Online community development through social interaction — K-Pop stan twitter as a community of practice

ABSTRACT

Fandom practices are often considered meaningless and unnecessary. However, the use of social media carries the potential for positive as well as negative impact on the users. Using the fraemwork of Community of Practice, the latest theory addressing community formation and interaction, as its theoretical framework, the study explores the Twitter-based online fandom community (called stan twitter) of Korean Pop-Music (K-Pop) as a working Community of Practice (CoP). This community is a hub of non-native English language speakers, who actively communicate on this platform. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews and participant observations to collect data, and analyzes it using qualitative coding. The study finds that the members of K-Pop Stan Twitter form interpersonal bonds, communicate regularly, and create a close-knit community where everyone contributes in their own capacity. The study suggests that the platform in question does possess the characteristics to be considered a working CoP, with the addition of another element that makes it unique: power hierarchy among the participants of the community, which is usually the least noticed aspect in research on online platforms. Moreover, it carries implications for inculcation of various positive qualities in the users.

KEYWORDS:

• Community of Practice
• Online Twitter Fandoms
• Online Communities
• Stan Twitter Community
• Social Media and Community of Practice
• Power Hierarchy
• Korean (K-Pop) Music

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zunera Malik

Zunera Malik Born in Islamabad, Pakistan, holds an M.Phil degree in English Linguistics and Literature, and has graduated as a student of Air University, Islamabad. She has recently received acceptances for oral presentations at the 2019 Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference, the 1st International Conference on English Language and Linguistics (ICELL'19) held in the month of March, 2019, and has presented her paper at the International Conference on Voices from the Periphery: Language and Literature, held on 17–18 October, 2019. Currently, she is working as a Lecture of English at the National Univesity of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST-NUCES), Islamabad, Pakistan.

Sham Haidar

Sham Haidar was born in Buner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He completed doctoral studies from Warner School of Education, University of Rochester. He is currently serving as assistant professor in the Department of Humanities, Air University Islamabad, Pakistan. His research interests lie in sociolinguistics, equity in education, language and power, language ideology, English and globalization, technology and language teaching, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and critical discourse analysis. He has published articles in journals including International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, English Today and Issues in Political Discourse Analysis.