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K-pop Fans' Identity and The Meaning of Being a Fan
Abstract
K-pop is a relatively new genre but its fanbase has grown massively in Malaysia for the past few decades. It is also evident that the daily lives of Malaysians have incorporated Korean culture in various social aspects. Thus, this study seeks to explore the social nuances of local K-pop fans by underlining two main objectives: a) to explore the formation of K-pop fan's identity and b) to understand the meaning of being a K-pop fan. In order to describe and analyse the social differences of K-pop fans, several concepts from sociology as well as fan studies were plotted to assist this research such as para-social relationship, identity and social identity, dramaturgy, the concept of meaning as well as participatory culture. A qualitative approach was employed by using participant observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews to get into the experiences, views, values, and lifestyles of K-pop fans. Participant observation was conducted in K-pop concert and fan event to observe fan practices. As for the semi-structured in-depth interview, a total number of 8 participants were selected to provide an understanding of K-pop fan's experiences and feelings. This concludes that K-pop fan's identity can be derived from the way they speak and socialize, their purchase intention and behaviour, as well as the way they dress. Besides that, being a K-pop fan carries its special meaning that transcends a fan of a music genre. It varies from providing a sense of belonging, unleashing fan's talent and capabilities, offers a platform for escapism as well as emotional and motivational support through a para-social relationship. Although fan and idol is usually seen as one-sided relationship, it is actually has benefitted the fan in some way. This study proves that the fans can also be seen as active producers and content creators which contradict to the statement of fan as a passive entity.
... Collecting these items, like almost any other kind of collection, denotes to some extent, a distinct difference between the one who is a fan and the one who is not. Moreover, the objects themselves confer a support to K-pop fans regardless of the individual's social environment (Jenol, 2020), as identities are not restricted to family background, gender, social class or country of origin, they have rather become something of a broad origin (Giddens, 1991). Within this field, language plays an essential role, also since it promotes an identity based on social relationship, that is, it allows interaction with virtual reality(s) (Locke, 2000). ...
... In fact, there is an appetite to learn the language in non-Korean fans, whether from song lyrics, TV shows or digital content, something that may be due to the need to accentuate a place of belonging to a fandom. As Soompi (2018) refersand going along with social identity (Jenol, 2020) and the creation of a habitus (Bourdieu, 1984) dedicated fans will certainly learn to read, speak and write in the language of their idols in order to emphasise closeness to them, as we talked about earlier. It is through the language and the linguistic codes adopted among groups of fans that feelings of belonging to a group emerge and that, consequently, materialize in obtaining memorabilia (Riedel, 2020;Almeida, 2017). ...
This article aims a sustained approach in the perception of the processes of construction of - individual and collective - meanings and identities in relation to the musical (sub)genre K-pop. Thus, contrary to the logic that emphasizes the loss of relevance of the CD, we tried to demonstrate that it - as an object of memorabilia and musical consumption - remains alive within the K-pop culture. In fact, not only the CD, but also other memorabilia items that emphasize the creation of visual and identity narratives, in the sense that they are seen as a means to establish, maintain and cement a relationship with the idol. Thus, in parallel to the fact that K-pop, as a musical genre, has a global character, it also highlights individual, regional and local aspects, mainly due to the variety of products that are produced, following a personalisation logic at the same time as we are facing a mass selling process. Thus, through the use of a qualitative methodology (Author 1; Pink, 2020), we intend to analyze the memorabilia items of seven Portuguese K-pop fans, in order to perceive the processes of identity creation, but also to denote the symbologies and meanings that are built around the items.
... Pembelian ini tidak hanya memberikan rasa memiliki, namun juga rasa kepuasan dalam proses ini karena mereka mendapatkan kesenangan (Zhuang, 2019 Bagi penggemar K-pop, penting halnya untuk memahami makna dibalik praktik dan perilaku menjadi penggemar. Seperti, menjadi penggemar dari grup idola tertentu telah memberikan individu rasa memiliki, bentuk pelarian dari masalah sehari-hari, ketenangan, dan tempat untuk melepaskan artistik dan ekspresif serta dukungan emosional dan motivasi menjadi seseorang (Jenol, 2020). Pagi penggemar K-Pop, lagulagu idola yang mengangkat tema-tema menarik, seperti BTS yang mengangkat tema self love memberikan dampak bagi positif bagi kehidupan mereka. ...
p> The rapid flow of globalization that develops in society makes it easier for various foreign cultures to enter a country. One of the foreign cultures that is currently globalizing is Korean pop culture.. In Indonesia itself, there are many fans of Pop culture, especially K-pop fans. One of the consumption activities carried out by K-pop fans is buying physical albums. Physical albums have become a distinctive feature of K-pop even though in this modern era there have been digital albums. The K-pop industry has made physical album sales experience a very rapid increase in recent times. Usually, physical K-Pop albums don't only contain CDs, there are photobooks, photocards, and merchandise that are attractive to fans. This study aims to examine the meaning of buying physical albums for fans and identify the motives of fans choosing to buy physical albums over digital albums. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. Data was collected by means of interviews. Research is assisted by the foundation of cultural sociology theories. The results of the study show that the meaning of a physical album for fans is a self-reward and happiness in itself when having a physical album. The purchase of physical albums is also intended as a form of appreciation for the idol's music and songs that have had a positive effect on their lives. Purchase of physical albums is also influenced by cultural hegemony. The power of hegemony makes fans think that Korean pop culture is a part of their daily life.
