The rice circle, a cultural and entertainment community originally composed of fans who follow the stars, has gradually developed into an organized and professional interest circle. From young schoolchildren to young and white-collar workers and freelancers, the group is becoming more and more popular. More entertainment companies and professional fans control it. The older "fan head" organizes and commands, and the younger "student fan" charges. They are willing to work as free labor in competitions such as "listing", scolding, and reporting.
Recently, Banyuedan Magazine carried out a "Youth Star-Chasing Survey" on more than 20,000 middle-aged students aged 12 to 18 across the country. Combined with this survey, the reporter of Half Moon Talk interviewed many fans, industry insiders, experts and scholars, and found that the youth fan group is easy to be manipulated and used. To have a negative impact.
1
Portrait of the Star-Chase Group: Younger, Professional
Yuan Yuan, 19, went to Korea to study at university a year ago, but her original intention of learning Korean was because of star chasing: "I started to like a Korean star three years ago. In order to get more information about idols, I learned Korean by myself."
For Xiaoxin, who is currently studying in high school, apart from high-intensity study, the "mixed rice circle" is her way to ease the pressure of learning: "Stars don't need to be perfect, as long as they have a shiny point that can attract me. Look at his Program, I am very relaxed and happy."
"Brother worked very hard, and insisted on performing perfectly on the stage even when he was sick. He always inspired me." Senior Shu student Xiao Shu said that although it was difficult to see his idol in person, many friends got their struggle from the idol. Motivation.
The number of similar "student fans" is huge, and the characteristics of the younger age of the rice circle in recent years have become increasingly obvious. According to the questionnaire, 42.2% of middle school students have started to pursue stars since elementary school, and 52% of them have been chasing stars for more than 3 years.
Subject to their own financial resources and academic pressure, the support of student fans for idols is mostly at the level of "solidarity" (public expressions of support, no or little money). Most of these student fans are at the bottom of the rice circle, and the real influential and appealing forces are the backbone of the resource station and the senior members of the support club. Most of them are adults.
Many senior fans of the rice circle introduced that in the past, people's impression of the rice circle was a self-entertained collective organization formed by fans. Today, many star support clubs are moving towards organized and professional company operations. There are different factions within the rice circle, and the fans will be divided into three, six, nine, etc. due to resources such as economic strength, voice, influence and other resources.
For some professional fans, chasing stars is a job. Lin Xiaoxiao, the 27-year-old webmaster of idol resource station, has tens of thousands of followers on social media. One of her daily tasks is to follow the idol schedule and shoot his daily photos and videos.
"These photos are posted on the account of the resource station and are very concerned by fans. If the number of fans reaches a certain scale, I can still receive advertisements. I can also make idol PB (photobook photo books) to sell to fans to make money." Lin Xiaoxiao said.
2
Word manipulation "student fan",
Hit the list and shape the idol "Golden Body"
The advent of the era of big data has given stars enough quantifiable indicators. "Play list" is a popular way to support idols: in order to prove the popularity of a star, fans will launch a star ranking platform on Weibo, WeChat public account, etc., to vote for the stars they support and even extreme votes. To improve your ranking of supporting stars.
The questionnaire survey shows that more than 60% of middle school students will choose to support and "support the list" in the comment area to vote for their idols.
"Manpower must have 20 Weibo numbers", "MV hits the singles loop for 3 hours", "on the hot comment, quickly come to praise"... These instructions that at first glance make people confused are fans "play the list "Daily. A half-moon-talking reporter read through Weibo, a traffic star data group, and found that there are 14 investment tasks including voting, signing in, and searching every day. Fans “punched” in the comments.
"Big fan" releases tasks and "student fan" performs tasks, which is the basic operation routine. "'Big Fan' is like a'missionary' among fans. Many times it is up to them to explain what an idol has and why it's worth being loved. Most young fans are affected by their limited abilities due to their limited ability. Support their views and obey their instructions." Ye Shu, an employee of the entertainment industry, said.
"Your brother deserves better" "Be sure to keep your brother's ranking and keep up the back" "Move your fingers, do you have the heart to laugh at him?" ... For "big fans", such mobilization strategies are commonplace .
Yu Yin, a veteran fan who participated in a number of Mainland star back-up clubs, told Banyue Tan reporters that the "big fan" routine can be summed up as a "talking" mobilization plus lottery, as well as a commitment to give priority to activities. "'Student fan' is basically a tool person in the support club, and'big fan' refers to where to play. They are easy to be emotional, and they are in a period of self-movement. With the big atmosphere, they will unconsciously fall into the suit. "
The emotional mobilization of the "big fan" and the entrapment of the community have made many student fans crazy to "list". "Actually completing these tasks is boring and a waste of time." University student Liu Mengmeng said, "But some big fans will say that you don't do anything, but you don't really like him. Seeing other fans fight like this, you have your own I was a little ashamed at the time, and slowly I started to participate in some data-making activities."
