A Study Of The Factors Influencing Virtual Idol Videos On Audience’s Flow Experience

With the rise of two-dimensional space culture and the rapid development of virtual reality technology,virtual idols have gradually moved from the sub-cultural circle into the public eye and become an effective lever for transforming and exploring communication innovation.By finely shaping appearance,personality and emotion with the help of modern science and technology,virtual idols can provide audiences with powerful sensory perception and emotional experience,and audiences’ comprehensive sensory experience in visual,auditory and emotional senses is extended,thus strengthening the inner sense of immersion and engagement,better satisfying audiences’ emotional needs and establishing an imaginary intimate relationship with virtual idols.Virtual idol videos are the most direct and extensive media channel for audiences to directly contact virtual idols,and flow experience is a positive emotional experience that helps strengthen fan stickiness and increase fan loyalty.Based on this,exploring the mechanism of the impact of virtual idol videos on audience flow experience has certain guiding significance for the virtual idol industry.This study focuses on virtual idol videos and explores the factors and mechanisms that influence the audience’s flow experience through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research.Firstly,we obtained the original data through in-depth interviews with virtual idol fans,and summarized the four main categories of virtual idol characteristics,video content characteristics,platform environment characteristics,psychological factors and one core category of flow experience through root analysis,which summarized the "story line" of this study.Secondly,based on the results summarized from the interviews,eight secondary categories,personal charm,expertise,similarity,video content quality,video audio-visual effect,platform interactive atmosphere,platform technical environment,and psychological needs satisfaction,were taken as independent variables and flow experience was taken as dependent variable,forming the theoretical framework and research hypothesis of this study.Subsequently,the sample data were collected in the form of questionnaires and the valid questionnaires were empirically analyzed using statistical analysis tools to verify the constructed theoretical model and research hypotheses.The empirical results of this study show that in virtual idol videos,virtual idol characteristics such as personal charisma,professionalism,and similarity,video content factors such as video content quality,video audiovisual effects,platform interactive atmosphere and personal psychological needs satisfaction positively influence audience’s flow experience,however,the platform technical environment has no significant effect on audience’s flow experience.The core contribution of this study is to establish a multi-dimensional model of the influencing factors of virtual idol videos on virtual idol characteristics,video content characteristics,platform environment factors and psychological factors,and to analyze in a more intuitive and detailed way how virtual idol videos affect the audience’s flow experience.Finally,based on the findings of the empirical analysis,the author proposes recommendations for the creation and operation of virtual idols,suggesting that virtual idol operators should pay attention to technical mimicry in video production,use personality empowerment in character building to promote symbiosis,and pay attention to platform feedbacks in the platform environment to achieve value co-creation,so as to enrich the audience’s flow experience when watching virtual idol videos and improve fan stickiness,in order to achieve the long-term stable development of virtual idol industry.