International Fan Research Articles

EXPLORING THE MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS INFLUENCING YOUTH ATTENDANCE AT BADMINTON MATCHES

Sports play a significant place in Malaysian culture, serving as both a spectator and participant activity. Organized badminton events have the potential to enhance sport tourism revenue by drawing in both local and international fans keen to support their favourite teams. Understanding the motivations of specific market segments, particularly the youth, is vital for effective sports industry marketing. However, a lack of motivation among youth to attend badminton events can lead to diminished interest in these events. Consequently, this study aims to examine the factors influencing the motivation of youth to attend badminton matches in Malaysia. The study's sample comprises 341 students from UUM, selected through convenience sampling technique. The findings reveal that self-esteem is the foremost motivation for attending badminton matches (mean=4.31), followed by factors of group (mean=4.30), family (mean=4.17), entertainment (mean=4.08), escape (mean=3.98), eustress (mean=3.94), and aesthetics (mean=3.37). Furthermore, most respondents identify as badminton fans, indicating potential growth opportunities for the badminton industry. Understanding fan motivations can enable the industry to better meet their needs, thereby contributing to its expansion and success. This study underscores the importance of engaging youth in badminton events to foster sustained interest and participation in sports tourism initiatives.

Women’s football subculture of misogyny: the escalation to online gender-based violence

ABSTRACT Research question Given the worldwide growth of women’s football and its presence on social media, it is essential to explore and understand fan attitudes and culture. Research methods This article provides the first empirical social media netnography focusing on English women’s football teams (Manchester United and Burnley) and international fan views towards women professional players on TikTok. We extend this discussion by utilising a netnography in which researchers immersed themselves for seven months in women’s football groups on TikTok to gather and analyse new qualitative data in this context. Results and Findings We identify the escalation of gender-based violence on social media against women players. Four key themes emerged from the netnography: 1. Sexism: the place of women in football; 2. Misogyny and hatred of women; 3. Sexualisation of women; 4. Demand for a male-only space. Sexist comments were apparent in all of the TikTok posts containing female football players, with some also containing more aggressive misogynistic comments. Other dominant comments sought to reduce women to objects of sexual desire and belittle their professional skills, whereas others were appalled at the presence of female players on the clubs’ official accounts, demanding them to be a male-only space. Implications The study contributes to the understanding of online fan cultures on complex, video-based platforms such as TikTok. Through literature review and netnography, we identified a problem for football clubs on social media of longstanding, problematic issues of toxic fan comments.

‘Isn’t It a Bit Rough?’ – Vietnamese Audience Reception of Wrist-grabbing in Korean Television Dramas, Feminist Consciousness, and Fantasy

Over the past two decades, Korean television drama (K-drama), which stands at the forefront of the Korean Wave, the popularisation of South Korean pop culture worldwide, has raised controversy over male characters’ sexist and patriarchal behaviours. At the centre of such controversy is the trope of wrist-grabbing, characterised by a man’s attempt to grasp a woman’s wrist to drag her to another place and force a conversation. Previous studies about international fans have revealed strong disapproving reactions, especially from feminist-identified viewers. This article on Vietnamese audience reception showed variations: some enjoyed wrist-grabbing, some condemned the act, while others exhibited ambivalence. These varied responses expose many influencing factors: Confucian-inflected patriarchal values, feminist discourses, lived experiences, and suspension of disbelief in media consumption. This analysis of the audience readings of fiction reveals some truth about gender politics in Vietnam, including a certain level of patriarchal celebration and weak feminist consciousness. The article contributes to contemporary Vietnamese studies, gender studies, research of the Korean Wave, and media audience research.

Animating a Plausible Past: Perceived Realism and Sense of Place Influence Entertainment of and Tourism Intentions From Historical Video Games

Historical video games set in famous places in the world history have grown in popularity. The current study extends prior work in analyzing how social realism (a dimension of perceived realism focused on regarding game characters and events as authentic) is related to entertainment outcomes, assessing the extent to which sense of place further contributes to these outcomes, and examining how these experiences encourage tourism. As an internal replication, we surveyed international fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise about their experiences with one of four different games set in modern history (Unity, Syndicate) or antiquity ( Origins, Odyssey). For modern historical games, increased social realism was correlated with enjoyment and increased sense of place was correlated with appreciation. For all games, sense of place was positively associated with tourism intentions. These findings are discussed in relation to the role of perceived realism in the experience and influence of playing historical video games.

