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Draft Unit 3 Paper The Discourse Community Ethnography 1
Draft Unit 3 Paper The Discourse Community Ethnography 1
Alexandra Augusto
Professor Gardiakos
ENC1101
08 November 2021
On June 13, 2013, a new South Korean boy group named “Bangtan Sonyeondan” (BTS)
had debuted and would garner fans almost a decade later listed in plenty of articles as one of the,
“Top 10 Most Loyal and Craziest Fans in the World.” It took the world by storm when this
group and fandom appeared seemingly out of nowhere and rivaled the strength of those from the
Taylor Swift and Beyoncé fandoms. As of April 2021, it has been estimated that BTS has 90
million fans worldwide, and to put it into perspective, that is more than the population of
As the title of the article suggests, the common conception people have of BTS fans is
negative. People have corresponded adjectives like delusional, crazy, annoying, loyal, and
dedicated to a very specific and loud community of BTS fans that many identify to be the entire
fandom. Those fans are the Stan Twitter Armys. The word “Stan” was coined by Eminem in his
song “Stan,” which combined the words “stalker” and “fan” (Arasa). In current years, the term is
used synonymously with super fans. In the case of BTS, the word “Army” is the name of BTS’
fandom, and together the phrase “Stan Twitter Armys” is in reference to the focal discourse
regionally and in this instance, this focal discourse community is online (Swales 551).
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John Swales is well known for his 6 listed characteristics of what makes a discourse
intercommunication among its members – used is the app Twitter (Swales 547). To thrive in this
community, it is important to be literate in the genre’s way of expressing opinions and support
@@@talk ab twitter being the genre hahaha ehheeh … importance of being literate on
@@talk ab how people can identify this discourse community (the little 7) … their
@@how i researched
The K-Pop industry has labelled celebrities as “idols,” and this is a very harmful title to
have when considering what the definition of an idol is. An idol is defined as, “An image or
representation of a god used as an object of worship” (The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable). To hold any individual to such a high standard is very concerning, especially under stan
culture. Some extreme fans who worship Korean idols – or any celebrity – have been found to
oftenly put moral and logic aside in exchange for their blind and unwavering support. The K-Pop
industry is not only aware of this, but they utilize the dedication fans have for promoting and
protectiveness towards BTS. With the manipulation from BTS’s entertainment – Big Hit
Entertainment – fans have, dangerously, become BTS’s own PR team. Many actions of the group
that can be viewed in a negative light have been reported or taken down, and the truth that
remains for the public is often distorted to preserve an image that their idol is perfect. This also
In November 2019, BTS member Jeon Jungkook was reported to have hit a taxi driver
while violating a traffic law. The discourse community’s response? Armys had used a tactic on
stan Twitter referred to as “clearing the searches.” When fans “clear the searches,” Twitter’s
algorithm pulls words that have been recently and frequently associated with the searched
keyword(s) (Antlobo). This tactic is used to trend and hide the true events that the fans do not
want others to see. In this instance, YouTube commentator Pierce Kavanagh (Kavos) had seen
Jungkook trending on Twitter and was interested in finding out the reason why. Upon clicking
the Jungkook trending tab, Kavos was met with a bunch of tweets from the discourse community
of varying positive phrases or comments. Examples of some of the tweets are, “Jungkook cute,”
“Jungkook kind,” and, “Jungkook talented.” The repeated tweets had successfully “cleared the
searches” and Kavos, like many users after believing they had seen why something was trending,
was about to leave the trending tab until he noticed a tweet announcing to other members of the
discourse community helpful keywords to use to help clear the searches. This piqued his interest
and after further research, he was surprised to unveil the buried truth of the car accident.
Kavos tweeted his opinion of the danger in fans, “...See[ing] no wrong in their idols and
[doing] anything to cover up their mistakes.” Kavos’ tweet quickly went viral with 9.5 thousand
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likes and had been met with harsh backlash from the discourse community. Many of the
members commented negatively on Kavos, threatened to report his account, and emailed BTS’
company to report and sue Kavos for “malicious activities” against the group. This is a common
occurrence in the discourse community fostered by Big Hit Entertainment when the company
had released a legal proceeding document and encouraged fans to report and alert them of any
Not only are members of the discourse community protective towards the group, but they
are also very protective of their image as it reflects on BTS. In September 2021, James Corden
on his “The Late Late Show with James Corden” referred to members of the discourse
community as “15 year old girls” and made some comments about BTS’ presence as “unusual”
at the United Nations General Assembly. Corden’s words set a fire to the discourse community,
especially since BTS had previously attended his show as well as other activities of his, and
members of the community repeated the actions they had done to Kavos. The biggest retaliation
of the community was to quickly and effectively plunge the ratings of his late night show from a
rating of 4.2 to 1.6 (Cosmopolitan). As of November 2021, the show’s ratings have further
declined to 1.2 and comments are still being made expressing their discontent.
