User:Alise boal/Fan activism

Article Draft

Article body

History

1. Add: emergence of new avenues for fan activism on recent media like TikTok and Twitter, affordances these platforms have that make activism accessible.

Copied from Fan Activism, original:

The rise of fan activism has been attributed to the emergence of new media, and is described as "not about the mix between political concerns and culture but rather action that looks like political activism but is used toward nonpolitical ends." Nevertheless, a 2012 quantitative study by Kahne, Feezell, and Lee suggests that there may be a statistically significant relationship between youths' participation in interest-driven activities online and their civic engagement later on in life." Most recently, there has been a connection made between the students of the MarchForOurLives movement and Dumbledore's Army from the Harry Potter series. (citations exist in original article)

Edited:

The rise of fan activism has been attributed to the emergence of new media, and is described as "not about the mix between political concerns and culture but rather action that looks like political activism but is used toward nonpolitical ends." Nevertheless, a 2012 quantitative study by Kahne, Feezell, and Lee suggests that there may be a statistically significant relationship between youths' participation in interest-driven activities online and their civic engagement later on in life." (citations exist in original article)

Fan Activist Groups

Copied from Fan Activism, original:

There are several fan activist groups that have created platforms to promote social change. The three that have attracted a significant amount of research include the Harry Potter Alliance, The Racebending Movement, and the Nerdfighters.

Edited:

Fans throughout years have mobilized to create platforms, groups, and movements to promote social change. Groups like Harry Potter Alliance, The Racebending Movement, and the Nerdfighters have historically attracted a significant amount of attention and research.

Fan Activist Groups/Events

1. Pre-existing paragraphs
2. K-pop Fans
   1. Viral mobilization against Donald Trump
   2. Black Lives Matter Activism
3. #FreeBritney Movement {INSERT CITATION}
4. One Directions Fans (considering removing this and free britney because there seems to be a wealth of info on K-pop activism, but unsure if only focusing on k-pop is too niche. Also the amount of information on k-pop will outweigh the existing paragraphs, so I might still add 3 & 4 to diversify.)

Korean pop music—or K-pop—fans, are known for mobilizing in political spaces. Originally finding community online due to their shared love of K-pop and the idols who create the music, they later “became celebrated online vigilantes.” K-pop fans are cited as participating in everything from human rights campaigns to education programs throughout the years, often in tribute or honor of the idols they love. In 2020, large subsets of the K-pop community began a movement to disrupt a rally being held by Donald Trump as part of his reelection campaign. The rally was held at Tulsa, Oklahoma’s BOK Center, with a 19,000-seat capacity. The Trump campaign reported receiving one million ticket requests for the event. Despite the capacity and requests, the Tulsa Fire Department reported that the fire marshal counted 6,200 scanned tickets of attendees.

Many believe this to be the work of the K-pop fans who began requesting tickets in large quantities following a tweet by the Trump campaign inviting supporters to register for free tickets. They did this knowing they would not attend and shared the instruction for others to do so on their social media platforms. The social media posts, especially on TikTok, garnered millions of views as the idea spread and the movement found "Alt" or "Elite" TikTok, "on the quiet side where people do pranks and a lot of activism." As social posts gained more views and more people created their own content, many young internet users outside these two subsets began to participate. Although K-pop and young social media users take credit themselves for the largely empty venue, and media attributed the event to these subsets, it is difficult to fully prove that they were responsible. The social posts made ahead of the rally to encourage reserving tickets "were strategically deleted to ensure the guerrilla nature of the campaign, and concerns about COVID-19 may have further reduced ticket holder desire to show up."

Also in 2020, K-pop fans became active in the Black Lives Matter movement, raising money and infiltrating hashtags originated by those opposing the movement. In a specific instance during the protests following George Floyd's murder, K-pop fans caused technical difficulties for the Dallas Police Department. The department sent a Tweet requesting people share videos of "illegal activity protests" through the iWatch Dallas app.