Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan CultureFans used to be seen as an overly obsessed fraction of the audience. In the last few decades, shifts in media technology and production have instead made fandom a central mode of consumption. A range of ideas has emerged to explore different facets of this growing phenomenon. With a foreword by Matt Hills, Understanding Fandom introduces the whole field of fan research by looking at the history of debate, key paradigms and methodological issues. The book discusses insights from scholars working with fans of different texts, genres and media forms, including television and popular music. Mark Duffett shows that fan research is an emergent interdisciplinary field with its own key thinkers: a tradition that is distinct from both textual analysis and reception studies. Drawing on a range of debates from media studies, cultural studies and psychology, Duffett argues that fandom is a particular kind of engagement with the power relations of media culture. |
Contents
1 | |
2 Fan stereotypes and representations | 35 |
3 Beyond the text | 53 |
4 The pathological tradition | 85 |
5 How do people become fans? | 123 |
6 Fan practices | 165 |
7 Fandom gender and sexual orientation | 191 |
8 Myths cults and places | 209 |
Online and offline | 235 |
10 Researching fandom | 255 |
The frontiers of fan research | 277 |
Glossary | 289 |
Notes | 301 |
311 | |
331 | |
Other editions - View all
Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture Mark Duffett Limited preview - 2013 |
Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture Mark Duffett No preview available - 2013 |
Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture Mark Duffett No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
academic activity argued audience members autoethnography Beatles become behaviour Brooker Bruce Springsteen Cavicchi celebrity characters collective connection consumers consumption cosplay create creative critical cult dedicated discussion Doctor Doctor Who fandom Elvis emotional example experience explained explore fan base fan clubs fan community fan conventions fan cultures fan fiction fan studies fanfic fannish fantasies fanzines feel female fans fiction film focus gender genre Henry Jenkins icons idea identity individual individual’s interest interpretations John Lennon kind Lennon mainstream male mass culture Matt Hills meaning media fandom media franchises media products Michael Jackson narratives notion obsession ordinary participation particular performance phenomenon pleasures popular culture popular music practices relationship role scholars sense sexual shared simply slash slash fiction slippery slope social sometimes space specific Springsteen Star Trek Star Wars stereotypes stories suggests television term Textual Poachers theory understand viewers writing