Definition and Typology of Fans
The extant literature reveals that scholars have not reached an agreement on the definition of fans, which can be interpreted both in a broad sense and a narrow sense. In a broad sense, in the field of media study, fans generally refer to the audience of many forms of sports or entertainment celebrities. In a narrow and strict sense, fans refer to those people who show excessive interest and enthusiasm for an object, including people, commodities, religions, teams, ideas, brands, etc. (Smith, Fisher & Cole, 2007). The behaviour of fans is often regarded as unusual and unconventional by society, but does not violate the common social ethical norms (Thorne & Bruner, 2006).
In addition, the term has different meanings in different specific contexts: first, fans of cultural products (such as movies, science fictions, music, comics, etc.) are those who have a strong or even excessive affective sensibility towards their favourite cultural products (Fiske, 1992). They obtain pleasure, satisfaction, and a sense of achievement, and even construct their life meaning through their attachment to those cultural products (Grossberg, 1992). Second, sports fans refer to the audience who show a great deal of enthusiasm towards certain sporting events and have a strong sense of belonging to certain sports team or clubs (Jacobson, 2003). Third, fans of a brand refer to those consumers who are behaviorally and emotionally loyal to a brand and engage in activities to support the brand. In general, fans in different contexts have an excessive investment in terms of expenditure, time, and emotion compared to ordinary consumers, and they construct their personal meanings and beliefs based on the objects they love (Jindra, 1994). For instance, Hunt, Bristol and Bashaw (1999) classified sport fans in terms of the emotional and behavioral intensity into three major categories: devoted fans, fanatical fans, and dysfunctional fans. Specifically, devoted fans are those who are able to frequently attend or watch sports events overcoming geographic, financial, and time constraints, and develop a strong sense of identity, attachment, and belonging to certain events and clubs. In addition to these characteristics, fanatical fans show their enthusiasm through more symbolic behaviour, such as wearing special clothes or body paint, waving flags, and shouting. However, dysfunctional fans are pathological to some degree, and exhibit irrational, destructive, and anti-social behaviour. This typology of sports fans can also be applied to fans of brands, cultural products, and celebrities.