Keywords : K-Pop, Fans, Physical Album, Pop Culture
Abstrak
Derasnya arus globalisasi yang berkembang di masyarakat memudahkan berbagai budaya asing masuk ke suatu negara. Salah satu budaya asing yang tengah mendunia saat ini, yaitu budaya pop Korea. Di Indonesia sendiri, penggemar budaya Pop sangatlah banyak khususnya penggemar K-pop. Salah satu kegiatan konsumsi yang dilakukan oleh penggemar K-pop adalah membeli album fisik. Album fisik telah menjadi ciri khas tersendiri dari K-pop meskipun sudah di era modern ini telah ada album berbentu digital. Industri K-pop telah membuat penjualan album fisik mengalami peningkatan yang sangat pesat dalam waktu terakhir. Bisanya, album fisik K-Pop tidak hanya memuat kaset saja, terdapat photobook, photocard, dan merchandise yang menarik bagi para penggemar. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkai makna pembelian album fisik bagi penggemar dan mengidentifikasi motif penggemar memilih membeli album fisik daripada album digital. Metode yang diterapkan pada penelitian ini, yakni kualitatif deskriptif. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan cara wawancara. Penelitian dibantu dengan landasan teori-teori sosiologi budaya. Hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa makna album fisik bagi penggemar merupakan suatu self reward dan kebahagiaan tersendiri ketika memiliki wujud fisik album. Pembelian album fisik juga ditujukan sebagai bentuk apresiasi kepada musik dan lagu sang idola yang telah memberikan efek positif bagi kehidupan mereka. Pembelian album fisik juga dipengaruhi adanya hegemoni budaya. Kekuatan hegemoni membuat penggemar menganggap bahwa budaya pop Korea menjadi bagian dari kehidupan sehari-harinya.
Kata Kunci: K-Pop, Penggemar, Album Fisik, Budaya Pop</strong
... Being a K-pop fan has enabled people to discover and develop their full potential. It gives fans a way to express themselves, particularly about their fan identity, through the creation of arts and content (Jenol, 2020). As previously stated, fans not only consume media by listening and watching but they also use media content, most notably that pertaining to their favourite K-pop groups or idols, to create and produce their content. ...
The Korean wave or Hallyu wave has flourished in many aspects of Malaysian lives, demonstrating Malaysian’s acceptance of Korean popular culture in society. The rapid rise of the Korean wave in Malaysia has also prompted academics to seek a better understanding of this phenomenon. This study is particularly interested in examining how K-pop fans’ participatory culture help unleash an individual’s talent. In this study, a K-pop fan is defined as someone who commits to a one-sided relationship with K-pop idols and develops an intimate attachment to them. They also engage in fan activities as they are members of various K-pop fandoms—communities built around a shared enjoyment and interest towards K-pop groups or idols. Researchers conducted a semi-structured in-depth interview with eight participants to learn about their fan experiences. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to collect the sample for this study. This study demonstrates that fans are part of a participatory culture in which they actively create and produce media content and give them a social role in their respective fandoms.
Amid the vibrant landscape of contemporary pop culture, K-pop fandoms emerge as distinct entrepreneurial catalysts, transcending traditional consumer roles. This transformation has captured scholarly attention, driving exploration into the fusion of fandom and entrepreneurial pursuits. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a compass, this research delves deep into how social capital ignites entrepreneurial flames within the K-pop enthusiasts of the Philippines. Our study hinges on a sample of 257 participants. A significant 89.11% were college students, and among them, 76.95% pursued business-related courses. A mediation analysis was undertaken, evaluating the impact of social capital (SC) on entrepreneurial intention (EI) within these fandoms, and discerning the mediating roles of attitudes towards entrepreneurial behavior (ATT) and perceived behavioral control (PBC). The findings are profound: social capital doesn't merely influence, it metamorphoses entrepreneurial intent. This transformation is further intensified by both PBC and ATT. By shedding light on the untapped economic prowess of K-pop communities in the global Hallyu tide, this study paves the way for harnessing the entrepreneurial potential within fan-driven cultures. The insights offer a strategic roadmap for fostering entrepreneurship, not just in K-pop circles but across diverse fan communities globally.
