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Full-Text Articles in Interpersonal and Small Group Communication

Exploring Identities In Online Music Fandoms: How Identities Formed In Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities, Aimee Ratka Jul 2018

Exploring Identities In Online Music Fandoms: How Identities Formed In Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities, Aimee Ratka

Honors College Theses

This thesis set out to explore the identities formed by members of online fandom communities, and to determine the ways in which those identities affect their real life, offline identities. This qualitative study encountered elements related to stereo types of young women who are fans of mainstream pop music, and provided insight on their experiences through interviews with five long time boy band online fandom members. This study asked if fans prefer to keep their fandom identities internal or let them reflect outward, how one's online identity affects or translates to their real life identity, and what experiences in the …


“At War For Oppa And Identity”: Competitive Performativity Among Korean-Pop Fandoms, Brittany Tinaliga May 2018

“At War For Oppa And Identity”: Competitive Performativity Among Korean-Pop Fandoms, Brittany Tinaliga

Master's Projects and Capstones

Literature surrounding K-Pop is mostly focused on the reactionary, participatory, promotional, consumer and identity-forming roles of the Korean-Pop fandom. However, this research sheds a light on the dark side of the K-Pop fandom and the structures that sustain it: namely toxic practices and values. The study determines what practices and beliefs are at the core of competitive performativity and subsequently toxic fan conduct among international Korean-Pop fans and whether fans engage in reflexivity regarding these practices. To address this gap, this study incorporates a multi-methods approach, including CDA analysis, online corpus analysis, qualitative and quantitative data. The results reveal that …