Digital Fandom Research Articles

Menganalisis Jaringan Sosial Penggemar Blackpink Saat Konser di Jakarta

The phenomenon of digital fandom behavior that often occurs on social media is always interesting to analyze. Social network analysis is becoming increasingly used to research this phenomenon. Social media plays an important role in providing accurate data for analysis. Twitter is the social media most used in conducting social network analysis. Based on data released (We Are Social, 2022), Twitter is the seventh favorite social media out of 16 social media platforms in the world. In Indonesia itself, according to data (dataindonesia.id, 2023), 24 million of the world's 556 million Twitter users are Indonesian. This research will analyze Black Pink as an extraordinary phenomenon with a fanatical fandom, ahead of their concert in Jakarta 10-11 March 2023. The aim of this research is to conduct a social network analysis specifically on the hashtag BORNPINKinJAKARTA, and the role of social network analysis for each Twitter user account in their relationships. This research uses Digital Fandom Theory with the Descriptive Analysis method with free Netlytics tools. This research found that the hashtag #BORNPINKInJAKARTA was the hashtag most frequently posted by Black Pink fans, which then strengthened the digital fandom theory

Toward an operationality perspective on fandom: Exploring Chinese fans’ emerging practices in platform-mediated environments

The rise of platforms has reshaped fan participation. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study examined celebrity fandom in China, where the Internet-powered entertainment industry and fan economy have flourished. We propose an operationality perspective as a wider-angle lens to conceptualize the multitude of fan practices emerging in platform-mediated environments. Moving beyond the text-centered approach, the operationality perspective sees fans’ platform practices (e.g. cross-platform engagement, curation of fan texts, data work) as a new logic of participation in digital fandom that could generate distinct identities and lifestyles. Operationality can be understood as a set of strategies fans employ in response to the growing influence of platformization. Operationality not only enables fans to align their practices with platform interests, but also affords them opportunities to negotiate their identities and adjust their degree of involvement in fandom.

Victory for Africa or the Arab world? Moroccan nationalism, Arab exceptionalism, pan-African solidarity and digital fandom during the 2022 FIFA World Cup

ABSTRACT Football serves as a fetish for war, replaying past conflicts and sometimes setting off new ones. Deploying social identities theory and dramaturgy theory, we follow up on this assertion to explore how the historic 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final qualification by Morocco’s senior men football team exposed historical and contemporary conflicts framing Morocco today. Celebrating greatness, Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal dedicated the victory to Moroccans, Arab and Muslim people. The disavowal of sub-Saharan Africa and the negation of pan-African solidarity triggered social media debates which spilled into quotidian lives of Africans. Critical discourse analysis was employed to analyse purposively sampled conversations on X (formerly Twitter), relating to Boufal’s remarks. We demonstrate how Morocco’s success [re]ignited identity wars and brought into stark relief attendant ontological, philosophical and metaphysical dynamics. We advance scholarly discourses about consumption of mega global sporting events and their symbiosis with politics of belonging in the global South.

Augmented Basking in Reflected Glory? A Case Study of Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Sport Fans’ Augmented Reality Filters

Among all the innovative applications of immersive technologies in the sport industry, augmented reality (AR) has demanded more scholarly attention. Particularly, using AR face filters that layer computer-generated visual effects over the physical world on mobile devices became a valued marketing tactic that brands employed to attract fans. Yet, limited empirical evidence has explored the effect of AR on sport fans’ digital fandom. Through an online quasi-experiment (N = 250) following a 2022 FIFA World Cup match between the U.S. and U.K. soccer (e.g., association football) teams, data suggest an important role of BIRGing (basking in reflected glory) in influencing fans’ AR filter use. Specifically, fans with a stronger tendency to bask in reflected glory elicited a higher perception of affiliation and enjoyment, which tended to be more likely to use AR. These effects were heightened when fans’ team identification was higher and they believed their team performed better. Theoretical and practical implications were addressed accordingly.

