4 TH APNG CAMP : On-line fan’s community

1. A preliminary study on power and hierarchy in on- line fan’s community : Case study of Johnny’s fans in Taiwan 4TH APNG CAMP : On-line fan’s community TAIWAN RACHEL HUICHIEH PANG GRADUATE STUDENT OF NCCU, DEPT. OF JOURNALISM

2. Virtual Community V.S. Fan Community Why Talking About On-line Fan’s Community? • Similarity!! • Similarities between virtual and fan’s community • Chemical reactions while meeting!! • CMC influences and transforms the meaning of fan community.

3. Fashion of ‘Ha-zi’ (Japanophile) has become a heat cultural issue in Taiwan Internet enhanced the imaginative relation between transnational idols and local fans Why Talking About Johnny’s fans in Taiwan?

4. Main question of the research • What are the fan’s community’s interactions, on-line and off-line respectively? • What is the hierarchical difference in fan’s community? • What is the power relationship in fan’s community?

5. Hierarchy in on-line fan’s community related to fan’s 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 member’s real life background (social/economical/cultural capital). Different hierarchy can have various ‘power’ that can impose intentional influence on other hierarchies. Review on important concepts concerned:

6. CIA BBS, Group of Johnny’s 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. Describing the target group 1

7. CIA BBS, Group of Johnny’s 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. Describing the target group 2

8. Interactions in fan’s community (1):On-line activities • The interactions on-line is closely related to the fan’s ability • to control information. And the ability may be influenced by • the capitals fans own in the real world. • Members of fan’s community will also gather in small groups • to create their own website or board to communicate in private.

9. Interactions in fan’s community (2):Off-line activities • Private gathering shows that fan’s community will not only gather as specific hermeneutic community, but also form community with social characters.”

10. Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (1): Standards for hierarchical division in fan’s community

11. Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (2): • Conditions mentioned above : • Are standards fan members use to Judge others. • Can be transformed into fan’s social capital. • Can be used to obtain specific hierarchy in fan’s community. • May influence the divisions in fan’s community. But, because of the character of Internet, the hierarchy possessed by members are in fact very flexible, full of the possibility of variation.

12. Central participant: with high-level fan’s symbolic capital General participant Central participant General participant: with mid-level fan’s symbolic capital Marginal participant: with low-level fan’s symbolic capital Marginal participant Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (3): Hierarchical Division in J-Fan’s community

13. Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (4): Analysis of hierarchical division in J-fan’s community • Fan’s hierarchy in fan’s community is related to his/her fan capitals and real life capitals. • Hierarchy in on-line fan’s community is quite fluid and full of possibilities of diversities and alternation.

14. Power relations in fan’s community (1): Demonstration of power relations in J-fan’s community • The power relation is mainly demonstrated through: • regulation of reward and punishment : • The governor of the community can reward or restrain member’s announcement through the function of BBS station. • information control • Since fan’s 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.

15. Power relations in fan’s community (2): Influence of power relation to J-fan’s community and members • In fan’s community, the influence of power relation displays on : • fraction and conflict • Chilling effect • Turning activities underground, and finally change the meaning of the community.

16. Conclusion 1.Fan’s community exchange information on-line, develop relationship off-line. 2.Real life capital, fan’s capital and hierarchy in fan’s community are inter-related. 3. Contradictory relation between characters of CMC and the hierarchy in fan’s community 4.The power is demonstrated by regulation and information control, which re-write the mode of interaction of community

17. Both of them are social groups that has shared consensus on ‘identity, character, preferences or interests’ 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

18. Both are related to fan’s real life background and CMC’s characteristics. 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 .

19. 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 Johnny’s in Taiwan’ has formed through mass media and fan’s involvement. Fashion of Japanophile in Taiwan

20. Internet as a mediation for fans • Distance • The distance between locan fans and transnational idols • No Information • The lack of transnational idol’s 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.

21. Main question of the research Q1 • What are the fan’s community’s interactions, on-line and off-line respectively? • How do members of fan’s community interact between each other, on-line and off-line? • What do these interactions mean to them?

22. Main question of the research Q2 • What is the hierarchical difference in fan’s community? • Based on what standard do fans distinguish from one another? • What are the hierarchies in fan’s community? What are their characters? • How do different hierarchies in the community mean to fans?

23. Main question of the research Q3 • What is the power relationship in fan’s community? • How do power relationship between different hierarchies demonstrate? • How does that influence fans to participate in the community? How about the community itself?

24. Social capital Fan social capital xxxxxx General participant Central participant Transformation Fan’s symbolic capital Economical capital Fan cultural capital Marginal participant Cultural capital Fan Capital Hierarchy in fan’s community Real life Capital Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (4-1): Transformation of RL capitals, fan capitals and hierarchy

25. Hierarchical difference in fan’s community (4-2): Internet, virtual community and fan’s hierarchy • 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. • 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.

26. Power relations in fan’s community (2-1): Fraction and conflict in J-fan’s 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)

27. Power relations in fan’s 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 that’s also the reason why I rarely post articles.’ (R14, female, age 25)

28. Power relations in fan’s community (2-3): The meaning of on-line fan’s 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.