How fans of K-pop music negotiate their personal identities with media representations

What is it about?

This study looks at a sample of young Singapore fans of K-pop music. It shows how an extreme fan identity ("sasaeng") has been created and circulated by mass media and social media. It then looks at how fans themselves deal with the deviant labels and how they try to salvage a positive identity from their fandom.

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Why is it important?

This is perhaps the first study of how K-pop fans deal with the negative labels about them that circulate in the mass media and online. Using a variety of data sources, including interviews, participant observation, and analysis of news and social media texts, the findings show there are many negative portrayals of K-pop fans, and how fans themselves deal with that. The study highlights that fans don't want to be seen as extreme or deviant, but they don't want to be seen as passive or typical, either.

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