The stan phenomenon is a phenomenon where a person becomes overzealous towards an individual or media, usually a celebrity. The purpose of this research is to explore the causes and process that fans undergo in their change to a stan. This research uses the case study approach with 3 participants who are active fans in the Twitter K-Pop community and exhibit stan behavior. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews throughout the data collection period. Once collected, the data will be analyzed using a within-case analysis and cross-case synthesis to create a timeline of change between fan to stan and causes for the change in behavior. Results show that fans begin the process when they discover aspects that are unique to their favored group, increasing their affection and sense of pride. Then, they begin to look for and receive new content often, before finally actively seeking out methods that support their favored group. The interviewed stans say that they started the change to stan because they were looking for emotional release, kept receiving reliable engagement, and looking for a place to belong in a time of isolation.
This research focuses on the use of language in social interactions, specifically within the context of K-Pop fans using social media platform Twitter to communicate with other fanbases. The study aims to determine the impact of the K-Pop community on Twitter on the writing skills of high school students in English. The research method employed is quantitative, using a sample of 100 high school students who are members of the K-Pop community on Twitter for at least a year and have studied English. Data was collected using a Likert scale. Results of the analysis indicate a significant effect of the Twitter community on the development of student's writing skills in English Keywords: Twitter; K-Pop; Writing
This research paper aims to identify multilingualism and language choice by looking at types of code-switching and code-mixing techniques practiced by Indonesian K-Pop fans on Twitter. Also, it examines the rationales and functions of such practice, especially as it is done in Indonesian context. Two data collection methods are used in this research. First, data were taken from several Indonesian K-pop fanbase accounts on Twitter from September 2020 to May 2021. Additionally, we also obtained data through an open-ended questionnaire participated by Indonesian K-pop fans. Our research shows that Indonesian K-Pop fans frequently implement code-switching and code-mixing techniques by combining Indonesian, English, Korean, and Japanese into their tweets. Words, phrases, and clauses from multiple languages are used. The results also show that fans practice code- switching and code-mixing in order to project a more globalized impression, create a friendly conversation, synchronize perceptions, boost language skills, and form identity.
The purpose of this study is to explore close friendships and intimacy practices of Malaysian students in the context of living abroad. Some of the new close friends, specifically co-national friends in the UK, are perceived as “family” although some of them have not yet acquired family-like qualities in their relationships. Due to the situation of living abroad, the students acquired the “familiarity as a family” relationship—a new concept introduced in this study to explain this complicated relationship, with co-national friends in the Malaysian community in the UK. A sense of belonging and homophily, and shared physical space and activities are two key factors that influenced these practices of intimacy, which will foreground the discussion in this paper.
Hallyu fans are people who are dedicated to popular culture in South Korea, including music, drama and film. This study focuses on fans of Korean pop music, which is known as K-pop. Developments in digital communication technology have given rise to media such as forums, websites, video channels, and fan sites that are consumed by K-pop fans. Fans participate in multiple fandoms because these websites are easily accessed by public audiences. However, problems arise when fans start to compete, using their knowledge to help validate their existence and to help the perception of authentic identities within fan communities. This paper is based on virtual ethnographic fieldwork that identified fans’ constructions of their own identities and the building of a social hierarchy through various online practices. The research findings are based on four months of fieldwork with two online Hallyu fandoms; ELF (Ever Lasting Friends) and A.R.M.Y (Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth). The findings reveal that conflicts exist in certain fandoms which aid in defining fan identities and, at the same time, fans undertake positive socialising actions which contribute to the fandom itself. Interactions between fandoms also need to be recognised, since online fandoms can be seen as borderless.
Due to the exponential growth of immigration to the developed countries, various speech communities have been created in those countries. This surge of macro-communities has instigated abundant research on the nature of the linguistic identity of these communities and its potential influence on the micro-communities. There is a seamless interaction between language and social identity, and this interaction is multi-faceted and renders myriads of ramifications. Correspondingly, many researchers or theoreticians have proposed various models for the mechanism of this interaction. Even though there is a consensus on the strong intercourse between language and identity, there are still debates on the causal direction of this interaction. Building upon sociocultural and sociolinguistic theories, the related literature mostly views the causal direction from social to linguistic. However, this paper argues against any unilateral interpretations and discuss how the notions of language and identity have bilateral connections. Finally, the elemental stages of the development of linguistic identity from a semiotic outlook are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between people’s attraction to celebrities and their interpersonal trust and attachment style. Previous research suggests that individuals with different attachment styles are differentially attracted to celebrities. We predicted that securely attached participants who mistrust, rather than trust, others tend to have higher levels of benign celebrity attraction. We found only partial support for our hypothesis. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences between different attachment styles on either of the two measures of celebrity admiration. These findings contribute to the literature on trust and celebrity worship by providing new information about how different attachment styles may (or may not) affect the relationships that people have with their favorite celebrity.
This chapter examines the fandom that has grown up around the Star Trek movies and television series, arguing that the entertainment industry also creates meanings that begin to function in religious ways for consumers of popular culture. Popular culture has become an independent producer of mythical narratives, a reflection of cultural themes and a producer of new ones. Though often using indirect religious themes and imagery (as in Star Wars or Harry Potter ), the narratives and messages have been formally cut off from the religious traditions that have dominated Western culture over the centuries. In other words, parts of popular culture have taken their place alongside the mainstream religious traditions, ideologies, and narratives that have guided people's lives.