Penggemar K-Pop sebagai Digital Author dalam Menulis Fan Fiction di Twitter

The development of technology in this globalization era has led to the creation of digital fandom. Along with the presence of fandom, it is balanced with the development of forms of support from fans for their idols, one of which is fan fiction. The creation of fan fiction itself has various stages and processes, before finally being uploaded for readers to enjoy. Most writers in the fan fiction genre started as fans. This research uses a qualitative approach and descriptive research type. The determination of informants was carried out using purposive sampling technique. To assist the research, in-depth interviews were conducted by reviewing fan culture in fan studies. Documentation and in-depth interviews were supplemented with various literatures to strengthen the research. The results show that text production is the author's activity in creating fan fiction works. In producing the text, the author performs various stages starting from the visualization stage, creative process, writing process, and editing & posting process. The author's purpose in writing fan fiction is because the author has ideas related to boy band Seventeen that they want to pour in the form of fan fiction.
 Keywords: Text production, fans, K-Pop, fan fiction

(Trans)national digital fandom: Online engagement of Japanese Crash Landing on You fans during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused people worldwide to spend more time at home, looking for entertainment on the internet, including video on demand services. In Japan, the growing popularity of Netflix resulted in an increased consumption of Korean content, a trend that manifested itself particularly in the massive popularity of a South Korean drama Crash Landing on You, the most watched programme of 2020 on Netflix Japan. This article analyses various manifestations of Crash Landing on You’s popularity, focusing primarily on fan digital practices: online fan meetings, drama food recreation video sharing and virtual tourism. Based on the data gathered via online content analysis, digital ethnography and interviews, the author argues that these practices allow deeper immersion into the narrative world and intimacy building with the characters, offering entertainment, safety and comfort. Moreover, even though digital practices are not limited by national borders, thus often associated with transnational fandom, provided case studies suggest that intimacy building with the object of fannish affection has close ties to the national focus of presented practices.

‘Push-and-pull’ for visibility: how do fans as users negotiate over algorithms with Chinese digital platforms?

ABSTRACT In the algorithmic era, both users and the platform battle for visibility. Chinese fans are savvy users who explore the hidden algorithms behind platform functions. With the collectively developed algorithmic imaginary, digital fandom communities negotiate with the platform over algorithms to optimize the visibility of celebrities they endorse. Drawing from participatory observation and semi-structured interviews in Chinese online fandoms of an idol group, INTO1, we detailed how fans as digital users collectively explore, interpret, and creatively utilize algorithms to increase their idol’s visibility. We conclude that visibility, as a representation of algorithm power, is co-defined through the constant push-and-pull between digital users and the platform. This paper contributes to both algorithm and fandom studies by describing large-scale non-professional users’ daily construction of the algorithmic imaginary in the unique context of Chinese fandom and beyond. It also discusses broader civic implications of fans’ algorithmic practices to wider digital users in China.

“Everyone in illyria is bi you absolute cowards”: Shakespeare TikTok, Twelfth Night, and the Search for a Queer Utopia

As TikTok continues to cement itself as the most popular social media platform in the world, the nuanced ways in which Shakespeare nerds use the platform to display their digital fandom remain understudied. This essay addresses how Shakespeare TikTokers (“ShakesTokers”) use the platform to create a queer utopia, and specifically how this utopia manifests in the usage of Twelfth Night as a queer touchstone. In this piece, we consider ShakesTokers’ readings of the text as a fluid space of gender and identity in order to show how the dramaturgy of Twelfth Night aligns with Gen Z politics and aesthetics which inform TikTok’s culture at large. We look at ShakesTok readings of Twelfth Night’s characters, how these readings manifest a queer utopia, how they approach the trope of cross-dressing, and how mini performances of and inspired by Twelfth Night saturate themselves in queer readings of this text and its characters. We argue that Twelfth Night marks the epicenter of TikTok’s critical Shakesqueer. This critical lens allows TikTok users opportunities to engage with the text of Shakespeare’s plays on their own terms, and to extend ownership of the text into spaces that are familiar to them. In so doing, they enact a well-worn paradigm of Shakespearean textual analysis in fresh ways, enabled by the digital tools at their disposal. By closely examining Twelfth Night TikTok, this article sheds new light on the little acknowledged role that Shakespeare plays in forming mainstream TikTok culture, which may be key to developing a new generation of Shakespearean audiences.

