Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Operational Mechanisms of K-pop Fan Organizations in the Entertainment Industry

Zihan ZhangNew York University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper examines how K-pop fan organizations by using BTS’s ARMY as a case study, function as informal labor systems embedded within the entertainment industry. Rather than simply reproducing the familiar narrative of exploitation, this research focuses on the emotional, social, and strategic dimensions of fan work—streaming, data management, bulk purchasing, and reputation defense—that are both unpaid and deeply organized. Based on interviews with fans and existing scholarship, the study argues that fan labor is not purely coerced but often voluntary, driven by love, peer dynamics, and a sense of shared identity with idols. Yet this labor exists within a structural imbalance: companies benefit financially and reputationally while fans are left emotionally invested but materially uncompensated. This paper also highlights fans’ ambivalence toward entertainment companies, revealing moments of both complicity and resistance, such as silent boycotts or protest campaigns. In doing so, the research reframes K-pop fandom not simply as a cultural curiosity or marketing asset, but as a form of digital labor that complicates easy binaries of agency and exploitation. The aim is to situate fan organizations within broader conversations on participatory culture, emotional capitalism, and the platform economy.

Keywords: Fan labor; digital platforms; culture; fandom; media
Published: October 23, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.KM28003
Volume: CHR Vol.86
pp. 1-7
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