Fandom Stereotypes

According to the 47th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China released by China Internet Network Information Center in February 2021,the number of Internet users in China has reached 989 million by December 2020,and the percentage of Internet users using mobile phones has reached 99.7%.With the development of mobile Internet,the transmission rate of information is accelerating and the content of transmission is becoming complex.With the accelerated speed of information acquisition,the media attach more importance to the timeliness of information release in order to meet people’s demand.The result is that an increase in "labeled","symbolized","simplified" and"homogenized" information,which to some extent plays a strengthening role in the stereotype.Fandom culture research always belongs to a category of the study of the subculture,Fandom belongs to the development of fan culture to a certain stage,than in the past more scale,cohesion,has become an important link in the entertainment industry,involving fans economy,consumer psychology,group psychology,social culture,and many other fields,related issues and reports about fandom more and more,the medium for the representation of groups,also affects the public impression for this group,However,the group impression presented by the media does not always truly reflect the original appearance of the group.The current fandom scale is not a small number,the age span is also relatively wide.How to treat this group objectively,reduce group prejudice and negative social influence,which for the group themselves,the development of network culture and the public,has a certain practical significance.This research mainly uses text analysis,questionnaire investigation,free association method,is divided into two to study based on stereotypes content model of fandom group,one is mainly study the media image of the group,through text analysis,capturing Weibo,WeChat the related media reports,based on the length,report issues,attitude tendency,using the tools such as word frequency statistics,word cloud,to construct the image in the media perspective.The second study is mainly based on the stereotype content model,through questionnaire survey and free association,to comprehend the public’s stereotype of the fandom group,and through data analysis,to explore the impact of contact experience(real contact and media contact)on the fandom group stereotype.Combined with these influencing factors,this paper explores the ways to improve the fandom group image from four dimensions:the perspective of communicators,the public level,the group level,and the network platform.From the research results,the image of fandom in media reports is relatively negative.According to the questionnaire based on the stereotype content model,the public’s overall impression evaluation of fandom is at a medium level.However,from the statistical results of free association word frequency,the adjectives used are still mostly negative,which is consistent with the images presented in the media to a certain extent and relatively more positive than the image presented in the media.In terms of contact experience,both real contact and media contact have an impact on different dimensions of stereotype content model.The frequency of media contact has a significant positive influence on the four dimensions of stereotype content,and the experience of contact has a significant positive influence on the stereotype content model.