The Megacity of Bangkok Rescaled through Queerness

The Megacity of Bangkok Rescaled through Queerness Charlie Yi Zhang (bio) On March 15, 2021, the organizers of Thailand Festival, an annual event sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, announced that they would collaborate with the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Osaka, Japan, to bring the grand celebration online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring Thai actors Singto (Prachaya Ruangroj) and Krist (Perawat Sangpotirat), this event was designed to introduce an array of tourist spots to Japanese people through a staged "dating" trip of these two young men across Bangkok, who have risen to international stardom through their performance in the Boys' Love (BL) drama SOTUS: The Series (GMM One, 2016–2017).1 Since the 2014 debut of the TV show Love Sick: The Series (Channel 9, 2014–2015), Thailand has emerged as a prominent player in the global BL market, and its influence has now circled back to Japan, where BL originated.2 Indeed, Thai BL has built a solid fan base by integrating the hyper-romanticized queerness popularized by Japanese BL and the androgynous masculinity characterizing K-pop culture into its unique sociocultural milieu. Thailand's contextual specificity as a rainbow mecca has attracted myriad [End Page 164] LGBTQ visitors from around the world.3 The capital city Bangkok, in particular, is known for its surfeit of party circuits, celebrity DJ networks, muscular tourists populating bars and nightclubs, and fictional sites and characters defining its so-called gay-friendly history. This megacity is part of what Bobby Benedicto calls "gay globality" that combines both real and virtual into "an imaginative planetary geography" to pique and retain the curiosity and excitement of travelers.4 I visited Thailand from January to April 2022 as the country went through its most severe COVID wave to date. Drawing on this experience, I will explore how the fantasized homoromanticism cultivated through BL media culture spatializes the urbanity of Bangkok in ways to reposition the city for the emerging challenges and opportunities in the wake of the pandemic by appealing to the growing international fan group of Thai BL dramas. These drama-created scenes of queerness do not reference concrete materialities of erotic and exotic urban life that Bangkok's LGBTQ visitors can actually partake in, however. Rather, they suggest a cluster of fantasies, aspirations, and tendencies that are both transgressive and complicit, plastering a pristine image of Thai urbanity while tucking away escalating confrontations underneath mesmerizing queer sceneries. AN OUTWARD URBAN LOOK STEERED THROUGH BL EYES On a sunny afternoon in February 2022, after I walked out of Siam Skytrain station and stepped into Centerpoint, a fashion and lifestyle shopping center located in central Bangkok, I was immediately greeted by the images of Zee (Pruk Panich) and NuNew (Chawarin Perdpiriyawong), two Thai actors whose BL series Cutie Pie (Workpoint TV, 2022) had just started to gain momentum. As the beauty ambassadors of a Korean cosmetic brand, these young men try to improve the reputation of their patrons using the fame bestowed by their queer TV personas. This job previously was almost exclusively reserved for K-pop stars. These young Thais, however, fully realize the aesthetical standard set up by previous Korean idols and further increase their popularity by personifying fictional BL characters. Almost identical with a lanky figure, stylish and often dyed hair, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids, and pronounced nasal bridges on light skin perfected by makeup, they are attractive enough to embody the ethereally beautiful fictional BL characters. To attract fans' attention and maximize the sales number, they need only to strike a pose and stage intimacy with each other to approximate a real dating relationship. This, and just this, would suffice to enable them to fulfill an otherwise daunting task of meeting and exceeding the queer reading and fantasizing desires of captious BL followers, a group that is composed of mostly well-educated young women with good jobs. Fran Martin notes that, for this form of queer fandom, BL creates a participatory space replete "with immense imaginative [End Page 165] energy and generative of great pleasure and intellectual as well as affective engagement."5 Borrowing Sara Ahmed's insight on affect, one might also say that the...

My Own Creation as a Dynamic Subcultural Objectified Authenticity of Adult Fans of LEGO

My Own Creation as a Dynamic Subcultural Objectified Authenticity of Adult Fans of LEGO

