the audience’s use behavior of the Twitch platform. Based on past research, it first examines factors affecting parasocial interaction, including broadcasters’ attraction, the audience’s motives, attachment style and use time. However, the interaction between broadcasters and the audience may not be just parasocial, through certain loyalty behavior such as follow, donation and subscription, the audience can connect and interact with the broadcasters in a real way, which can further stimulate their perception of interactivity. This study thus also examines the relationship between loyalty behavior and perceived interactivity, including perceived control, reciprocity, connectedness, synchronicity and interpersonality. This study conducts a web survey to collect data. In total, 674 questionnaires are successfully collected. Results show that the broadcasters’ physical attraction, social attraction, the audience’s social motivation, use time and preoccupied attachment have significant positive effects, whereas secure and dismissive-avoidant attachment have significant negative effects on parasocial interaction. Parasocial interaction has significant negative effects on follow, but has significant positive effects on donation and subscription. Follow has significant negative effects on perceived reciprocity, connectedness and interpersonality. Donation has no significant impact on perceived interactivity, but subscription has significant positive effects on all dimensions of perceived interactivity. This study shows that parasocial interaction can be turned into real interaction by loyalty behavior. Along with the evolution of communication technologies, the audience’s social motivation has replaced instrumental motivation to be the key factor of parasocial interaction. Use time also plays a more important role in affecting prarsocial interaction on live video streaming platform compared with traditional media. Results from this study also have marketing implications. Broadcasters or platform managers can conduct marketing research to identify target market and provide broadcasters strategies about how to increase social attraction. They can also broadcast live videos as frequently as possible in order to increase the audience’s use time. In addition, broadcasters should view obtaining subscriptions as the primary goal, offer subscribers more benefits with less cost in order to appeal potential subscribers and get more re-subscriptions from regular customers. Moreover, as most of the audience watches live video streaming in an inattentive way, broadcasters may arrange meaningful interactions with the audience from time to time to build more buzz. Platform managers can also design new functions to observe the audience’s use behavior and offer rewards to stimulate their use time.