The theoretical and conceptual framework explains the path of a research and grounds it firmly in theoretical constructs. The overall aim of the two frameworks is to make research findings more meaningful, acceptable to the theoretical constructs in the research field and ensures generalizability. They assist in stimulating research while ensuring the extension of knowledge by providing both direction and impetus to the research inquiry. They also enhance the empiricism and rigor of a research. Thus, it is no exaggeration for Imenda (2014) to say that both the theoretical and conceptual frameworks give life to a research. Unfortunately, many postgraduate students and faculty staff at universities are confused of the two terms and apply them wrongly in their research papers. As a result, their research findings become weak because of the inappropriate application of a suitable theoretical framework and/or conceptual framework. This blurs the understanding of readers of the research paper who are lost, not knowing the purpose of the study, the importance of the study and the scholars the researcher is in dialogue with, whether in agreement or disagreement (Evan, 2007). A research without the theoretical or conceptual framework makes it difficult for readers in ascertaining the academic position and the underlying factors to the researcher's assertions and/or hypotheses. This renders the research sloppy and not appreciable as contributing significantly to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge. This article explains with clear understanding, the two frameworks and how they could be utilized efficiently in the research expedition.
p>This paper analyses collective and individual identity construction processes in adolescent fan communities mediated by multimodal discourse. Our approach is supported by ethnographic work with teenage girls belonging to music communities built around One Direction and Justin Bieber, and rooted in participant observation. Firstly, we will show how participating in communities of practice, undertaking tasks which give meaning to group activities, contributes to the construction of a social and cultural identity supported by the interpretation, production and dissemination of texts. Secondly, we will examine how subjective and personal identities related to feelings, emotions and situations of support are also built by the fan community.
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As a test of optimal distinctiveness theory, we examined the opposing motivations of inclusion/belongingness and differentiation/distinctiveness as predictors of group identification in a sample of anime fans. Participants were recruited from an anime convention and from anime-related websites and completed measures of inclusion, intergroup distinctiveness, and identification with the anime community. The results were in line with optimal distinctiveness theory, as participants who felt a sense of belongingness and who perceived the anime fandom as distinct from other groups reported the highest degree of identification with the fandom. The results illustrate the relative normality of the anime fandom, insofar as its group identification is driven by the same motivations that underlie identification with other groups.
This paper examines the functional benefits of being a fan as mediators between identification with the fan interest (i.e., fanship) and display of group membership to others. After a series of principal components analyses and a factor analysis on an initial pool of fandom function items, we arrived at a measure containing three factors representing the benefits of being a fan including (1) the purpose or meaning in life, (2) the escape from everyday life stressors, and (3) establishing and maintaining social connections. The relationship between identification with the fan interest (i.e., fanship) and display of fan identity was mediated by purpose in life and social connections. The results support the notion that fans display fan group membership to engender connections with friends and family.
In line with varieties of globalised explosion of products and images, people’s consumption
patterns especially the youth are subject to range of influences. In this modern world where
information can be spread quickly seems to have a great influence the on the values and ways
of life of the world societies. This can be seen in the domain of broadcasting and
entertainment. In the past American popular music, films, books and fashion were only
considered the best allusion and became frenzy especially for teenagers, but the society today
has more selections to choose as an alternative. This development has inspired South Korea
to commercialize their cultures as a package commodity through Hallyu. South Korean has
more focuses on language, culture, dramas and K-Pop (Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin and
Zaharani Ahmad, 2011). Despite the extensive qualitative research on the influence of
Korean popular culture which has focused on popular music in Malaysia, there is a lack of
quantitative research on measuring this particular variable. A need to look into Korean
popular culture dimensions is called for, as each popular culture is believed to have similar
unique set of dimensions. This conceptual paper identifies the critical Korean popular culture
dimensions among adolescents resided in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In this study, the Korean
popular culture dimensions are based on the study done by Zailin Zainal Ariffin et al. (2012)
who has explored the relationship between American popular culture and some selected
aspects of consumer behaviour among Malaysian adolescents. The measurement will be
modified based on literature review.
This chapter provides a comparative analysis of the meaning-making activities of Hong Kong and Singaporean female audiences of Korean TV dramas. It finds that these audiences are adept in using Korean dramas to construct and confirm their own multiple, at times conflicting, subjectivities, which seem to be rooted concurrently in “tradition” and “modernity”, to negotiate everyday life tensions and dilemmas experienced in contemporary urban living, and to construct what they see as their distinctive “Asian” modern femininities. It starts by summarizing some of the major studies on Korean media flows, particularly the consumption of Korean TV dramas. The audience studies of Korean drama fans in Hong Kong and Singapore are explained. In addition, it describes the imaginaries of “Asian” modern femininities that seem to be emerging from these women's drama consumption practices. Moreover, it covers both potential uses and dangers of the “Asian values” discourse when women located in different Asian societies tries to imagine and negotiate their own ways of being modern women in Asia.
