(…) emerging algorithmic culture in which the ongoing interaction between affect, fan subjectivity, and the algorithm continually shapes and reshapes everyday fan practice in terms of its sequence of actions, norms and ways of thought.
Yin, Yiyi. “An Emergent Algorithmic Culture: The Data-Ization of Online Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 475–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920908269.
Weibo strategically quantified casual users into visible data, and ranked them in different patterns. (The) algorithmic rules of Weibo embedded data in daily media practice rather than organizing specific events or rituals, such as voting or thematic competitions. Thus fans have been disciplined to routinize data labour in the daily use of Weibo, and constantly learned the most efficient manner of using Weibo from the algorithmic rules (…)
Yin, Yiyi. “An Emergent Algorithmic Culture: The Data-Ization of Online Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 475–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920908269.
Data contribution is the immaterial labour that generates traffic data in online activities such as clicking, viewing, commenting and reposting.
Yin, Yiyi. “An Emergent Algorithmic Culture: The Data-Ization of Online Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 475–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920908269.
Yin here describes how algorithmic culture (itself a product of contemporary entertainment industry and digital media) creates data fandom.
The efficiancy of data contribution becomes the primary goal of participation. In some cases, even fan fictional writings or illustrations must be related to the narratives of data contribution.
Yin, Yiyi. “An Emergent Algorithmic Culture: The Data-Ization of Online Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 475–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920908269.
As the efficiency of data contribution rises, would it reshape how transformative works are created or interacted with?Zhang and Negus mention when discussing the history of data fandom:
(…) data practices were adopted most prominently among fans of Little Fresh Meat prior to being adopted by fans of other musicians and entertainment forms.
Zhang Qian, and Negus, Keith. “East Asian Pop Music Idol Production and the Emergence of Data Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (February 10, 2020): 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920904064.
Tracing this historical development means that we might also trace the practices of data fandom back to earlier instances of affective labour centered around transitional fan objects, as Yin does in the following quote.
To a large extent, the immaterial, abstract and virtual data themselves have been constructed as transitional fan objects with a strong sense of affective power.
Yin, Yiyi. “An Emergent Algorithmic Culture: The Data-Ization of Online Fandom in China.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 23, no. 4 (March 3, 2020): 475–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920908269.
The way transformative works change in the era of data fandom must take into account how affective labour have already co-existed with the practices of affective labour (even with the consumer choices of buying albums or products of a sponsor of an idol). However, transformative works are always part of a larger fandom culture so they might indeed change in unexpected ways that we cannot see yet, but they are unlikely to be replaced, no matter how ineffective they are at creating data patterns.