The Phenomenon of Contemporary Youth's "Bai Lan": Cultural Construction and Media Communication

Abstract

As a new variant of youth subculture, "Bai Lan" reflects the youth's stance expression and value orientation in the Internet era. Through network ethnographic analysis and semi-structured interview, this paper systematically sorts out the cultural characteristics, evolution process and complex motives of the phenomenon, and makes an in-depth analysis of the unintended consequences brought by the phenomenon in the process of dissemination, forming three research findings: First, the phenomenon is a cultural product formed by young people who weaken their identity and deconstruct traditional values under their own development difficulties; Second, the generation, expression and dissemination of "Bai Lan" culture are interactive processes between individual youth, groups and network media; Third, youth "Bai Lan" is a kind of strategic behavior, whose subjective motives can be divided into emotions and pressure vent, self-protection and self-benefit maximization. In the process of "Bai Lan", negative language framework and media distorted narrative are likely to cause objective adverse effects on youth's cognitive orientation and behavior choice.