A Nice Place on the Internet: An Exploratory Case Study of Teen Information Practices in an Online Fan Community (original) (raw)

Serious leisure in the digital world: exploring the information behaviour of fan communities

This research investigates the information behaviour of cult media fan communities on the internet, using three novel methods which have not previously been applied to this domain. Firstly, a review, analysis and synthesis of the literature related to fan information behaviour, both within the disciplines of LIS and fan studies, revealed unique aspects of fan information behaviour, particularly in regards to produsage, copyright, and creativity. The findings from this literature analysis were subsequently investigated further using the Delphi method and tag analysis. A new Delphi variant – the Serious Leisure Delphi – was developed through this research. The Delphi study found that participants expressed the greatest levels of consensus on statements on fan behaviour that were related to information behaviour and information-related issues. Tag analysis was used in a novel way, as a tool to examine information behaviour. This found that fans have developed a highly granular classification system for fanworks, and that on one particular repository a ‘curated folksonomy’ was being used with great success. Fans also use tags for a variety of reasons, including communicating with one another, and writing meta-commentary on their posts. The research found that fans have unique information behaviours related to classification, copyright, entrepreneurship, produsage, mentorship and publishing. In the words of Delphi participants – “being in fandom means being in a knowledge space,” and “fandom is a huge information hub just by existing”. From these findings a model of fan information behaviour has been developed, which could be further tested in future research.

"Being in a knowledge space": information behaviour of cult media fan communities.

Journal of Information Science, 2017

This article describes the first two parts of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, focusing on fans of cult media. A literature analysis shows that information practices are an inherent and major part of fan activities, and that fans are practitioners of new forms of information consumption and production, showing sophisticated activities of information organisation and dissemination. A subsequent Delphi study, taking the novel form of a 'serious leisure' Delphi, in which the participants are not experts in the usual sense, identifies three aspects of fan information behaviour of particular interest beyond the fan context: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging; and entrepreneurship and economic activity.

Exploring Media Fandom in the Social Lives of Young Adults

2021

With the rise of the internet, media has become an integral part of young adults’ lives. Young adults are actively in search of media objects they enjoy and can relate to. Fans across the world share passion and adoration towards media items, such as movies, TV shows, books and bands. This grouping of enthusiasts can be termed as media fandom (Jenkins, 1992, p.1). Media fans are members of subcultures in the sense that they adopt their own linguistic codes and specialized ways of talk, unique forms of greeting and address, and the use of codenames or titles and symbolic forms, including dressing style in some cases (Sullivan, 2019). Based on in-depth interviews of 20 young adults and an online questionnaire of 70 participants, this study seeks to examine the involvement of young adults in fandom and influences of media fandom in their social lives. The findings highlighted that fans promoted and shared their objects of fandoms frequently with their friends and family. Further, parti...

Fans, Geeks and Nerds, and the Politics of Online Communities

Proceedings of the Media Ecology Association, 2004

The progressive, utopian rhetoric of the Internet's first moments has largely diminished in the face of uneven access across various "digital divides," corporate media consolidation, and on-line monitoring and surveillance systems. Yet there are some interesting counter-trends associated with what this essay discusses as online "fandom" or "communities of appreciation," and the recent upsurge in antiglobalization activism has demonstrated how cultural communities can modulate into political ones.

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.

Life as a Networked Fan

AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020

In studying how fans live their lives online, a common lens has been to consider fandom as fan community (e.g. Sullivan, 2019). Modern digital social networks appear to be complicating this picture, with some scholars suggesting that online fandoms are fragmenting (e.g. Coppa, 2014). In this work, we report on a variety of case studies carried out using ethnographic and survey methods. These examine examples of fans whose networks span both online and offline spaces (for example fan tourism to Scotland initiated through membership of Outlander fan Facebook groups), and who may move between different micro-fandoms either consecutively or concurrently (for example Doctor Who fans watching via Twitch). Though this we demonstrate how individuals form networks around themselves which extend into multiple online and offline spaces, creating a multilayered personal interaction space. Building on the work of Rainie and Wellman (2012) we provide an alternative viewpoint of fan-centered rathe...

Information Behavior in Online Gaming Communities

This literature review was written for a Ph.D. advanced seminar in Information Behavior. This paper looks as information behaviors used by gamers who enjoy MMOGs, such as World of Warcraft or Legacy, as well as virtual worlds, such as Minecraft and Second Life. These game environments are incredibly complex, and part of the “play” experience involves learning how to interact both with the game and with other players. Information seeking behaviors discussed include Everyday Life Information Seeking, participation in affinity groups, and information seeking within games themselves. A brief chronology of games-related research is included.

The Evolving Consumer Behavior: Fan Culture in Online Community

Jurnal Manajemen dan Kearifan Lokal Indonesia, 2018

It is obvious how technology has reformed the way consumers behave. More than influencing factors to buying decision, the study of media consumers has attracted scholars to investigate various subjects related to it. Fan culture has never been this fun back in the days before new media. With the benefit of Internet, fans can be more active in terms of producing and sharing contents and enrich their fan experience. This paper aims to investigate fan practices and experience in an online community as not just media consumers but also producers. The data for this research were collected through one-month online observation in exochocolate LiveJournal community, which is a forum-based community that has been chosen to represent fans in online community. Common practices and characteristics are among the focus chosen to understand the behavior. This research concludes that various content producing and sharing; including the engagement between the fans forms the fan culture in the commun...

Fandom and Online Interest Groups

Language education and technology, Encyclopedia of language and education , 2017

Within the scope of technology for language education, fandom and online interest communities encompass a range of affinity groups in which individuals can develop skills and knowledge potentially supporting language learning or language mastery relevant to use in online and offline contexts. Initial work on online interest groups investigated individual and collaborative literacy practices and identity development among users of pre-Web 2.0 technologies such as Usenet discussions and personal fan websites. More recent research on online interest groups, language learning and use looks to the creative work and gameplay of international and multilingual users whose communities have flourished as a result of Web 2.0 technologies, including fanfiction archives, gaming forums, and wikis, and more general social media platforms. Altogether, studies of fandom and online interest groups within the area of language, education, and technology have revealed ways in which language learners and language users make use of these online communities for language learning, identity work, and the development of other skills and knowledge and which hold implications for the integration of technology and digital practices in language teaching.