Imposing needs and shaping feeds: how celebrity fans promote “unneeded” interpretation-centered information and build connections within online communities

Purpose This paper investigates how Chinese celebrity fans create and share “unneeded” interpretation-centered information within their communities online. Fans’ information activities and their approach to the information needs of both like-minded and dissenting community members reveal insights about how contemporary people exchange information and build social connections and boundaries within online communities. Design/methodology/approach Focusing on a typical online fandom community – that surrounding popular Chinese musical actor Ayanga – this study used unobtrusive observation of 56 fans on the Weibo social media platform and sequential semi-structured interviews with 22 individual fans. Findings Fans share their interpretation-centered emotions, rationales, fanworks and summarizations with assenters, while arguing with dissenters about how their own interpretations are the “correct” ones. During this process, fans project and impose information needs onto community members and then push toward them the corresponding information. As fans’ actions toward dissenting community members are less friendly and more forceful, dissenters are regarded as opponents and in-community boundaries are built. Originality/value Applying an information sciences perspective to online fan communities, this study offers insights into how contemporary people create information not to satisfy in-community information needs but to assert personal agency in shaping others’ feeds. The author suggests that today’s netizens seek to dictate the information community members can see, and that in-community information creating and sharing can reinforce not only community connections but also divisions.