Research On Affective Labor Of Idol Fan Community In Social Media Era

In the era of social media,the distance between idols and fans is no longer far away.Fans can directly talk to idols through various online platforms,and they can also find like-minded people and form interesting fan communities.With the development of the entertainment industry,"cultivation" is gradually accepted by fans as a new idol-making model.Fans are both consumers and producers.The daily activities of the fan community include not only sharing and exchanging information,but also working together.Based on the affective labor theory of Hart and Negri,this thesis takes the idol fan community as the main research object,and adopts the methods of online ethnography and in-depth interviews to analyze the affective labor motivation,labor characteristics and influence of the idol fan community.First of all,in the introduction part,this thesis distinguishes the concepts of emotional labor and affective labor,and sorts out the research progress of emotional labor and affective labor.Secondly,on the premise of defining the affective labor studied in this thesis,the motivation of affective labor is analyzed,and the process of the condensation of fans' personal affection in the fan community and the formation of the affective community is explained.Thirdly,it discusses the characteristics of labor and the influence of labor in fan community.Finally,it focuses on the alienation of labor,expounds the alienation of affective labor in fan community and the resistance of fans.The study found that the affective labor of idol fan community is a productive activity driven by affection,and its affection includes both the attachment to the idol and the sense of belonging to the community.On the surface,affective labor is initiated by fans and relies on fan community norms and supervision to control the labor process,but in reality it also implies the control of the entertainment industry,that is,creating labor consensus through empowerment and adopting gamification strategies to increase labor enthusiasm.Finally,they occupy the labor products of the fan community for free,causing affective labor to face the risk of alienation.However,the subjectivity of fans has not been completely eliminated.Fans have their own affections,consciously perform affective labor,and gain positive affections such as satisfaction and achievement.Although most of the time,they obey the rules set by capital,but they will also fight for their rights and interests,and even use affective labor as a way of self-improvement,and there is the possibility of labor liberation.