Large-scale sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar with an analysis of patterns of COVID-19 metrics.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup (FIFA-WC) held in Qatar presented unique challenges, given the potential for rapid transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among over 1.4 million international fans attending the event. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the FIFA-WC 2022 on COVID-19 cases, deaths, and reproduction rate (R0) in Qatar. Additionally, it sought to understand the implications of hosting large-scale events during a pandemic without COVID-19 restrictive measures, providing critical insights for future decision-making. Data from "Our World in Data" were analysed for three distinct periods: one week before the FIFA-WC (week-preWC), the four weeks of the event (week-1WC to week-4WC), and one week after (week-postWC). The results revealed a significant increase in COVID-19 cases during week-3WC and week-4WC (compared to week-preWC) in Qatar, followed by a subsequent decrease during the week-postWC. Notably, Qatar experienced a more pronounced surge in positive cases than the global trend. Regarding COVID-19-related deaths, Qatar's peak occurred during week-2WC, while globally deaths peaked from week-3WC to week-postWC. Nevertheless, Qatar's death toll remained relatively low compared to the global trend throughout the event. The findings highlight that the FIFA-WC 2022 in Qatar demonstrated the feasibility of organizing large-scale sporting events during a pandemic with appropriate measures in place. They emphasize the importance of high vaccination coverage, continuous monitoring, and effective collaboration between event organizers, healthcare authorities, and governments. As such, the event serves as a valuable model for future gatherings, underlining the significance of evidence-based decision-making and comprehensive public health preparedness.

“Tumblr is dominated by America:” a study of linguistic and cultural differences in Tumblr transnational fandom

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the American-centric, English-language dominance of Tumblr. It reviews current research on Tumblr culture, transcultural fandom, and linguistic differences in fandom to analyze the ways international fans engage and disengage with U.S.-centric Tumblr and fandom. Through the analysis of 19 interviews to members of a transnational Tumblr anime fandom, the paper addresses their perception and understanding of the platform’s cultural biases as an American corporate owned, English language dominated social network site. The paper then explores the international fans’ motivations to join their English-language Tumblr fandom. It highlights the double nature of their Tumblr transnational fandom as an American-centric but global space in virtue of the use of English as lingua franca. It then analyzes the fans’ engagement and disengagement strategies with different branches of their fandom through the use of different languages and platforms.

Mixtapes from Heaven: The Global Duke Ellington Fandom and the Music they Preserved

The Rhodes S. Baker, Jr. Collection of rare and unissued sound recordings at the University of North Texas Music Library demonstrates that, in archival settings, the incidental content that is often deleted from commercial releases is actually “a feature, not a bug,” so to speak. This article elaborates on two reasons for the desirability and necessity of such content: First, it often provides the context necessary to make sense of a given recording, determining a date and release status, especially for recordings that are not well labeled. It also provides lasting evidence of the human activity underlying every aspect of the performance, capture, distribution, and preservation of a recording.
 The Rhodes S. Baker, Jr. Collection’s unissued recordings of Duke Ellington and other major jazz artists, packed onto reel-to-reel tapes like the “mixtapes” of decades later, have obvious intrinsic value. Still, preserving and acknowledging the human activity that compiled them adds value: doing so provides a window into the depth and intensity of the “fandom” (or community of fans) that thrived for Ellington even in his sixties, along with the multifaceted efforts to preserve his live performances.
 Ellington and his music created an international fan community, and their story augments his own. This article describes historically significant content from the Rhodes S. Baker, Jr. Collection, digitized in early 2016, in the context of the social participation of Baker and other fans and collectors, including the prominent Swedish collector and discographer Benny Aasland. The preservation and description of the collection demonstrates a complementary relationship between archival practice and musicologist Christopher Small’s concept of musicking. Insights from Pauline Oliveros and John Cage further inform an approach to musicking inclusive of incidental sounds and other artifacts of recorded live performance which might otherwise be dismissed as “noise,” but are essential to the full context of the captured performance.

Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black

Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black

Tracking the international discourse of the Chinese super league through social media analytics

How is the international discourse of the Chinese Super League (CSL) framed in social media and which actors are driving current developments? Utilizing Social Media Analytics (SMA), we track the international discourse of the CSL and its associated actors throughout the social media landscape. Our findings reveal that the CSL is framed primarily by professional actors offering match information and results as well as betting and streaming services. Yet, fan engagement vis-à-vis CSL clubs, players and matches is limited in its extent. Thus, our results indicate that the international fan base of the CSL remains largely underdeveloped. Altogether, we contribute to extant literature in sports management by illustrating how an emerging methodological approach can be utilised, assessing a critical aspect of China’s ambitions with regards to football, and the associated challenges that emerging leagues face in terms of attracting international fans despite considerable investment in recent years.

