Anti-Fandom: Dislike and Hate in the Digital Age, Melissa A. Click (ed.) (2018) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Dynamics of Fandom: Exploring Fan Communities in Online Spaces
Studies of fan groups in recent years have increasingly focused on the internet as a locus of communal activity for participants. Certainly this is not an unexpected paradigm shift. Prior to the advent of the internet, and its subsequent adoption by fan communities, being a fan was largely a proposition that required participants to engage in physical encounters where culture was transmitted on a personal, often individual level. However, as the internet collapses barriers of time and space fandoms have become a well connected global village capable of coordinated and immediate worldwide participation. As involvement in these mediated cyber modes of community formation and maintenance increases one must wonder what is at stake for these newly minted online fandoms. In this work the author will take the position of arguing that these groups form not only as a means of expressing communal identity but also as a method of asserting their hegemonic control over a collective ‘base text.’ This essay explores the formation of online communities around specific cultural artifacts and seeks to define what is meant in describing these mediated cultures as a ‘group.’ Much of the argument will center on the power dispute over hegemonic control between fans of a cultural artifact and the original producers of that text, situating this conflict in the fan experience. This dispute between cultural producers and consumers will bring sharply into focus the capabilities of online media and expose one of the myriad reasons why fandoms create and function in virtual spaces.
2019
every one of our meetings, I was anxious and insecure. After every meeting, I left with confidence, concrete guidance, deeper understanding of research, and a feeling of companionship. You believed in me before I believed in myself, and you guided this project from blind shots in the dark to focused research that is reflective of the best parts of myself and my scholarship. Thank you to my thesis reader, Dr. Graeme Wend-Walker, for coming onto this project in the middle of everything, and for ranting with me in your office about how awful Twitter culture is. You get me, and I really needed that. Your insights were crucial to the tone of the final product. Thank you to my friends, family and mentors on and off campus, without whom I would be face down in a ditch and crying. I want to specifically mention Iris Gonzalez for coming up with the phrase "to affinity and beyond" and allowing me to use it. I really, really, really cannot state how grateful I am for all the support I've gotten on this project from so many people. I would list the names of every person who's impacted this project, but I think that would be take several more sheets of this fancy paper. So, if you're reading this with the hope that I'll mention you, this goes out to you. Finally, thank you to every single one of my participants. Thank you for taking time out of your lives to type so many of your thoughts. Without you, none of this would be possible. I hope, if you read this thesis, that you learn something.
Fan Studies: Research Popular Audiences
This open-access volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the emerging field of fan studies. Fan Communities and Fandom. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research. Whether fans engage in the real-world, online, or define themselves by their lack of engagement, the ability of fans to participate and share their enthusiasms with one another is one of the most striking and intriguing features of the fandom phenomena. Fan communities have directed their remarkable fervour towards charitable causes, bringing television shows and book characters back from the dead, and honing their creative skills before persuing fandom-worthy material of their own. We explore fandom as a social space and constructed identity, fuelled by talented creators and enthusiastic consumers, and building on the global connectedness born from the digital age. Originally published at Inter-Disciplinary.net, this volume contains essays from different fan scholars on topics such as celebrity fandom, pop-culture tourism, cosplay, fan activism, and YouTube fandom.
From subculture to mainstream: nostalgia, criticism and negotiation in a fan community
Convergence, 2024
Extensive research has been conducted on social media and fandom, particularly on how digital platforms facilitate community formation and cultural production among fans. However, there remains a gap in understanding how these communities react to and interpret changes such as commercialization or mainstreaming of their platforms. This study addresses this gap by focusing on Bilibili's danmu culture, a vibrant fan community that is transitioning from a subculture to a mainstream entity. The platform culture lies in danmu, a commentary system that allows for video-superimposed moving texts on the screen. Existing research on danmu mainly focuses on the mediated playful and creative audience participation. However, little is understood about the perception and critical evaluation of danmu commenting within its participatory community. This study investigates the vernacular criticism of danmu amongst users on Bilibili by analyzing user discussions around a remix video called "This is danmu culture!". Findings reveal three overarching themes: nostalgia for past danmu creations, criticism of present danmu practices, and negotiation of danmu culture. Central to these themes is the commenters' identification as part of an elite fan community that is gradually fading. Bilibili, once a sanctuary for anime, comic, and game enthusiasts, now finds itself caught in the tension between subculture and mainstream audiences, resulting in increasing polarization.
Fan Studies: Researching Popular Audiences - Editor's Introduction
This volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the rapidly growing field of fan studies. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research. Whether fans engage in the real-world, online, or define themselves by their lack of engagement, the ability of fans to participate and share their enthusiasms with one another is one of the most striking and intriguing features of the fandom phenomena. Fan communities have directed their remarkable fervour towards charitable causes, bringing television shows and book characters back from the dead, and honing their creative skills before pursuing fandom-worthy material of their own. We explore fandom as a social space and constructed identity, fuelled by talented creators and enthusiastic consumers, and building on the global connectedness born from the digital age.
The Four Temperaments of Fandom
Nerd, geek, dweeb, and dork were the four terms used often in the late part of the 20th century as a means to create a barrier and separate those whose quirks were considered outside the mainstream sense of normal. Nowadays, the "otaku" nature of popular culture has removed some of the negative connotations related to those terms. Those four terms are included as modifiers to aspects of culture that involve a "deep dive" by a selected niche of the populace. This essay will act as an etymologocial analysis within the structure of a popular culture case study on the use of these terms and a more realistic construction of the various terms as they relate to fan culture and fandom. The hope is that the reader of this work understands the connection between popular culture intelligential properties, fan culture, and the temperament of a given fan as a result of this analysis.