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Two Decades of Virtual Idol Research: A Literature Review and Prospect at Home and Abroad

Author(s)

Lanting Wang, Huiyi Sun, Yuxin Shuai, Lina Zhang*

Affiliation(s)

Southeast University Chengxian College, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

Virtual idols are the product of the deep integration of digital technology, artificial intelligence and fan culture. They also serve as an important carrier for the implementation of metaverse scenarios, and have become a significant research topic across media, culture and industrial fields. Using CiteSpace, this paper selects 124 Chinese documents from CNKI and 50 English documents from the Web of Science core database as data samples, and sorts out and summarizes high-quality literature on virtual idols at home and abroad. The results show that domestic research on virtual idols can be divided into three stages, with research hotspots mainly focusing on the metaverse, artificial intelligence and fan culture. Foreign research on virtual idols is also divided into three stages, with hotspots concentrated on social media and the celeb; rity effect. This paper summarizes the stage characteristics and core viewpoints of research at home and abroad, analyzes deficiencies in current studies, forecasts future research trends, and provides a reference for further research in the field of virtual idols.

Keywords

Virtual Idols; Artificial Intelligence; Fan Culture; Literature Review; Research Prospects

References

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