The Fourth Wall and “The Wall”: GoT’s Reception in Argentina, Spain, and Germany

HBO’s global success, Game of Thrones (2011–2019), is known for having an active international fan base. In this qualitative interpretive study of the show’s reception in Spain, Germany, and Argentina, I examine themes emerged from interviews with twenty-one viewers. I interpret their readings on the series together with online and offline engagement practices. Rather than marked cultural contrasts, the study identifies common patterns across nations: varying degrees of analytic and emotional engagement leading to diverse fan subjectivities within their “locality.” Theoretically, I draw from Mittell as well as Jenkins et al. to argue how GoT provides an arena for casual viewers and die-hard fans to move on both axes of engagement: drillability and spreadability. To finalize, I reflect on dominant academic discourses that reinforce notions of proper fandom and propose to apply anthropology’s cultural relativism and respect for the emic perspective to acknowledge agency.

Real Madrid and public relations: applying the circuit of culture to organizational values

ABSTRACT Real Madrid is one of the leading sport organizations in the world in terms of finances, fans and awards, a status gained in large part due to its values. Using a critical/historical method, this paper examines the role of public relations in how Real Madrid communicates its values with club members and international fans, focusing on the years 2000 to present. For that purpose, this article uses the circuit of culture and its five moments – regulation, production, consumption, representation, and identity – in the creation of shared meaning. The circuit provides an organizing and conceptual framework that places public relations practice in a dynamic negotiation of power between the organization (Real Madrid) and its stakeholders (mainly international fans) that is context specific and constantly changing. The study concludes that Real Madrid has been able to embrace a set of universalist values and thus find massive success to break away from its older, local and national identity, all without alienating its Spanish fans.

Sport brands' attraction factors and international fans

PurposeThe overall aim of this study is to improve our understanding of the strength of attraction factors of professional football club brands with foreign fans, and of the influence of demographics and individual characteristics on the influence of these factors in the context of sport spectatorship services.Design/methodology/approachThis research was based on a quantitative study surveying 1,160 Chinese fans of English Premier League clubs and its results were produced through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. They identify the relative importance of 21 organisation– (e.g. star players, charismatic managers, team kits, partnerships and alliances, etc.), market and environment– (e.g. peer influence, TV coverage, etc.), and experience– (e.g. personal bonds, past attendance, etc.) induced service brand attraction points that were categorised into six main factors: star players, on-the-field performance, brand identity, marketing and merchandising, localism and experience.FindingsOrganisation-induced factors are the most important club brand attraction factors for Chinese fans. ANOVA analysis showed that demographic (i.e. gender, age, and education) and individual (i.e. brand identification and loyalty levels) characteristics influence the importance of attraction factors for fans. For instance, fans who had previously supported a different club brand rated the marketing and merchandising dimensions lower, localism higher, on-the-field performance lower and brand identity lower than those who had always supported the same club.Originality/valueThese results emphasise the importance of segmentation when considering consumer attraction to professional sport brands. They also provide specific practical knowledge that is useful when expanding into new foreign markets.

Parade: A La Recherche De Nouveaux Sons

By 1986, the Prince-pioneered Minneapolis sound had become increasingly coopted by copycat musicians and was a familiar presence on US radio. Yet Prince had already shifted focus, relocating the sonic home of his eighth release to Continental Europe; arguably creating his most diverse album in the process. This paper explores how Parade was the first Prince record to consciously embrace a more international fan base. I discuss how the use of French language and ambience throughout the album draw on the "prestige" associated with the Gallic lifestyle, adding a cosmopolitan flavor that helped Parade connect with European audiences. I argue that Prince capitalized on the cultural currency of France and its language to create a more elevated style of music and purposely distance himself from the Minneapolis sound. The paper contextualizes Parade against the musical backdrop of 1986 and considers the subsequent critical responses of the music press and biographers. I contend that the album was part of a strategic move to reach beyond traditional US notions of "rock and roll" stardom and establish himself as a truly global performer. In achieving this goal, Prince willingly sacrificed some of his American fan base, yet secured his credentials as a bona fide international artist in return. Parade marks a pivotal point in Prince's career, ultimately shaping his future output and forever altering how the world viewed him and his music.