The present study expands on current theorizing about fandom by considering how communal involvement with popular media extends beyond pleasure and is more strongly associated with the search for meaning. Using the context of one of the most widespread media phenomena dominating popular culture—the Harry Potter franchise, results of an online questionnaire (N = 235) indicated that individual differences among fans (i.e., narrative exposure and eudaimonic motivation or the desire to seek meaning from entertainment) predicted involvement in fan communities. Further, perceived membership in fan communities enhanced enjoyment, appreciation, physiological reactions, knowledge acquisition, and intentions to seek fan-related materials. Implications for expanding entertainment scholarship in the study of meaningful media related to fandom and our understanding of contemporary forms of fandom in light of new technological affordances are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)
The purpose of the present study was to examine media fandom participation from a social identity perspective. Prior to the main study, a new measure of media fan identification was created and internal reliability was established. For the present study, a total of 261 self-proclaimed Harry Potter or Twilight fans were assigned to receive affirming or threatening feedback about their fan identity, and then participated in a fandom-related task. Highly identified fans whose fan identities were affirmed showed greater engagement in the fan task compared with threatened and weakly identified participants. These findings indicate that media fandoms operate in a manner similar to other social groups, with members of average and above average levels of group identification demonstrating sensitivity to group categorization and the psychological benefits and costs of engaging with their chosen media fandom.
In social psychology, we need to establish a general theory of the self, which can attend to both macro and micro processes, and which avoids the redundancies of separate theories on different aspects of the self. For this purpose, we present core components of identity theory and social identity theory and argue that although differences exist between the two theories, they are more differences in emphasis than in kind, and that linking the two theories can establish a more fully integrated view of the self. The core components we examine include the different bases of identity (category/group or role) in each of the theories, identity salience and the activation of identities as discussed in the theories, and the cognitive and motivational processes that emerge from identities based on category/group and on role. By examining the self through the lens of both identity theory and social identity theory, we see how, in combination, they can move us toward a general theory of the self.
In this article, I examine the cultural and subcultural construction of consumption meanings and practices as they are negotiated from mass media images and objects. Field notes and artifacts from 20 months of fieldwork at Star Trek fan clubs, at conventions, and in Internet groups, and 67 interviews with Star Trek fans are used as data. Star Treks subculture of consumption is found to be constructed as a powerful utopian refuge. Stigma, social situation, and the need for legitimacy shape the diverse subcultures' consumption meanings and practices. Legitimizing articulations of Star Trek as a religion or myth underscore fans' heavy investment of self in the text. These sacralizing articulations are used to distance the text from its superficial status as a commercial product. The findings emphasize and describe how consumption often fulfills the contemporary hunger for a conceptual space in which to construct a sense of self and what matters in life. They also reveal broader cultural tensions between the affective investments people make in consumption objects and the encroachment of commercialization.
This study developed a system of celebrity fan classification that addresses issues raised in the literature with regard to motivations for becoming a fan, and levels of intensity for fans, recognizing a dichotomy of interactive vs. isolated fans. There is a need to differentiate the fan suffering from pathologies from fans who are healthy and who lead normal and productive lives. This system of classification is based on 20 years of participant observation in various fan communities. Nine motivations (task, romantic, identification, and others) and five levels are described as the result of qualitative content analysis of documents written by 150 fans who answered the question “Why are you a fan of your favorite celebrity?” This system was developed after study of specific celebrities and their fans. As such it may not apply to fans of texts, genres, or cultural phenomena. While some fans were found to have very intense and obsessive interests in celebrities, a large subgroup of fans were in a less obsessive and more socially motivated category of fan, one motivated by interest in the work of the celebrity and in the potential for networking with other fans. Extremely obsessive or high level fans have the potential to do harm to both their celebrity objects or, more frequently, to themselves, but these high level fans are only a small percentage of the people who identify themselves as dedicated fans of a celebrity. Identifying specific fans who have the potential to be troublesome would be more efficient than assuming that all dedicated fans have this potential.
Since the invention of the printing press in 1450, people have acknowledged the potential influence of mass media messages. Technology facilitated to „remote control‟ people and things turned the world into a „global village‟. The very concept of media globalization reenacts debates that often took place long ago in communication research. However, media globalization challenges the concept of „Normative Theories‟ of media. With the expansion and extension of media, the debates of impacts, effects and influences of globalization inevitably divide the world into centers and peripheries (Wallerstein, 1974). Though debates of NWICO and MacBride report suggested measures to overcome disparities but the impact of media globalization is very complex as replicated by „CNN Effect‟ theory. Developing countries are more vulnerable. Schramm (1963) suggested six “essential functions” of communication in developing countries. This paper addresses the challenges posed by media globalization in the backdrop of these assumed functions of media in developing countries.