3
MLM brainwashing,
Be alert to rice circle thinking eroding mainstream values
With the development of media technology, various hits and tricks have become commonplace, and the relationship between fans has become stronger. The behavior of fans' "holding groups" to create influence for idols is no longer limited to the leaderboards of the entertainment industry, and has begun to spread to social and political issues, in order to shape the idol's public image of not only "high popularity" but also "positive energy".
Zhou Kui, Associate Professor of the Department of Journalism and Communication, Communication University of China, said that domestic entertainment circles have high demands on the ethics of artists. In the face of public events, artists need to accumulate positive capital through vocalization. This is an implicit "communication capital." It can enable them to form a better public image and resist future image crisis.
Behind the reposting, whether there is blind follow or rational judgment is still controversial. Zhou Kui believes that the fan community is not stereotyped as "brainless". On the contrary, they are highly sensitive and cautious in social and political events, and will repeatedly confirm the truth of the matter and speculate on mainstream values. But if the star's point of view is misguided, it will indeed have a certain impact on young people.
For young people, they are younger and have weaker discriminating ability, and their ideas are easily covered by the single narrow tool value of the rice circle. In the questionnaire survey, only 39.8% of the judgment options of "no idol in front of the country" considered "no problem". In another point of view statistics on "Chinese rice circle girls should be aided by Korean soldiers", those who think "understandable" account for 61.9%, close to 2/3.
In the many fan battles, reports, mutual tears, human flesh, cyber violence and other behaviors have appeared frequently, and young fans are always at the forefront. These incidents seem to be just internal disputes within the rice circle, not related to the overall situation. In fact, every battle carried out by the rice circle against young people is destroying the achievements of ideological and political education and eroding mainstream values. The more efficient and reproducible its operating model is, The more dangerous it is.
The industry believes that the reason why some events in the rice circle can form a public opinion hot event in a short time, its high organization and mobilization ability is worthy of vigilance. In order to achieve their goals, some Internet criminals hired by capital are wearing more than a dozen "ID" vests, and they do not hesitate to step on the bottom line of social culture and law. Under the hypnosis of MLM-style speech, teenagers in the rice circle have become a weapon for the entertainment industry capital behind the stars to scramble for attention resources, and their thinking, actions, and values have been deeply affected.
"We need to be alert to the behavioral logic of creating conflicts and party divergences in the process of fan star chasing, which will harm young fans whose values have not been fully established, and avoid them from becoming a hidden danger to social unrest. This is also the key to avoiding the stigma of fan star chasing. "Ye Shu said.
Star chasing at airports caused flight delays, buying idol endorsement products through online loans, reporting journalists who "harmed" their idols in the report, rewarding students with "less assignments"... Such incidents have occurred frequently in recent years, indicating that the culture of the rice circle Bad factors are frequently "out of the circle", which has caused some damage to social order, and some actions have even caused personal injuries.
4
Fan community expansion, spawning more cyber violence
In recent years, the gathering place of the rice circle is no longer limited to Weibo, and the "Eight Groups" and "Rabbit Zone" have gradually become new important positions.
It is understood that the "eight groups" is the nickname of the Douban group named "Douban Goose Group". As the most active group of Douban, various "breaking news" and "eating melons" about the entertainment circle are filled with "eight groups" pages. When the topic about an artist is released, picking and correcting errors is a must. "I'm really embarrassed by watching XX acting." "XX is really spitting". These deliberate taunts will inevitably lead to fierce rebuttal by the artist's fans, and then lead the star gossip to a curse.
The "Rabbit Zone" is a netizen exchange area under the Jinjiang Literature City. It used to be an online novel discussion area, and has since become a gathering place for fan communities. All users on this platform are anonymous.
"The most common thing here is verbal abuse." Xiao Wan, who was in contact with the "rabbit area" two years ago, is a quiet girl in real life, but she admits that the anonymous "mask" can amplify everyone's anger. "In the face of those defamation of my idol, I will fight back with the same words. I didn't think these words were dirty at the time, because the people in the forum were in this state, but afterwards, I felt that my mind was hot at the time." Xiao Wan said.
Accompanied by online scolding, "human flesh search" has become a popular tool for fans.
Interviewee Qing Qing said that in the "fight" with another rice circle, his photos were exposed on the Internet, accompanied by insults such as "ugly" and "pig". Soon after, family, education, work and other information were gradually exposed, which seriously affected the lives of themselves and their families.
Can this kind of cyber violence wake up fans? The answer is not necessarily. A survey of more than 20,000 middle school students between the ages of 12 and 18 across the country by Half Moon Talk Magazine revealed that 18.9% of the fan group claimed that they had experienced cyber violence, but at the same time, 48.7% of them agreed "Yes" It’s necessary to teach them the fans who aren’t doing anything.”
