4TH APNG CAMP : On-line fan

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4TH APNG CAMP On-line fans community
A preliminary study on power and hierarchy in on-
line fans community Case study of Johnnys
fans in Taiwan
TAIWAN RACHEL HUICHIEH PANG GRADUATE STUDENT OF
NCCU, DEPT. OF JOURNALISM
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Why Talking About On-line Fans Community?

• Virtual Community V.S. Fan Community

• Similarity!!
• Similarities between virtual and fans community
• Chemical reactions while meeting!!
• CMC influences and transforms the meaning of fan
  community.

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Why Talking About Johnnys fans in Taiwan?

• Fashion of Ha-zi (Japanophile) has become a
  heat cultural issue in Taiwan
• Internet enhanced the imaginative relation
  between transnational idols and local fans

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Main question of the research

• What are the fans communitys interactions,
  on-line and off-line respectively?

• What is the hierarchical difference in fans
  community?

• What is the power relationship in fans community?

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Review on important concepts concerned

• Hierarchy in on-line fans community
• related to fans knowledge, class, how close they
  can get to the idol, and their leadership and
  administrative performances.(fan capital)
• the mode of promoting hierarchy and accumulating
  power is closely related to the members real
  life background (social/economical/cultural
  capital).
• Different hierarchy can have various power that
  can impose intentional influence on other
  hierarchies.

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Describing the target group 1

• CIA BBS, Group of Johnnys fans
• The community was built up on February 2000
• The number of registered members reached 286 on
  January 2003.
• Their activities can be divided into two main
  arenas on-line and off-line.

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Describing the target group 2

• CIA BBS, Group of Johnnys fans
• On-line, fans use the board to share information
  with others or talk about related issues.
• Off-line, fans get together to share information
  and develop friendship in the real world.
• Different mode of interaction may cause divisions
  inside the community.

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Interactions in fans community (1)On-line
activities
On-line activities Browsing articles Browsing articles
On-line activities Posting articles asking questions, supporting proposals/opinions providing information what one has learned, commentary, creation.

• The interactions on-line is closely related to
  the fans ability
• to control information. And the ability may be
  influenced by
• the capitals fans own in the real world.
• Members of fans community will also gather in
  small groups
• to create their own website or board to
  communicate in private.

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Interactions in fans community (2)Off-line
activities
Off-line activities Public gathering initiated by the manager of community opening to general members. Only talk about things related to idols or community.
Off-line activities Private gathering with fewer members, and more collective memories . Talk about many things, and even develop relationships similar to primary group .

• Private gathering shows that fans community will
  not only gather as specific hermeneutic
  community, but also form community with social
  characters.

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Hierarchical difference in fans community (1)
Standards for hierarchical division in fans
community
Amount quality of information Those who can provide more and higher quality information are more likely to win the support from other members, and also have greater influence on those who dont.
Personality (fans role on-line and personality off-line.) Is he/she being nice to other members in the community ? Is she/he judging information about the idol rationally
Identity if the fan has the authority of a board master regulated by the station? a member of the community (fan or non-fan)? joining any fraction ?
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Hierarchical difference in fans community (2)

• Conditions mentioned above
• Are standards fan members use to Judge others.
• Can be transformed into fans social capital.
• Can be used to obtain specific hierarchy in fans
  community.
• May influence the divisions in fans community.

But, because of the character of Internet, the
hierarchy possessed by members are in fact very
flexible, full of the possibility of variation.
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Hierarchical difference in fans community (3)
Hierarchical Division in J-Fans community
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Hierarchical difference in fans community (4)
Analysis of hierarchical division in J-fans
community

1. Fans hierarchy in fans community is related to
   his/her fan capitals and real life capitals.
2. Hierarchy in on-line fans community is quite
   fluid and full of possibilities of diversities
   and alternation.

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Power relations in fans community (1)
Demonstration of power relations in J-fans
community

• The power relation is mainly demonstrated
  through
• regulation of reward and punishment
• The governor of the community can reward or
  restrain members announcement through the
  function of BBS station.
• information control
• Since fans community is integrated on the
  basis of information, information becomes the
  component to produce power in the community. Fans
  may demonstrate personal power through spreading
  or monopolizing information.

