This thesis examines the role of authorship and agency in the construction of identity within online K-pop standoms. The construction of identity is understood as a continuous discursive and communicative process, in line with historical research on discourse and identity. During the 21st century, Korean pop music has become a worldwide phenomenon, culminating in the band BTS becoming the first South Korean group to top the US Singles chart. The success of K-pop is often attributed to fan-driven, coordinated campaigns on social media platforms. In a world where the self is increasingly constructed through media, and around media objects, it is important to continuously attempt to gain a better understanding of the implications thereof. To capture the deeply mediatised nature of K-pop communities, this study frames their online communicative practices as authorship, to make visible the relationship between authorship and discourse in expressions of identity on social media. A critical discourse analysis is conducted using the discourse-historical approach, exploring the interactive and discursive strategies of so-called BTS stans on Twitter. The combination of authorship and discourse analysis was chosen to capture the initiation and recontextualisation of discourse in the process of communicating via Twitter. The analysis indicates that K-pop stans construct their collective identity through a combination of strategic deployment of discursive strategies and authorial utilising of platform affordances. The construction of collective identity is not one process, but multiple networked and interdependent processes, including but not limited to tweeting and retweeting. Stans of BTS were found to not only construct their individual and collective identities, but the identity of BTS as well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-447381 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Lindstam, Martin |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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