‘Are Di would of loved it’: reanimating Princess Diana through dolls and AI

ABSTRACT Princess Diana is a secular saint whose fame spans generations and borders and has never dimmed. Fiction, fashion, relatability and a diverse and fervent fandom keep Diana current and relevant over 25 years since her death. In this article, I argue that Diana’s death and persisting celebrity give fans the freedom to own and play with her image and persona, and to relate to her in new ways informed by an ironic yet emotionally intense online milieu. I demonstrate that these new ways of relating to Diana prove that her digital life after death is not limited to her appearance and demise, but extends towards her attitude to social issues, rendering Diana fandom a political act. To do so, I combine analysis of Diana, digital fandom, dolls and the creation of AI animations. First, I analyse Diana’s portrayal in traditional and social media. Second, using a new creative methodology I call ‘social media reaction capture’, I create images using AI to test audience responses. Finally, I discuss how emerging technologies and cultures enable dead celebrities to live on while handing control of their image and personae to irreverent new audiences, arguing that ironic fandom and playfulness make Diana’s sainthood persist.

Prosumer activism: The case of Britney Spears’ Brazilian fandom

The key argument of this article is that fan communities create, in their own way, a kind of prosumer media activism. Through a netnographic approach, I analyze aspects of fan labor and value creation, self-organization and entrepreneurship, agency and exploitation in an online discussion forum about the American singer Britney Spears in Brazil. Based on this case study on social networking, I develop the argument that it is possible to see digital fandom as a stage for a commodified cyberactivism, in which some social actors in the role of prosumers, on the one hand, exercise their freedom and find, more than gratification, ways to project themselves individually in society. But, on the other hand, they are subject to exploitative relationships, such as unpaid work, to promote the personality whose concrete relationship with their lives often does not go beyond media practices.

Love your idol in a ‘cleaned’ way: Fans, fundraising platform, and fandom governance in China

In 2021, a top-down rectification movement called ‘Clean Up’ impinged on Chinese idol fandom culture. This movement triggered discussions about the transforming governance strategy over fandom and broader Chinese Internet users. This article explores the complexity and shift of governance on Chinese idol fans by examining the digital fandom fundraising platform Taoba. Drawing from the walkthrough analysis of xiufen (fans of idol competition shows), we investigate three key stakeholders: platform, state, and xiufen fandom, to reflect on wider Internet governance issues in China. We argue that Chinese idol fans like xiufen are subject to a governance structure where power relations between different players are highly complex and entangled. The state-corporate-society co-opting mode of governance has evolved toward what we termed ‘coercive co-opting’, in which digital platforms and users conform with the imaginaries and ideologies of the state, while the authorities still intervene in an intimidating and suppressive manner.

Interweaving identity and digital fandom social movements: A case study of the “BTS Army Indonesia Peduli Bencana”

Digital fandom appears as a part of the development of popular culture in today’s digital era. One of the interesting digital fandom activities to be studied is a series of campaign activities, fundraising, and charity projects of the ”ARMY Indonesia Peduli Bencana” by BTS Army Indonesia. This study used qualitative descriptive research and observation, interviews, documentation, and literature study data collection method. Researchers interviewed BTS Army Indonesia fanbase admins and Instagram account followers of @btsarmyina.project involved in the ”ARMY Indonesia Peduli Bencana” project. This study showed that fans reflect the idol and the cultural identity of fan groups in today’s digital era can be seen from digital fandom activities in online media. Fanbase and influencers have the power in moving their followers to be actively involved in social activities carried out on online media: they act as social agents who actively campaign a humanity project as a cultural identity of a fandom adopted from the idol groups’ values. In addition, the convenience of technology is one of the considerations for fans in participating as volunteers and donors in these humanitarian activities. The success of fundraising, charity and the ”ARMY Indonesia Peduli Bencana” campaign manifests online social movement conducted by fandom in the digital era.