In the early 1990s, Lynn Cherny spent much of her time in the MUD – not mired in wet earth, but actively exploring “Multi-User Dungeons.” These “fictional universes with a focus on role-playing,” as they are defined in the Introduction, enable groups of Internet-connected individuals to assemble in cyberspace, communicating by way of sequentially typed text. Later, as a doctoral student in linguistics at Stanford, Cherny decided to study ethnographically – that is, from the perspective of one methodically and dispassionately observing a different race – the expressive practices of those habitually using this strange new modality.
The emphasis of this paper is on the role of media in the socialization of adolescents. First, a typology of adolescent media uses is presented, including entertainment, identity formation, high sensation, coping, and youth culture identification. Then, these five uses are discussed in relation to adolescent socialization. The central point of this discussion is that media differ from socializing agents such as family, school, community, and the legal system in that adolescents have greater control over their media choices than they do over their socialization from these other sources. The result is a substantial degree of self-socialization, in the sense that adolescents may choose from a diverse range of media materials the ones that best suit their individual preferences and personalities. Another result is that there is often a lack of integration in the socialization of adolescents, in the sense that they may receive different socialization messages from media (and peers) than they do from the adult socializes in their immediate environment.
The Berg Fashion Library is the ideal resource for teaching and researching dress and fashion. Bibliographic guides have been created to provide teachers, students and researchers with a concise overview of all the key readings and schools of thought within a particular disciplinary perspective. Structured thematically, these clear and accessible articles include links to essential articles and ebook chapters within the Berg Fashion Library as well as references to other texts, providing a comprehensive bibliography with commentary and suggestions for further reading. Whether you are a teacher looking for a handy reading list or a student or scholar getting to grips with an unfamiliar approach to the study of fashion, bibliographic articles are a perfect starting point.
"Wizard rock"--music based on the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling--is an idiosyncratic subgenre, with band names like Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys and The Whomping Willows. Drawing on input from insiders and fans, and interviews with more than a dozen wizard rockers, this book explores the history and aesthetics of the movement. An appendix lists dozens of popular bands, members and discographies: a must-have for fandom scholars and wizard rock devotees alike.
Fandom's gift economy should be understood as involving a wide variety of gifts, a complex system of reciprocation, and the use of gifts as a sign of their reception.
Sherlockian scholarship is a display of intellect, wit, and canonical expertise that requires a cunning manipulation of a story world and of nonfiction. This playful style of writing defies easy classification in the terminology of fan and literary studies. Emerging in the early 20th century, Sherlockian scholarship had a tremendous surge in popularity in the late 1920s and early '30s in articles by renowned British and American authors, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Christopher Morley, Sir Desmond MacCarthy, Sir Sydney Castle Roberts, and Ronald A. Knox. The sustained popularity of Sherlockian scholarship owes much to these initial players, whose sparkling prose conjures a bygone era of repartee. In this study, I present a chronological survey of two early periods in Sherlockian scholarship to understand its poetics, popularity, generic identity, and contemporary relevance.
The capitalist-consumerist culture in Korean Wave is an agent that is capable of developing Korea-centric consumer culture in countries that experienced the phenomenon. . Though theoretically anchored within a temporal context based on the historical development of South Korea, the framework can be spatially contextualized, as it exercises postmodern flexibility. This article attempts to propose an approach from a postmodern perspective to look at contesting ideologies that occur during the construction of Hallyu-influenced consumer culture. Prior to that, several paradigmatic problems between the postmodern construct of hyperreality and ideology, which is traditionally associated with modernism, will be addressed. Researchers, at a broader scope, can employ the approach to examine the contesting ideologies in the adoption of the Korean consumerist culture, whereas at a personal level, they can explore consumers’ interpretation of the capitalist-consumerist culture and examine the creation of a postmodern identity.
This study explores how people become sport fans by elucidating why people support teams even when they are unsuccessful. This study fills a gap in the literature on sport fan behavior by applying Relative Deprivation and Social Identification Theories to understand sport fans’ seemingly irrational behavior. We conducted a series of interviews with 17 sport fans with diverse backgrounds. Findings suggest that interaction among Community Identification, Relative Deprivation, Team Identification, Sport Involvement and Representativeness of a sport team helps explain why people support certain teams and become fans, regardless of team success. Findings suggest that team Representativeness in a specific community is one of the most important factors influencing people to become fans. We also found that sport involvement is very important, especially if relative deprivation can elicit team identification from people with little to no sport involvement. Further research may identify the exact relationship between sport involvement and relative deprivation.
The shift from “media” to “social media” in the digital age has implications for processes of identity formation during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. First, the Internet provides young people with opportunities to co-construct entertainment and social environments tailored to their own needs and interests. Second, adolescents' presentations of self take place on the same screens and in the same activity settings in which they access commercial media programming. These changes reflect increasing cultural emphasis on personal agency and self-expression which brings to bear new tasks for identity development during the transition to adulthood that involve both opportunities and challenges for creating a coherent, stable, and meaningful sense of self. In terms of opportunities, social media give youth enhanced control over presentations of self in social interactions and increased access to social information and large networks of others to solicit feedback and reify self-concepts. However, social media also bring new demands to negotiate heightened pressure to perform a socially desirable self in a commercial environment that bestows value on attractive images and popularity. Suggestions for future research include methods that bridge youths' offline and online social contexts and that balance enthusiasm for the massive quantities of data that can be aggregated via data mining technologies with qualitative work that examines the lived experiences of adolescents' everyday social practices.
