Research On Identity Construction Of Fans In Chinese Social Media

In modern society,we can make different choices in line with our own interests.Within this environment,new groups of fans have spontaneously emerged and developed from individuals into groups.Additionally,as an essential part of the Internet,social media,wherein people are enabled to form groups through virtual connection more easily,gains tremendous popularity.Interestingly,these fan groups appear quite similar to other sub-cultural groups,possessing unique identities and developing communication systems,values,and characteristics for their in-group.One of such fan groups is that of young American pop music fans in Chinese social media who capture the author's fascination.Different from the mainstream culture and other subcultures,the American pop music fan group is characterized by intercultural features derived from their identity construction.In China,the fan groups are always marginalized and rejected.Investigating the fans in social media from an intercultural identity perspective can further previous fan studies and integrate modern social media with the research of fan identity,enriching cultural diversity in society.Besides,this research can also properly help the public to better appreciate the groups and perceive their positive side.And the dissection of social media and fans can guide the fans to utilize social media and cultivate a taste more reasonably.This thesis employs qualitative methods,including semi-structured interview and participant observation,focusing on the case study of American pop music fans in a major Chinese social media server,Baidu Tieba and seeking to explore and describe the identity construction of this particular sub-cultural group by applying several intercultural identity perspectives(including Hecht's,Collier's and Tajfel's theories).After collecting the data,this thesis analyzes them to answer the research questions.The research findings indicate that social media plays a crucial role in the identity construction of American pop music fans in Chinese social media,introducing a new environment for them to communicate with each other and construct a new identity,facilitating the identity construction by its characteristics,functions and influence and enhancing the identity construction by an established virtual community and defects.Dynamically constructing an identity distinguished from the mainstream culture,the fans have formed a distinctive sub-cultural identity in social media,compared with their typical Chinese cultural identity.The fans' personal identity marks a breakthrough of Chinese traditions with enactment of multifaceted features whiletheir social identity embodies a sub-cultural distinction with an invisible membership and stability.