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Power relations in fans community (2)
Influence of power relation to J-fans community
and members

• In fans community, the influence of power
  relation displays on
• fraction and conflict
• Chilling effect
• Turning activities underground, and finally
  change the meaning of the community.

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Conclusion
1.Fans community exchange information
on-line, develop relationship off-line.
2.Real life capital, fans capital and hierarchy
in fans community are inter-related. 3.
Contradictory relation between characters of CMC
and the hierarchy in fans community 4.The
power is demonstrated by regulation and
information control, which re-write the mode of
interaction of community
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1.Similarities between virtual/fan community
Virtual community --social aggregations -- with
public discussions --obtain certain interests
Fan community --significant audiences who highly
involve in the text -- concentrate of those who
highly involve in the same text

• Both of them are social groups that has shared
  consensus on identity, character, preferences or
  interests

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2. How CMC influences fan community

• Internet has changed the ways to communicate with
  other member.
• Internet has also established a different way to
  upgrade hierarchy and accumulate power .

• Both are related to fans real life background
  and CMCs characteristics.

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Fashion of Japanophile in Taiwan

• Trendy drama, Japanese idols and commodities has
  become a fashionable index for young people in
  Taiwan.
• The historical complex between Taiwan and Japan
  made the Fashion of Japanesephile a much more
  complicated cultural issue.
• A Phenomenon of Johnnys in Taiwan has formed
  through mass media and fans involvement.

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Internet as a mediation for fans
Distance The distance between locan fans and
transnational idols
No Information The lack of transnational idols
information
Are two main problems for transnational idols
and local fans
Internet

• enhanced the imaginative relation between idols
  and fans .
• enables information that originally be
  monopolized to flow around.

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Main question of the research Q1

• What are the fans communitys interactions,
  on-line and off-line respectively?
• How do members of fans community interact
  between each other, on-line and off-line?
• What do these interactions mean to them?

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Main question of the research Q2

• What is the hierarchical difference in fans
  community?
• Based on what standard do fans distinguish from
  one another?
• What are the hierarchies in fans community? What
  are their characters?
• How do different hierarchies in the community
  mean to fans?

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Main question of the research Q3

• What is the power relationship in fans
  community?
• How do power relationship between different
  hierarchies demonstrate?
• How does that influence fans to participate in
  the community? How about the community itself?

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Hierarchical difference in fans community (4-1)
Transformation of RL capitals, fan capitals and
hierarchy

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Hierarchical difference in fans community (4-2)
Internet, virtual community and fans hierarchy

1. The character of Internet force virtual community
   to adopt regulation and restraint, however, the
   punishment imposed by regulation not only help
   materialized the emergence of power, but also
   cause class division.
2. Internet also provide the possibility to evade
   and resist. Fans can form their own fractions, to
   re-divide or even challenge the hierarchical
   division in the community.

Although hierarchy does exist in the virtual
space,its content and meaning are full of
possibilities of diversities and alternation.
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Power relations in fans community (2-1)
Fraction and conflict in J-fans community
As fans realize the differences between their
viewpoints or values,they begin to split up and
form their own fractions. Some of them may even
challenge the original values or consensus of the
community as a whole. For example, one
interviewee mentioned that in the past the
articles on the board made you feel that those
who like Tokio care more about how you feel But
it changed later, some people just keep
proclaiming their own preference. (R01, female,
age 25)
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Power relations in fans community (2-2)
Chilling effect
As members aware of the existence of other
fractions, they may reduce or give up
participating in the community to avoid
argument. Like one interviewee pointed out,
that about the affair event I just made my
announcement in mild tone, but in fact I was very
angry inside Though there are only five persons
in Tokio, but they all have their own supporters
So when you are posting an article, you have to
be careful. I will keep my position neutral,
mentioning all five of them in my article, and
that will be better. But thats also the reason
why I rarely post articles. (R14, female, age 25)
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Power relations in fans community (2-3)
The meaning of on-line fans community has changed
As fans tend to keep silent and move activities
underground. They take the community solely as
origin of pure information, while leaving the
share of interest and feelings to private
activities.