The Stigmatization of Fan Groups in China

DOI

10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_215How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Fan groups; Fan culture; Stigma; Media representation; Self-identity

Abstract

With the development of the Internet, the speed of information dissemination is constantly accelerating and the scope of dissemination is constantly expanding. Online media’s ability to spread information has already surpassed traditional media. Thanks to the popularization of social media and image dissemination, fan groups quickly generate influence on online platforms. The rapid growth of the fan groups has attracted the attention of the public and scholars, but is the representation of fan groups on social media objective and unbiased? This essay analyses the representation of fan groups on social media through Goffman’s theory of stigmatization and conducts a semi-structural questionnaire to uncover fans’ self-identity. It demonstrates that the fan groups generally experience discrimination, and the media’s selective reports exacerbate the situation, causing even hostility toward the fan groups. This can also be seen on online platforms like Weibo and Bilibili. According to group psychology, when massive stigma appeared on social media, the majority of the audiences would stand up for one side, unifying the public opinion which is generally hostile to the fan groups. Therefore, the cyberspace in China is replete with criticisms of fan groups and fan culture, and this would somehow lead to the isolation of fan groups. In some cases, particularly for female fans, they might feel it shameful to acknowledge this identity. However, the right to speech on social media should be everyone’s right, not a weapon directed against some disadvantaged groups like fan groups.

Copyright

© 2022 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lingzhang Xia
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/29
TI  - The Stigmatization of Fan Groups in China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 6th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1840
EP  - 1847
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_215
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-31-2_215
ID  - Xia2022
ER  -