Keywords:
identity development;
adolescence;
social networking sites;
peer relations;
self-esteem;
sociocultural change;
self-expression
Overcoming geographic, cultural, and linguistic differences, the second phase of the Korean wave Hallyu made its mark in Latin America. From the results of the field research conducted in two Latin American countries Brazil and Peru during the summer of 2012, this study examines the effects of the second wave of Hallyu on Peruvian society. In doing so, it regards the demographics, education level, and socio-economic status of the Hallyu consumer groups that reflects the situation of inequality and escapism embedded in Peruvian society. The continuous access to a different culture, distinct from that of one's own reality through a virtual environment of cyberspace may be a reflection of the individual's own awareness of despair in the reality in which they find themselves, characterized by inequality and a cyclical nature of class differences.
The introduction of practice theory into sociolinguistics is an important recent development in the field. The community of practice provides a useful alternative to the speech-community model, which has limitations for language and gender researchers in particular. As an ethnographic, activity-based approach, the community of practice is of special value to researchers in language and gender because of its compatibility with current theories of identity. An extension of the community of practice allows identities to be explained as the result of positive and negative identity practices rather than as fixed social categories, as in the speech-community model. The framework is used here to analyze the linguistic practices associated with an unexamined social identity, the nerd, and to illustrate how members of a local community of female nerds at a US high school negotiate gender and other aspects of their identities through practice. 1
To the uninitiated outsider, media fandom as it's currently practiced online in blog spaces such as LiveJournal makes little sense: strange jargon with unclear acronyms and lots of punctuation sits next to YouTube or Imeem video embeddings. Perhaps a post announces part 18 of a long piece of fan fiction. In the comments someone has left the writer a gift: a manipulated image of her two favorite characters cleverly sized so she can upload it into the blog software interface and immediately start putting it up next to her name as an avatar to represent her. Someone else writes a short fic in response and hotlinks to it: "Come over here and look!" she invites. A third person uses the story as a pretext to write a detailed episode review to illustrate the show's shortcomings.
To engage is to click, read, comment, write, make up a song and sing it; to hotlink, to create a video, to be invited to move on, to come over here or go over there—to become part of a larger metatext, the off-putting jargon and the unspoken rules meaning that only this group of that people can negotiate the terrain. Within this circle of community—and in media fandom, women overwhelmingly make up this community1—learning how to engage is part of the initiation, the us versus them, the fan versus the nonfan. The metatext thus created has something to say, sometimes critical things, about the media source, but for those of us who engage in it, it has even more to say about ourselves.
This exchange in the fan community is made up of three elements related to the gift: to give, to receive, and to reciprocate.2 The tension and negotiation between the three result in fan creation of social relationships that are constructed voluntarily on the basis of a shared interest—perhaps a media source like a TV show or, perhaps, fandom itself. Fan communities as they are currently comprised, require exchanges of gifts: you do not pay to read fan fiction or watch a fan-made music vid. They are offered for free (although circulation may be restricted and you have to know where to obtain them), yet within a web of context that specifies an appropriate mode of "payment." At the heart of this anticommercial requirement of fan works is fans' fear that they will be sued by producers of content for copyright violation. The general understanding is that if no money is exchanged, the copyright owners have no reason to sue because they retain exclusive rights to make money from their property.3 The notion of the gift is thus central to fan economy as it currently stands, although, as Abigail De Kosnik argues in her essay in this issue, it may be time for the community to consider creating an alternative model that will permit women to profit.
Fans insist on a gift economy, not a commercial one, but it goes beyond self-protective attempts to fly under the radar of large corporations, their lawyers, and their cease-and-desist letters. Online media fandom is a gift culture in the symbolic realm in which fan gift exchange is performed in complex, even exclusionary symbolic ways that create a stable nexus of giving, receiving, and reciprocity that results in a community occupied with theorizing its own genderedness.
The gifts that fans exchange, which Rachael Sabotini describes as "the centerpiece of fandom,"4 require skill and effort to make. They may be artworks, as in vids (described in more detail in the contributions to this issue by Francesca Coppa and Alexis Lothian), podcasts, fan fiction, or manipulated images. But they may also be narrative analysis, known as meta, of the primary source or of a fan artwork. They may be fan fiction archives, bulletin board forums, screen-capture galleries, fandom-specific wikis, or other aggregates of information. But the items exchanged have no value outside their fannish context. In fact, it is likely that they do not literally exist; fandom's move to the Internet means that the items exchanged are hyperreal and capable of being endlessly replicated. Erika...
