A Study On Symbol Consumption And Identity Among Persona Fandom

In recent years,Internet catchphrases have evolved rapidly and been extensively applied in the context of social reality,which generated new phenomenon of fancy and fandom.With personalized interaction ritual and symbol consumption,fandom in the social media era have manifested implicating practice and identity that differ from whom in the traditional media era.The hype of persona along with persona fandom is such a specific case that carries the phenomenon.“Persona” is the abbreviation of “Character-setting” in Chinese,which means setting the appearance,temperament,appetite,and other natures of characters,and was originally a term in anime culture.As the penetration of youth subculture and the consistent impact of new media technology on people's expression,behaviors and relations,persona,as a kind of symbol,has experienced an evolvement from anime to reality,and has developed into a media spectacle represented by persona marketing and persona socials.The media spectacle of persona constituted the field of persona consumption and the cultural context of persona fandom.According to the symbol consumption theory of Jean Baudrillard,the consumption of persona can be interpreted into the consumption of things and that of signs.The former is about the concrete and visible appearance,and the later relates to the abstract symbol meanings,which created a group of persona fandom carrying out symbol-acting and significance production.In the unreal imaginary space built by roleplaying online social activity like “linguistic cosplay”,they act the personae they love and write their distinctive stories with deep emotion.In the process of the symbol consumption around persona,persona fandom developed their self-organization and distinction of identity.On the one hand,the ideal personae they're acting have led them to construct self-identity,which reflected the deconstruction of their egos and the anxiety of their identity.On the other hand,they accumulated their own cultural capital and created their exclusive language system during the participatory creation like parody,and formed collective memory and group identity through the replication of memes.Persona fandom represented the youth subculture written by the juveniles.The widespread use of the Internet and new media technology has changed the consumption logic of juveniles from “text” carrying the grand narrative to “persona” manifest as superficial simulacrum,which has brought youth subculture diversions in the Internet era.Firstly,as for the outlet of subculture,juveniles used to stick to their subcultural circles,but now they tend to jump out and utter their cries.Secondly,the style of subculture representing strong resistance has diverted to a mild one.In this context,the official media are attracting juveniles with personae,which is an exploration of raising social involvement.