Demystifying the distortion of rice circle culture behind "pouring milk"
Recently, a video of "pouring milk" has attracted great attention: a group of grandpas and aunts kept unpacking and pouring white milk into the ditch. This is because in the talent show "Youth Have You 3", There is a voting session for contestants. Only by purchasing designated dairy products and opening the lid and scanning the code can you vote for your "idol".
So the fans bought milk in the whole carton for real money-they definitely can't finish drinking it, and can't resell it after opening the lid, so the scene in the video appeared.
Because of the milk pouring incident, "Youth Have You 3", which was about to be "formed into a group," was halted. Central-level media including Xinhua News Agency have voiced their voices and strongly condemned this wasteful behavior of abandoning the bottom line.
"The hot discussion caused by the milk pouring incident is not only due to the great waste and profanity of food, but also deeply reflects the power hidden behind the incident and the power between the capital, artists, and fans involved in the meal circle. Very unequal relationship." In an interview with the Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter, Chen Shi, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences and a doctoral student at the School of Humanities of Southwest Jiaotong University, said frankly, "Capital power has always been playing'hegemony'. The ideal relationship is to maintain a balance between the three, but the balance of the three is the result of'negotiation', a process that includes both'resistance' and'collection'."
Fan circle is not an "idealized" small circle
Has spread and grown into a social public issue
"Fanquan" is a circle of fans, imported from Japan and South Korea, after the baptism of localization, it has become a cultural phenomenon with local characteristics.
Today, the "savage growth" rice circle culture seems to have gone astray and has become synonymous with "irrationality."
In recent years, batch production of "idols" and the use of various links to make fans pay the bill has become a standard feature of entertainment talent shows.
For sponsors who have paid, they can not only win exposure on the show, but also increase sales through voting; for fans, they can see the "results" after they have paid out, and the number of votes for their idols has increased — -On the surface, this is a "multi-win" situation that seems to be satisfied by all parties.
However, under the constant renewal of the induction mechanism, the idols who originally used the contest of talents as the selection rules to make their debut are now reduced to a contest of "krypton gold" (referring to payment of fees) among fans.
"With the rise of domestic talent shows, many young fans have "funded" idol players who have not yet mastered their debut. They not only buy peripherals, support, and control reviews, but they also continue to do data and buy a large number of idol endorsement products. . The distortion of the draft chain has made more and more teenagers and their parents at a loss what to do. Some parents worry that the “pour milk” chasing stars is not only biased by the teenagers’ concept of consumption and money, but also misled their values and ethics. View. It's time to use a scalpel for this kind of bad behavior." Xinhua News Agency issued criticism on this.
A well-known dairy brand disclosed in its 2020 annual report that its product Zhenguo Lian achieved "contrarian growth" due to "Youth with You 2".
Regarding this year’s "Youth with You 3", there are media statistics. If you spend money through the channel, a boost value will cost about 3.5-5.4 yuan. Calculated by the third official ranking, the total boost value of the top nine players exceeds 56 million yuan.
In recent years, most of the sponsors of men's and women's team auditions have been dairy products, which has also given birth to chaos in the industry.
During this year's talent show, Miss Chen (pseudonym) spent RMB 4,000 on calling her idol, and her friend bought 4 cartons of milk.
"I don't like to drink milk, so I just spend the money. Now there are many apps that provide services specifically for the rice circle, and there are support clubs to organize, and our money is also paid on the app." According to understanding, Miss Chen mentioned "Fanquan App" provided more services in the early years: recording record sales, play volume, Weibo popularity, rankings of major rankings and other data.
"It used to be hot on Weibo, but it has been shut down long ago," Ms. Chen added.
In the end, the recording of "Youth with You 3" was terminated and the finals were cancelled, and the platform and sponsors also apologized for the milk pouring incident.
"The milk pouring incident has once again aroused strong public opinion on the internal entertainment selection mechanism and the rice circle ecology. The heated discussion was not only because of the great waste and profanity of food, but also deeply reflected the hidden behind the incident. The power between the capital, artists, and fans involved in the fan circle is extremely unequal." Chen Shi said, "The fan circle originally seemed to be a relatively'idealized' small circle to outsiders, but through repeated controversies Incidents have caused the ecological problems of the rice circle to go out of the circle again and again. It is no longer regarded as a partial problem of the circle, but spread and grow into a social public problem, which involves such as food waste, the lack of social responsibility of enterprises, Internet platforms, and young people. Issues such as group irrational star-chasing behavior and how media platforms correctly guide values are worthy of our attention."
