You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
With the proliferation of digital and social media, celebrities and their fans have built closer relationships to the extent that fans model their lives according to the attitudes, behaviours and personalities of celebrities they admired. With this, Twitter has become an avenue for people to project celebrities they admire and this often results in stanships culture and fandom. Therefore, this study investigates the perception of Twitter users on stanship culture and its impact on their social behaviour.
The study employs two theories of communication – the Status Conferral and Uses and Gratification Theory and adopts the survey research design method to generate responses from respondents. A total of 400 questionnaire designed in a close-ended format and created using a Google document was distributed to Twitter users in Nigeria. Results from the study show that stanship culture is prevalent on Twitter and stan activities are common among Twitter users in Nigeria. Results also show that stan activities on Twitter are often toxic and extreme; therefore, it negatively impacts the social behaviour of Twitter users.
The study recommends good stanship practices and celebrity enlightenment as the panacea to curb unhealthy stan behaviour.
