Stanning Oppas, Noticed by Senpais
Stanning Oppas, Noticed by Senpais: Audience Reception Analysis of Filipino Fans in Animé and K-pop
ABSTRACT
Being a fan is a person’s sub-identity, if they are part of an audience influenced by media content and feeding on it. Under the assumption that these audiences are active choosers of what they consume in media, fans are free to subscribe to certain fandoms and participate in the corresponding communities to interact with. These communities eventually become a culture in itself, a subculture, for the individual fan.
K-pop and animé are both fandoms that are culturally “odorless”, as worded by Iwabuchi, and they are potential tools for soft power. However, the fans create a culture of their own that is exclusive for the fandom, but commonalities in these fan cultures are seen across fandoms.
This research looked into a plurality of Filipino fans that subscribe to both K-pop and animé, to see similarities between the fandoms as well as their fandom communities. The study is based around Uses and Gratifications Theory and Active Audience Theory. It has proved how the two kinds of subcultures are linked to each other, giving the fans an avenue to explore both kinds of communities without being entirely alienated.
Keywords: K-pop, Animé, Fandom, Fan Culture, Audience Analysis
Castañeda, T.C.R. (2017). Stanning Oppas, Noticed by Senpais: Audience Reception Analysis of Filipino Fans in Animé and K-pop, Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.