In Chen Shi’s view, the distortion phenomenon of the current draft chain "First, brand owners, draft platform and other capital forces continue to use'persuasion' means to allow fans as a subordinate group to form a consensus-if you krypton gold, you can increase more. The exposure of idol seems to be the transfer of dominance by capital power to the fan group, but in fact it is the process of capital power hegemony construction. The result of fans'compromise' with capital is a result that includes both'resistance' and The process of'collection'."
Of course, the stars involved here are also regarded as "commodities."
"The current distortion phenomenon is also part of the fan culture. The fan culture contains conflicts of interests and values. It is a complex of contradictions. There is an unstable balance among multiple forces. However, the distortion phenomenon of the draft is capital. , Celebrities, and fans are extremely unbalanced, resulting in a change in the pattern of the rice circle." Chen Shi explained.
Capital power connects the relationship between celebrities and fans
The "data control" passed on to the Krypton Gold List
The earliest domestic fan culture was "Super Girl". The Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter discovered that with the diversification of the talent platform and the development of media technology, especially the intervention of capital power, the current distortion has appeared. development of.
A hairdressing brand previously endorsed by Deng Lun once publicly announced on its official Weibo that the event video could not be released as scheduled because fans did not complete the required tasks on time, and called on fans to purchase products to unlock the event. He also manually @邓伦.
Such an approach was a disguised threat from a certain angle. This Weibo aroused condemnation from netizens. Soon, the brand deleted this content.
Recently, due to the popularity of "Shanhe Ling", the two leading actors Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan received a two-person promotion of a certain brand of beverages before. The merchant adopted the two-person single link method at that time, and intended to guide the two fans to compare in order to achieve the purpose of promoting sales. .
But many fans also started to become rational.
"It's a shame to lose it, but it's too big to use up. The most annoying thing is that the endorsement of my idol is gone... I really don't want to sell it again in the future. I still want to buy albums and chase film and television dramas, Support them by watching the concert." Miss Wang (pseudonym) sighed. Three years ago, she bought three boxes of products for the new fragrance shower gel endorsed by idols. In addition to sending one box to my aunt , And the rest was finally used up recently.
"Capital power began to frequently participate in the construction of the relationship between celebrities and fan groups. Capital power seems to have directly abandoned the hegemony of celebrities, but in fact it has transferred the relationship between celebrities and fans to the'data control' of the Krypton Gold Ranking. Through subtle guidance, collection, and analysis of fan group data, and the number of votes and product bundles, it seems that the fan group idol’s "illusory decision-making power" has been given to the debut of the idol. Through material investment methods, the results of the data are counteracted to the celebrities, so that the celebrities and It is possible to build relationships between fans." Chen Shi said that data control not only weakens the willingness of fan groups and stars to resist, but also damages the autonomy of fan groups and makes them involuntarily participate in the rules set by capital. This kind of data Control methods are also becoming more and more intense in the media technology space.
The fan "participatory culture" proposed by Henry Jenkins, one of the world's most famous communication and media scholars, has always been regarded as an important research field.
Emphasizing the "concomitant nature" of the individual growth of traffic stars and fans, and constantly launching "cultivation of idols", the purpose is also to promote this "participatory culture", that is, focusing more on the collective active practice of the fan community.
"The exclusion and marginalization among fan groups is the clash of circles; the stronger the fan’s association with stars, the stronger the accumulation of capital. For example, the formation of'big fans' is the accumulation of participation, which gradually turns into Professional fans are given a strong voice and even profit." Chen Shi said, "For the idol’s debut, there are better screen opportunities. Fans have to perform digital labor in the digital space forever: Chaohua Check in, vote on numbers, and criticize and counter-criticisms; real money is also required to raise funds, buy milk tickets in the real world, prepare aid supplies, etc., fans have begun to be alienated, and all data and real money have become emphasizing stars and fans An important rule of'association'."
Take Xiao Zhan’s digital album "Light Spot" with sales of over 100 million yuan. The Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter found that the number one fan bought 114,000 copies, each costing 3 yuan, and the cumulative total is this one. The album cost 342,000 yuan.
"The'association' emphasized by capital is not a healthy participatory culture, but the capital-controlled rice circle is shifting from the physical to the virtual, from autocracy to hegemony." Chen Shi said with emotion.
How to build a healthy rice circle ecology?