“My baby should feel no wronged!”: Digital fandoms and emotional capitalism in China

As the digitalization of fandom and the fandomization of digital platforms have both been discussed recently, this study intends to analyze how the logic of digital fandom was formalized in fans’ everyday media practices. Specifically, the study examines the new trends of digital fandoms in China from the perspective of emotional capitalism. Based on long-termed participated observation and semi-structural interviews, the study argues that the emotional engagement of digital fan practice was legitimated by the incarnation of virtual fan objects, the datafication of emotional labor, and the re-imagination of multi-social relationships.

“Does Anybody Have A Map?”: The Impact of “Virtual Broadway” on Musical Theater Composition

“Does Anybody Have A Map?”: The Impact of “Virtual Broadway” on Musical Theater Composition

Digital Fandom Engagement Through Virtual Live-Streaming Concert During Covid-19: The Effect of Perceived Interactivity on Presence, Enjoyment, Fan-Artist Relationship, and Ewom

Digital Fandom Engagement Through Virtual Live-Streaming Concert During Covid-19: The Effect of Perceived Interactivity on Presence, Enjoyment, Fan-Artist Relationship, and Ewom

Antecedents of Microblogging Users’ Purchase Intention Toward Celebrities’ Merchandise: Perspectives of Virtual Community and Fan Economy

Over the last few decades, cross-fertilization between marketing and fandom studies in a mediated world has been rare, hindering the knowledge development for marketing practitioners in the Chinese fan economy context. The purpose of this study is to find and establish a conceptual framework that includes Online Interaction (OI), Parasocial Relationships (PSR) and virtual fan communities on Weibo, and how these contributory factors embedded in the interplay process of digital fandom practices in terms of enhancing fans’ Purchase Intention (PI) and media consumption behaviours toward the celebrities’ merchandise. Using an online survey instrument, this research collected 294 completed responses from fans who had online interactions with celebrities and engagement of virtual fan communities on Weibo. Key results and findings provided a clear framework of four antecedents based on the conceptual model and indicated that the high intensity of OI led to higher levels of the perception of PSR and the Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC). Increased PSR and the SOVC can be seen as significant positive predictors of the PI (a part of consumer identity construction as a fan) also. This study revealed the underlying mechanism of an emerging marketing genre, also provide useful implications of audiences’ digital marketing practices for marketers, celebrities and policymakers.

An emergent algorithmic culture: The data-ization of online fandom in China

The digitalization of fandom and fan culture has become significant topic in recent studies, yet there is a lack of examination of the nuance between specific fan performance and the affordance, infrastructure and architecture that constitute it as it is today. In this article, I examine how digital fandom involves the platform algorithm and the logic of data contribution, affectively engaging fans to participate in increased data labour. Depicting online fandom on Weibo, a massive Chinese social media platform, I portray the data-ization of online fandom in China, arguing that the traffic data has been dematerialized as new affective object in fan–object relations, while digital fan culture has been constructed into a type of algorithmic culture.

