Para-social interactions afford the viewer opportunities to interact with characters of the opposite sex, characters of higher or lower status. This can lead to critical analysis of events and occurrences, and since they involve no identity loss such interaction may well provide practice for everyday social roles and allow the viewer to take roles not yet experienced in real life. Conclusion First I have tried to establish the right theoretical background. Spectators want to gain an identity . Cinema can give the spectator images of wholeness and completion, and therefore make the spectator forget his lack for a moment.
Identification is the most important one.
Then I have noted that identification is an active practice rather than a passive acceptance. Women might for example identify with the male hero if his actions in a given situation inspire her. Also identification theory has seen a move away from the assumption that the spectator only identifies with a single narrative figure, and towards the claim that he or she engages in a more complex identification with the overall narrative. On television certain kinds of programmes facilitate identification and involvement. Livingstone found out that identification with the characters is the crucial factor to explain how people differ in their understanding of the narrative in soap operas.