Uniting a sport teams’ global fan community: prototypical behavior of satellite fans enhances local fans’ attitudes and perceptions of groupness

ABSTRACT Research question: This research examines the determinants and conditions that influence local sport fans’ evaluations of satellite fans (i.e. foreign fans abroad) of their favorite team. Specifically, we consider how prototypical (versus non-prototypical) sport fan behavior of the satellite fans influences the local fans’ perceptions of group entitativity and attitudes. In addition, the study takes into account the local fans’ fear of losing resources as a result of the internationalization of team sports as a moderating condition in the investigated relationship. Research methods: The hypotheses are tested in two online experiments that use the first football divisions of Spain (study 1) and Germany (study 2) as the empirical setting. Results and findings: The findings indicate that prototypical (versus non-prototypical) fan behavior of satellite fans results in more positive attitudes towards them among local fans. This effect is mediated by increases in the perceived entitativity of the fan group as a whole. The results also highlight that the effects of prototypicality decrease the more the local fans perceive the internationalization of team sports to be a process that deprives them of social (e.g. identity enhancement) and economic (e.g. ticket availability) resources. Implications: Our findings suggest that professional sport teams seeking to attract an international fan base and create a global fan community should educate foreign supporters in terms of the prototypical behaviors of the existing local fan community. Moreover, local fans’ concerns about losing resources (e.g. less attractive kick-off times) should be taken seriously and, if possible, remedied.

Malaysian Animated TV Series: Upin & Ipin through Piaget’s Cognitive Development

Malaysia’s animated TV series, Upin & Ipin is one of the biggest names when it comes to the animation industry. Upin & Ipin’s ability to attract a large number of local and international fans has inspired an investigation into the internal workings of the elements that contribute to its success.

A Year of Pride: Revisiting the Activism Inspired by LGSM’s Support for the Onllwyn Miners

In 2015, the year following Pride’s distribution, UK and international fans were able to participate in events inspired by the film which supported activist causes. This article is a reminiscence of events I participated in with Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), and an examination of the extent to which they relate to the events in Pride. Events discussed which were directly inspired by Pride include a restaging of a photo of LGSM in Hyde Park at the 1985 London Pride, a fundraising party similar to the Pits and Perverts benefit ball where Bronwen Lewis performed ‘Bread and Roses’, and LGSM and the miners leading the 2015 London Pride march. The events which related to moments in Pride became symbolic of the politics expressed within the film, but linked to contemporary issues. I will reflect on how LGSM brought the politics of their miners’ strike activism into the events discussed, encouraging a younger generation, many of whom were not born when the miners’ strike happened, to become involved in the activism that emerged out of Pride. Finally, I will end the piece by reflecting on LGSM’s decision to wind down on activities not directly related to the miners’ strike or its politics to support newly established groups supporting various causes, including migrant rights and struggling industrial workers. LGSM marked this with a farewell party, which was particularly moving, as the date coincided with the final day of work in Britain’s last coal mine, making LGSM and Pride’s messages of political unity all the more potent.

Destination Antwerp! Fan Tourism and the Transcultural Heritage of A Dog of Flanders

Antwerp, the fictional home of Nello & Patrasche from A Dog of Flanders (1872) written by Marie Louise de la Ramée, attracts thousands of tourists every year to see the city and get close to the fictional text. European children’s literature such as this inspires dedicated fans who long to make more real the imagined spaces described by authors. The city and associated monuments and markers become sites of secular pilgrimage; people traveling to them experience children’s literary culture as localheritage. Traveling across borders, visiting these European spaces of children’s literature, taking official and unofficial tours, and listening to the stories which people share while physically present help to secure a place in which international fans can play with notions of local identity and culturalheritage. Or, as Yi-Fu Tuan argues, “When space feels thoroughly familiar to us, it has become place.” This case study seeks to interrogate the importance of place in the transcultural fan community of A Dog of Flanders. I analyse the touristic pilgrimage to Antwerp and the social/communal rituals associated with what John Urry calls the “mediatised gaze” as fans inhabit spaces typically reserved for city locals. This paper also considers the importance of place in the transcultural fan community of European children’s literature, discussing how glocalization allows texts to travel across international borders and encourage transcultural appropriation.

‘All Kinds of Everything’? Queer Visibility in Online and Offline Eurovision Fandom

The annual televisual spectacle, the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an international media event that is a nexus around which questions surrounding identity surface. This paper focuses specifically on the contest’s active promotion of queer visibility, that intersects through national stage performances and its international fan base. It untangles the relationship between the contest and its problematic construction as a ‘gay event’ and how fans are increasingly using social media platforms to legitimise their fan and queer identities. Mainstream social media platforms, such as Twitter are an important site where issues surrounding queer visibility may be expressed and constructed. These ESC fan practices are contextualised in relation to literature surrounding male same-sex hook-up apps which can inform our ideas surrounding queer code/space. It also suggests that fans self-regulate who or how they ‘come out’ as ESC fans which establishes an ESC closet because the ESC is prone to stigmatisation in some national contexts.