Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

What do fans care? The ambivalence towards celebrity involvement in social issues on Weibo

Yao, Li Bin LU (2018) MKVM13 20181
Media and Communication Studies
Abstract (Swedish)
The thesis sets out to explore how fans understand and respond to celebrity mobilization on social media. In March 2017, a famous Chinese singer Xue ZhiQian reposted a controversial weibo on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo. His involvement in news circulation and his mobilization on civilized behavior set off a huge wave on the Internet and highly triggered public concern about celebrity behavior.
To investigate fans’ understanding of online celebrity performance, thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Xue’s fans. Moreover, this research also sheds some light on fans’ participation in social issues with the influence of celebrity’s call. The main findings of the research center around the ambivalence of celebrity... (More)
The thesis sets out to explore how fans understand and respond to celebrity mobilization on social media. In March 2017, a famous Chinese singer Xue ZhiQian reposted a controversial weibo on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo. His involvement in news circulation and his mobilization on civilized behavior set off a huge wave on the Internet and highly triggered public concern about celebrity behavior.
To investigate fans’ understanding of online celebrity performance, thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Xue’s fans. Moreover, this research also sheds some light on fans’ participation in social issues with the influence of celebrity’s call. The main findings of the research center around the ambivalence of celebrity involvement: The imaginary intimacy and indistinguishable authenticity of celebrity performance, the dispersive attention and ambivalent attitude towards celebrity involvement and inactive respond to celebrity mobilization. Thereby this study unravels the online celebrity activism from the perspective of fans and probes how fans practice their understanding. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Yao, Li Bin LU
supervisor
organization
course
MKVM13 20181
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
social media, celebrity activism, fandom, parasocial relationship, participation
language
English
id
8944404
date added to LUP
2018-06-15 09:50:24
date last changed
2018-06-15 09:50:24
@misc{8944404,
  abstract     = {{The thesis sets out to explore how fans understand and respond to celebrity mobilization on social media. In March 2017, a famous Chinese singer Xue ZhiQian reposted a controversial weibo on Chinese social platform Sina Weibo. His involvement in news circulation and his mobilization on civilized behavior set off a huge wave on the Internet and highly triggered public concern about celebrity behavior.
To investigate fans’ understanding of online celebrity performance, thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with Xue’s fans. Moreover, this research also sheds some light on fans’ participation in social issues with the influence of celebrity’s call. The main findings of the research center around the ambivalence of celebrity involvement: The imaginary intimacy and indistinguishable authenticity of celebrity performance, the dispersive attention and ambivalent attitude towards celebrity involvement and inactive respond to celebrity mobilization. Thereby this study unravels the online celebrity activism from the perspective of fans and probes how fans practice their understanding.}},
  author       = {{Yao, Li Bin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{What do fans care? The ambivalence towards celebrity involvement in social issues on Weibo}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}