A Study Of The Phenomenon Of Factionalized Confrontation In Fandom In Social Networks

The division of the population brought about by the Internet has led to frequent "circled" interactions in online social networks.Fan groups gather in social networks on the basis of their interests and emotions,making full use of media resources to carry out activities on media platforms,expressing themselves and "self-presentation",and confrontation among fan groups based on differences in stance.Although the State Internet Information Office has launched a special campaign to "clean up the ’Fandom’ chaos",from the "227 incident" to the "Jay Chou fans vs.Cai Xukun fans",all kinds of fan conflicts are still prohibited and intensifying in the Internet space,seriously damaging the Internet space and disturbing the order of public opinion.This study uses social identity theory as its theoretical backing,participant observation,in-depth interviews,textual analysis and case study analysis to analyse the phenomenon of factional differentiation and confrontation within the fandom in contemporary social networks,using the fan groups of Song Yaxuan and Liu Yaowen,members of Teens in Times,as case studies.Starting from the current situation of faction differentiation within the fandom,the author found that the fan groups of the same idol are further divided into different factions based on their different emotional orientations,forming a three-legged external pattern of the Only fans,CP fans and group fans and an internal implied differential pattern of decreasing hierarchical power.At the same time,these factions have a two-by-two confrontation with each other,with frequent conflicts occurring.Among them,the confrontation between the Only fans and CP fans is the most intense and common,which has brought about bad social effects.The author then selected typical confrontations between CP fans and the Only fans,analysed their process and dissemination logic,and found that sudden confrontations within the fandom are usually triggered by individual events,guided by opinion leaders,showing the characteristics of cross-media platforms and connecting social hotspots,and eventually transforming into public events,triggering hot debates,occupying public opinion space and damaging the Internet environment.In order to explore the phenomenon of faction differentiation and confrontation within the fandom,the author focuses on the psychological characteristics of the group,puts the phenomenon under the perspective of group identity,further discovers the process of group identity construction in the process of fan faction differentiation and confrontation,and sorts out the logical relationship between the three,i.e.fan faction differentiation forms the initial group identity,based on group identity fans participate in confrontation,the identification process is re-enacted and the group identity is reinforced again.Finally,the author analyses the special relationship between group identity and confrontation based on individual cases,and suggests that confrontation within the fandom may also lead to the flow of group identity to the other group or to other fan groups.Moreover,even if fans have initial group identity,they may not engage in confrontation because they have insight into the logic of the functioning of the fandom,move away from it and become more involved in real life.