New public segmentation for political public relations using political fandom: Understanding relationships between individual politicians and fans

Abstract This study suggests the association between individual and political figures as a fan–celebrity relationship and provides a scale of political fandom as a new criterion for public segmentation. While political fans are important stakeholders of political organizations and political figures, little is known about who political fans are and how they participate in political activities. To address this gap, the differences between political fans and enthusiastic partisans are explained using six dimensions, namely, worship, identification, loyalty, playing, investment, and fan community engagement. Building on these dimensions, this study examined the impact of perceived charms of a political figure on political fans by surveying Korean participants. This study further explored political fans’ tendency to participate in politics as well as information seeking and sharing. Following the results, implications for public and stakeholder relations are discussed.