PRODUCTION OF MEANING AND CULTURAL CONSUMPTION IN HALLYU: SEMIOSIS AND VERBAL BEHAVIOR IN THE BRAZILIAN FANDOM OF LEE JUNHO

Abstract

This article examines the growing popularity of South Korean pop culture among Brazilian women, with particular attention to the consumption of K-dramas, K-pop, and the figure of the artist Lee Junho. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of messages exchanged within a messaging application group created around the artist’s concerts in São Paulo in March 2025, the study explores the meanings produced in these interactions, the patterns of engagement, and the bonds that emerge. By integrating Peircean semiotics, Skinner’s behavior analysis, and critiques of the culture industry, the research demonstrates that fandom functions simultaneously as a verbal community and as a cultural practice shaped by its social consequences. The findings indicate that engagement is sustained through contingencies of social reinforcement, adherence to rules, and the circulation of affective signs that foster belonging and regulate emotions. While embedded in the logic of the culture industry, such consumption also mobilizes practices of care, identification, and personal transformation, underscoring fandom’s potential to operate as a space of symbolic reinforcement, subjective support, and identity reconfiguration.