Get rid of "flow first" and innovate the governance pattern of rice circle
In Chen Shi’s research work, the most extreme sample was during the “227 Incident” fieldwork, the fan circle went from “enclosure spontaneous” to “collective action”, and “really saw the fan circle’s group polarization and circle formation. Conflict, irrational activism and other more serious issues. This is an important case of teenagers’ daily participation in Internet practice and an important part of Internet social governance.” The 227 incident refers to the Xiao Zhan fan incident that has exploded on the Internet since February 2020 It was not until February 27 this year that Xiao Zhan issued a long article about the public opinion turmoil a year ago, and apologized to the public, saying that he “realized the mistake of his idol’s voicelessness” and believed that he “should take responsibility”.
"In the fan circle culture, more and more emphasis is placed on the contribution of fans to idols. In the era of fan self-independence, it is impossible for stars to manage their fans. Now, more fans are managing their idols." Ms. Li ( (Pseudonym) once worked for two popular traffic stars, she believes that idols have the responsibility to influence and guide fans.
"A celebrity's word, action, and vocalization at one time may affect fans. When faced with fans' irrational behavior, celebrities need to speak out, regardless of whether they are effective or not. This is the celebrity's social responsibility. In While celebrities have achieved personal success due to their influence, they should also try to improve their reasonable guidance for influence. But this is not just a problem of a star. Many idols and even idol-born programs emphasize that stars are created by fans. And management. It seems that idols only need to accept the arrangements of fans. They are the product of fans’ choices. They should live according to the instructions of fans, instead of their personal charm that attracts fans. They should influence fans. We are always emphasizing idols. Because fans have traffic, but ignore the responsibilities of idols."
It is impossible to conclude that the "rice circle culture" will definitely mislead young people's values, but the milk pouring incident does show that the rice circle ecology has had a very negative impact.
How to build a healthy rice circle ecology?
The healthy ecological pattern of the rice circle that Chen Shi hopes to see is that capital forces cannot get too involved in the relationship between the three.
"From the perspective of sociology, first of all, from the perspective of the individual, we should respect the interests of fans and give full play to the role of idols in guiding the development of the personality of young people. Second, from the perspective of the group, performing arts agencies and media platforms should take the initiative to assume social responsibilities. The draft rules govern excessive participation of capital forces, strictly control the “investment” link, pay attention to the talents and abilities of artists, pay attention to guiding and respecting the heterogeneity between fan groups and within fan groups in terms of values, and encourage fans to join in positive and beneficial Fan groups." In Chen Shi's view, it is necessary to respect the vibrant and infectious culture of "fan circle".
"Thirdly, from an organizational perspective, the current development of the fan circle is relatively mature. Fans who follow the fan circle are constantly restraining themselves under the rules of the fan circle culture. It is necessary to give full play to the propaganda of the various departments in the fan community that is beneficial to social progress. Functions and public welfare functions, to give play to the educational function of idols and fan circles to young people, to eliminate fan fundraising and other similar fan economic models, and to maximize their positive effects; fourthly, from a cultural perspective, fan circle culture, as a youth subculture, has Strong cultural creativity. In the Internet environment, because of its strong creativity, it also has a strong appeal and spreading power. Highly active celebrities should be encouraged to join the platform to participate in public welfare and a positive fan economy activity."
Nowadays, the entertainment market is under the control of "flow", and the distorted rice circle culture has seriously disrupted the healthy and orderly development of the entertainment industry.
Letting the rice circle return to purity is not just a problem of education for young people, but the institutions and business activities that contribute to the flames should be regulated in accordance with the law.
"The celebrity evaluation mechanism should be'reliable to the source.' It is strictly forbidden for minors to participate in the training activities of entertainers, restore the stars to ordinary artists, and break the'flow first'. Artists strive to improve their professional standards, pay attention to both integrity and ability, and corresponding fans Groups can be more rational and objective; secondly, to rectify the fan economy that exploits loopholes. Performing arts agencies and media platforms should bear corresponding social responsibilities, pay attention to the transmission of correct values, standardize the trainee training industry chain, and strictly control the use of material methods. In the investment process, social platforms should increase the censorship of marketing accounts, zombie accounts, and cyber navy." Chen Shi said.
The China Performance Industry Association recently issued an announcement that entertainers’ commercial fundraising from fans will be subject to industry self-discipline.
At the same time, Sina Weibo also issued a community announcement: Advocating sensible pursuit of stars, and prohibiting calling fans on Weibo for fundraising.
At the same time, major brokerage companies and over 200 fan clubs also responded to the call.
"Idol stars, as the symbolic center of the rice circle culture, should have the responsibility to guide fans to express rationally. I hope they can cooperate with performance agencies, media platforms and other institutions to guide fan groups to actively participate in public welfare undertakings, realize respect for culture, and innovate the governance structure of the rice circle." Chen Shi finally said.
Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News Correspondent Ren Hongwei