Book review: presumed intimacy: para-social relationships in media, society and celebrity culture by Chris Rojek

What kind of relationships are fostered by contemporary network society and celebrity culture? In Presumed Intimacy: Para-Social Relationships in Media, Society and Celebrity Culture, Chris Rojek explores how we form relationships with mediated others founded on the assumption of personal disclosure, ranging from online friends to celebrities, and how these can be co-opted by power structures for deeply dubious but ruthlessly effective ends. This theoretically expansive book is an indispensable addition to our understandings of contemporary media, culture, politics and society, writes Jilly Boyce Kay.