Some of this may seem a bit childish and/or obsessive, and you would be right.
Please consult kpop-vocabulary.
Group Dynamics
If you are a fan of group A, you may see other fans throwing hate towards fans of group B. You may agree or disagree.
If you are a fan of basketball team A, you may see other fans throwing hate towards fans of group B. you may agree or disagree.
If you are a citizen of country A, you may see other citizens saying negative things about citizens from country B. You may agree or disagree.
If you are a citizen of country A, you may see citizens from country B saying negative things about your country. You may agree or disagree.
If you are a fan of basketball team A, you may see fans of group B throwing hate towards other fans like you. You may agree or disagree.
If you are a fan of group A, you may see fans of group B throwing hate towards other fans like you. You may agree or disagree.
Expectations
When you watch a movie or TV show, do you have preconceived notions of it? Did a friend recommend it to you or did you skim some reviews? Afterwards, do you discuss it with the friend or watch a derivative video essay?
How do these actions influence your perception of the content?
There was a period of time where I would read all the Reddit comments reviewing an album or music video. I noticed that sometimes it’s positive, such as pointing out a detail I missed, but overwhelmingly I felt my mind being taken outside of my brain. Every time I listened to the bridge I would remember the one comment that said how empty and uninspired it is. There was also a period of time where I, myself, would write down a first-listen review of an album. This practice shoved my listening consciousness into a different, more critical and strict, state.
I am not Unique
I’m a person that had issues with X growing up, tend to like things that have Y, but also kind of indifferent to Z things. It turns out, there’s probably someone else in the world that has a very similar combination of experiences and preferences as me. This person may live directly across the globe or might be my neighbor.
This section is inspired by someone on Twitter that has almost the same set of biases as me. I’m pretty sure they don’t know I exist.
Misinformation
I consider myself as being part of the in-group with certain fandoms. This means I’ve seen a few stories develop at the nucleus, or at least a couple steps from. I have found it interesting seeing how a story differs from the origin site to a more general public audience like “hit tweets” and Reddit. Sometimes details are removed or misinterpreted, sometimes a certain comment strikes a nerve and its influence can be seen later on. Narratives from “journalistic” sources also evolve and greatly shape how a narrative is perceived.
Given the fact that Kpop activities mostly occur in the Korean language in South Korea and I am an English speaker in the USA, there is no doubt a language and culture barrier. One thing I love about Kpop culture is how many Ifans have a basic understanding of Korean, enough to use it in conversation with each other. But that is an aside, most people cannot read press releases, news reports, or legal documents. Hell, I would posit most people don’t fully understand the more complex documents in their native language (or would give the time to), including myself.
And thus is this framing of how I see information spread in Kpop communities:
- A complex primary source in Korean appears (news report, eyewitness account, press release)
- For all intents and purposes, this is a black box
- The primary source gets translated into English (by independent journalists (including large fanpages), “journalism” outlets like Koreaboo or Pannachoa)
- This is a distillation of the black box, say a piece of black paper
- People come to understand this translation through reading it directly, headlines, and word-of-mouth
- This is like trying to read a crumbled piece of paper
Especially how a language barrier affects reliable sources. E.g. pannachoa always engaging people with what I presume is a small subset of the population. Sometimes the first to press truly is the winner. Machine translation is also an issue. Cultural concepts not being universal, e.g. n-word in both fandom reactions and how many people come out of the woodwork.
How people quickly learn to generalize fandoms and South Korea as a country and culture.
How exhausting actually keeping up with a long term story is. E.g. Newjeans. How many details and nuance are lost in the simple projection of a good or bad, win or loss. How everyone seems to understand legal cases.
I’ve always really wondered what a rumor was. My thought process is if I don’t trust it or can verify it, why would I spread it to other people? Well it turns out most people don’t think like that.
How people perceive companies and company figures. E.g. Hybe (some BSH), SM & LSM, YG & YHS, JYPe & JYP. What constitutes good performance and quality by the company (video content, magazine promo, variety shows, festivals, release frequency). How rumors, of who works where and if teams get replaced/changed, start. How perception of who’s the creative mastermind behind art changes the perception: Teddy with YG and TBL, Idol lyric credits, MHJ w/ F(x) shinee and NewJeans.
Separating the art from the artist and scandals as a whole. Seungri, TOP, NewJeans, Kiof, Taeil, SKZ Woojin, Fifty Fifty. Also Loona. The interaction between emotional attachment and ease of simply not listening.
(G)i-dle Soojin and Everglow Yiren stories being summarized
- How to Tame a Fandom
- Fandoms are fickle beings, especially the obsessive kinds. Sometimes the best PR is no PR at all.
- Success and Failure
- You want the best in life, you want to succeed. You want your idol to live a good life, you want them to succeed.