Figure 2 Sasaeng fan attributes from social media sources.
Related Figures (1)
Figure 1. Sasaeng fan attributes from mass-media sources. Some of these terms suggest psychological problems (crazed, abnormal); some suggest dangerous, even criminal elements (aggressive, brutal, criminal, dangerous); while others provide vaguer, yet extreme, formulations (excessive, extreme, overboard). Together, they suggest that mass media have diffused an overwhelmingly negative portrayal of the sasaeng fan identity, creating boundaries that distinguish certain K-pop fans from “normal” society. These findings fit with other studies on the mediated construction of “deviant” cultural identities and show that similar processes persist in Asia as well as North America (e.g., Coyle 2010; Eyres and Altheide 1999) Extreme farmulatinne of cacgeno fan identity were nat anly cammunicated in jinqurnalictic accainte