The Complicated Digital Fandom: Empowerment and Exploitation of Fans in Digital Media Era

Over the past several decades, the once despised fans have been introduced to the central stage of audience study, challenging people’s stereotype about fans. Fans are considered as the most active and visible audiences since they are active producers rather than passive consumers. With the pervasiveness of the digital media, fans are provided with more opportunities to engage with the media production and challenge the authority of media industry. However, there are still some scholars argue that fans in digital era are prone to be exploited by media industry as free labor. These two contradictory aspects illustrate the main characteristics of fans in digital media era. This research aims to explore the reconfigured relationships between fans and professional media producers, critically discussing the extent to which fans are empowered and exploited in the digital media era. The analysis in this paper is organized from three main aspects: first, the transformation of fans’ images in the ever-changing media landscapes is illustrated, emphasizing the trend that fans are increasingly considered to be more active and influential in the media production process; second, the ways that fans engage with media production in the digital media era are explored in details, which supports the opinion that fans are empowered in digital media era; third, the emerging exploitations of fans online practice are demonstrated by employing the concept of free labor. By critically discussing both the empowerment and exploitation of fans in digital media era, in this paper, it is concluded that although the increasing productivity and influence of fans imply the reconfigured relationships between fans and media producers, the emerging exploitation of fans’ free labor should not be ignored which indicates that the power discrepancy between fans and media producers still exists. The empowerment and exploitation of fans in digital media era should not be considered as a zero-gum game. Since the digital fandom is more complicated than before, the binary opposition between empowerment and exploitation should be revisited and revised. Within the context of the emerging digital economy, fans and media producers are continuously negotiating with each other.

Fetishizing Captain America\u2019s sidearm: iconography, exceptionality, and the politics of representing guns

In 2007, Captain America, or Cap to his peers, died outside the courthouse where he would answer for leading a band of superheroes against the government’s Superhuman Registration Act in a plot line Fox and Friends took issue with, condemning Marvel Comics for killing Cap “while we’re at war,” referring to President George W. Bush’s war on terror. In 2008, former sidekick Bucky took up the Cap banner. Legacy characters are common in comics, but fans noted an unexpected addition to the costume: a handgun. Cap’s shield, a symbol of defense, now had an offensive accent. News media outlets lauded the new gun as a “sign of the times,” as Rolling Stone said, considering it a critique on the post-9/11 cultural landscape, but fan communities felt uneasy about the decision. The gun’s presence on Bucky Cap’s belt marks a continuous period of exceptionality, the kind Giorgio Agamben warns against in State of Exception. When Bucky’s predecessor would return to the role of Captain America, the sidearm would no longer remain, but the character would confront issues related to guns, and media and fans would once again respond. Even though Cap only encounters guns a few times during the 2010s, reception to these moments is more significant than that of characters who regularly use lethal weapons. Fetishistic emphasis on Captain America’s gun exposes the state of exception inherent in all superhero media, prompting a digital discourse across professional and amateur platforms on gun-related subjects. This project analyzes how superhero media portray gun use and the subsequent reception from both news media and digital fandom. A sampling of comics, television series, and films are textually analyzed, along with digital news media and online fan forums pertaining to those examples.

Structural affects of soap opera fan correspondence, 1970s–80s

Paper correspondence between fans and creators/producers is a sort of historiographic challenge to the imagined shift from so-called analog to digital fandom. It opens the possibility of applying digital methodologies to archival objects as researchers continue to historicize fan practices, identities, and cultures. Using the archival papers of soap opera showrunners Frank and Doris Hursley, and Bridget and Jerome Dobson as a case study for this structural-affective analysis, I draw data and metadata from approximately three hundred fan letters and responses. Trends of emotion across the letters figure prominently in an analysis of the affective strategies used by both fans and creators to create an intimately collaborative televisual experience. The letters contain layers of valuable metadata, including filing conventions, typography, and collage; these permit identification of negotiations of power over the televisual narrative, and they provide valuable insights into the affective textures of the soap fan's everyday life. Digital fan studies foregrounds the integration of fandom into one's online life, as well as the importance of social media in closing the gulf between fan and creator. This praxis expands on the value of analog tools—pen, paper, scissors, and typewriter—to the predigital television fan's virtual life. Material communication played and continues to play an important role in fomenting fannish identity, exercising industrial literacy, performing affective engagement, and navigating an enduring, affectionate tension between author and audience.