In September 2005, a fanfiction writer posted a story featuring the main characters from the popular anime series InuYasha on adultfanfiction.net, an open fanfiction community featuring adult-themed stories. The reviews of the story were overwhelmingly positive until one very distressed reviewer demanded that the story, a graphic rape, carry a warning label for such content. Supporters of the writer attacked the reviewer and the writer denied that the story contained rape, suggesting that at the very most it was "non-consensual sex." The back-and-forth bickering continued and the supporters of the writer continued to post increasingly more elaborate praise and support. Eventually, however, the discussion would have run its course and the textual remnants of this digital fight would have faded into the background static of the Internet, save for the efforts of the Fandom Wank community.
The community motto of Fandom Wank, "because we think 'Fandom is Fucking Funny' isn't taking it far enough," might say a great deal about the central ideals of this community, but we wondered what might be the implications of the existence of such a community, what purpose it might serve and what significance it might have. Furthermore, we see this as an opportunity to explore practices of anime fan culture using the theory of Matt Hills in a way that does not compromise the intellectual significance of those practices based on academic presuppositions of what does, or does not, qualify as intelligent discourse.
Fandom Wank (FW) is hosted on a journal-style community, JournalFen, similar to the more popular livejournal.com, in which members gather to engage in a form of active criticism, a process they call "pointing and laughing," at recent examples of "wank" in a wide variety of fandoms, anime and otherwise. Though it conspicuously references the British slang, wank is defined by the FW community as "self-aggrandizing posturing, fannish absurdities, circular ego-stroking, endless flamewars, [and] pseudointellectual definitions." In general, wank is part of the less-than-polite interactions that are relatively commonplace when there is any sort of anonymity online.
As of this writing, FW has more than 5000 members, who call themselves "wankas," and has produced thousands of posts dedicated to mocking wank and wankers (people who create wank). The community practices of FW are relatively straightforward. Members of the community post well-developed "wank reports," which define the context and the specifics of the particular example of wank the poster is reporting on, while providing amusing commentary and pointing out humorous quotes. The wankas then proceed to mock the wank mercilessly, often using harsh language, insults, and inside jokes.
Despite the unusually caustic nature of the wankas' practices, certain emerging patterns of behavior and a comprehensive informational wiki suggest that these textual practices may be much more complicated then a first glance might indicate. The engagement of the wankas in these metafandom practices suggests a level of critical textual analysis that would not be out of place in an educational setting, despite their rude language and humor. This reminded us of Matt Hills's work studying fan cultures, more specifically his concept of the fan-as-intellectual. Hills argued in his 2002 book Fan Cultures
Screen capture of September 9, 2005, Fandom Wank post.
Screen capture of comment exchange in September 2005 Fandom Wank post.
that fan-studies scholars are too fixated on shaping their perceptions of fan practices to resemble those of academia instead of studying authentic fan practices. Hills created the concept of the fan-as-intellectual to encourage scholars in fan studies to accept that intellectual practices can occur outside of institutionalized settings, particularly within new-media settings. This study aims to demonstrate that community-building practices aimed at bettering communications within the community are occurring, indicating fanas-intellectual practices. To accomplish this we will be examining two wank reports and their subsequent comments, all featuring the wank of one InuYasha fanfiction writer of dubious judgment and her fans.
Fandom studies are complex, and two significant theorists in the field, Henry Jenkins and Matt Hills, have both proposed interesting theories...
American quantitative sociolinguistics has drawn substantially on data from the African American speech community for its descriptive, theoretical, and methodological development, but has given relatively little in return. Contributions from the speech community to sociolinguistics include the development of variable rules and frameworks for the analysis of tense-aspect markers, social class, style, narratives, and speech events, plus research topics and employment for students and faculty. The contributions which sociolinguistics could make in return to the African American speech community – but has not done sufficiently – include the induction of African Americans into linguistic, the representation of African Americans in our writings, and involvement in courts, workplaces, and schools, especially with respect to the teaching of reading and the language arts. This last issue has surged to public attention following the Oakland School Board's “Ebonics” resolutions on Dec. 18, 1996.
The present unequal partnership between researcher and researched is widespread within linguistics. Suggestions are made for establishing service in return as a general principle and practice of teaching and research in our field. (African American Vernacular English, Ebonics, applications of sociolinguistics, community service, dialect readers, variation theory)
The purpose of this research is to broaden the conceptualization of entertainment selection to identify not only pleasure-seeking (hedonic concerns) as a motivator, but to also recognize that individuals may choose media as a means of “truth-seeking” (eudaimonic concerns). This article conceptualized and developed measures to illustrate that entertainment can be used as a means of experiencing not only enjoyment, but also as a means of grappling with questions such as life's purpose and human meaningfulness. Four studies were conducted in the development of these measures, providing evidence for their validity in terms of entertainment preference and individual differences, and illustrating how these motivations predict preferences for entertainment that elicits unique affective experiences.