"Some students have brought the logic of the party's divergence from the Internet to the Internet. They treat people and things in their daily lives with enemies. In the long run, they will refuse complex thinking, and it is difficult to maintain critical thinking and learn the ability to accept new things." Wu Changchang, associate professor at the School of Communication, East China Normal University, said.
5
Star chase frequently "out of the circle", infringing on public space
In recent years, fans chasing stars at the airport have caused passengers to check-in blocked and flight delays have been common occurrences. The search found that in Terminal 3 of Capital International Airport alone, there were 20 recorded fan alarms in 2017; from January to July 2018, 7 fan alarms occurred. In December 2018, four fans boarded a flight to South Korea in Hong Kong. After successfully taking photos of the idol, they requested to get off the plane and give a full refund, which eventually forced all passengers on board to be re-checked. The flight was delayed.
According to the fan's self-report, airlines have management loopholes that can be exploited, that is, "buy full-price tickets before refunding" and other means to enter the airport quarantine area or even board the flight, and reach the "mission" to refund the ticket. In addition, the identity information of the artist can be stolen, thereby cancelling, rescheduling the artist's ticket, or "value" the artist's seat with himself. "Sometimes the brokerage company takes the initiative to do this. For example, to increase the popularity of artists, we arrange the airport transfer in advance; sometimes it is to disclose the ticket information of the artists and let us block the airport." Xiao Ai, the interviewee, said.
In addition to the airport, the public order of hotels and restaurants is often affected by fans' crazy pursuit of stars. In places that are not easy to see, some teenagers buy idol endorsement products, steal their parents’ hard-earned money, or take the road of online loans; some young fans respond to the "fandom" call and pay for their idols at their own expense. Economic difficulties...
Some fan economic researchers have pointed out that in recent years, fan movies have increased. The target audience of this kind of movie is the fan group participating in the star. During the promotion and release of the movie, the fans will quickly form a "combat" team to participate in the charter. Activities such as watching movies and creating momentum for idols.
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In the era of mobile Internet,
Fan culture challenges governance
"If you support a celebrity who did something wrong, what would you think?" According to the aforementioned questionnaire, 48.2% of the fan group chose "forgive minor mistakes, and not forgive major mistakes"; choose "whoever can do nothing" , Big mistakes will be forgiven" accounted for 36.5%. In addition, 13.1% of fans firmly believe that their idols will not make mistakes, and only 2% choose to "unforgive".
"Some teachers found that some long-time star-study students will justify all the unreasonable words and deeds of idols, and these students also show the characteristics of poor rule awareness and higher acceptance of bad habits in their daily study and life." Nanyang, Shanghai Chen Honghong, secretary of the Party Committee of Model Middle School, said that if the cultural dross is allowed to spread, it will have a negative impact on more young people who are shaping the world outlook, outlook on life and values.
Chen Honghong believes that "chasing the stars" is a cultural and entertainment demand that young people can hardly give up. In the era of the mobile Internet, the form of "chasing the stars" will inevitably continue to innovate. Blocking is worse than sparseness. What the school has to do is to give students the correct values based on the veto of taking the lead in chasing the stars and helping students understand the spiritual needs. They must learn to distinguish between idols' words and deeds.
The popularity of the fan economy is also due to the boost of individualism and consumerism. Wu Changchang suggested that whether it is for college students or elementary and middle school students, education urgently needs to convey the concept that justice is greater than self-interest and win-win is greater than competition, in order to help them establish a sense of responsibility, home country mind, and prevent the dualistic thinking in the culture of the rice circle. Adverse effects such as individualism.
Legal regulation is equally important and urgent. The reporter from Half Moon Talks learned that there are basically “assistance departments”, “anti-triad departments” and “propaganda departments” within the rice circle. Young people who do not have strong independent thinking skills are very vulnerable to the words and attitudes of the “responsible persons” of various departments. influences. Zhang Youde, a professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said that the rules of online information dissemination and interaction must be constantly improved. The relevant departments should focus on star brokerage companies, and violate the law and the public safety of brokerage companies and fan groups, and violate the mainstream values. Dispose.
Yang Xiong, director of the Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said that from a social psychological perspective, the fan culture in the mobile Internet era is associated with the psychological needs of the traditional family structure disintegration, alienation of interpersonal relationships, and the desire for companionship in the network "group loneliness." It is a common challenge to the current Internet governance, cultural governance and even social governance. It is necessary to continuously study new problems and new trends, and study contemporary youth in order to find the best answer.
Source: "Half-moon Talk" No. 12 in 2020 Original title: "A Survey of 20,000 Middle School Students Chasing Stars"