@@@transition into their lexis and slang (slang reflects their values) **ways of being
@@transition into conflict and conventionalisms in the sense of you can only have
positive opinions (Conflict = any negative comments, even positive criticism … any act that is
@@@ understanding the actions done in the community, understanding the cost of
OTHERS)
@@@hierachy of fans (Talk ab the cost being especially high for the more occupational
- ***use James Cordon calling fans 14 year old girls among other things and how it
environment
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What are the characteristics and goals of this discourse community and how are
- Goals: Increase streams on music videos/songs, promote the group, album sales
Observe members of the discourse community while they are engaged in a shared activity; take
detailed notes (What are they doing? What kinds of things do they say? What specialized
language do they use? What do they write and communicate? How do you know who is “in” and
who is “out”?).
- Using Hashtags, following guides, “BTS paved the way,” purple heart, you know who is
in our out based on the little 7 … Defending BTS and praising them on twitter … BTS
topic @charts_k = Bts Charts and Translations (garnered 1.1 m followers).. They use stan
Collect and analyze anything people in that community read or write (their genres)—even very
short things like forms, football plays, notes, IMs, and text messages.
- Twitter is THE GENRE of this community. To be literate, people must understand the
terminology of stan twitter, likes, retweets, quote tweets, etc … direct messages/group
chats … carrds!
Discuss how members of the discourse community move through the hierarchy of the
community. Take us through the process of how one enters and moves “up” through the
discourse community. This should include how people create identity and gain authority.
- Followers and time in the community. Connections with other popular accounts.
Use the researchers we read (James Paul Gee, Ann Johns, John Swales) to help you organize and
analyze the data you’ve collected. Feel free to use any other research or authors you find relevant
to your discussion. You should use the terms and concepts from these readings and authors to
discuss the observations that you are making as part of the presentation of your study.
Given all the data you’ve collected and analyzed, decide what you want to focus on in your
paper. Is there something interesting regarding the goals of the community? Types of literacies in
the community? Its lexis or genres? Refine the above research question to fit your purpose(s).
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Then construct an essay that demonstrates what you’ve learned about discourse communities,
reviews relevant literature, describes your methodology and your findings, and presents an
Think of your paper as being an informative text to your audience about all of the aspects of a
discourse community.
Consider your paper to be an educational resource for others to learn about this specific
Works Cited
Antlobo. “R/KPOPHELP - What Does Kpop Twitter Mean When They Talk about ‘Clearing
www.reddit.com/r/kpophelp/comments/db5zem/what_does_kpop_twitter_mean_when_th
ey_talk_about/.
Arasa, Dale. “Have You Ever Wondered What Is Stan Twitter?” INQUIRER.net USA, 2 Apr.
2021, usa.inquirer.net/67142/have-you-ever-wondered-what-is-stan-twitter.
ChewingSeok. “R/Unpopularkpopopinions - BTS Did Not Pave the Way. Just Accept It.” Reddit,
3 May 2019,
www.reddit.com/r/unpopularkpopopinions/comments/bk4xoy/bts_did_not_pave_the_way
_just_accept_it/.
Fattaut, Lentry. “An Analysis of Slang Words Used by BTS Army Community Conversation on
e-repository.perpus.iainsalatiga.ac.id/id/eprint/8675.
Kavanagh, Pierce. "BTS ARMY: The Worst Music Fans EVER." YouTube, uploaded by Kavos, 5
S.P. “Big Hit Entertainment Takes Legal Action for BTS and TXT Regarding Malicious
www.soompi.com/article/1446074wpp/big-hit-entertainment-takes-legal-action-for-bts-a
nd-txt-regarding-malicious-comments.
Swales, John. “Reflections on the Concept of Discourse Community.” Writing about Writing, by
Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs, Bedford Books St. Martin's, 2020, pp. 544–558.
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The Editors. “The BTS Army Legit Tanked James Corden's Ratings after He Called Fans
www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a37720621/bts-army-tank-james-corden-rat
ing-tweets/.
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. “Idols.” Oxford Reference, 2006,
www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095956880#:~:text=An%
20image%20or%20representation%20of,admired%2C%20loved%2C%20or%20revered.
US BTS Army. “BTS Stream & Purchase Guide.” US BTS ARMY, 2021,
www.usbtsarmy.com/stream-purchase-guide.