Time for another story (I appear to have a lot to tell!); this time, about the experiences I had at the biggest comic book convention in the world, San Diego Comic Con International. When I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles and ended up working at an agency that represents writers, directors and producers….
Tag: fan communities
Echo Chambers and Fandom
Okay, first, let’s talk about echo chambers. You may have heard this term, especially since the 2016 presidential election. In media studies, an echo chamber is a community, usually one that is online, where the members of that community all have the same interests, values, and beliefs. This group of like-minded individuals talk with one…
Call for Papers: The Fan Studies Network conference 2016
Originally posted on The Fan Studies Network:
THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK CONFERENCE 2016 25-26th June 2016 University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK Keynote Speaker: Professor Henry Jenkins (University of Southern California, USA). The fourth annual Fan Studies Network Conference is returning to the University of East Anglia for a two-day programme in June 2016. The…
The Pop Culture Lens: Fan Harassment
I have been talking about this idea of fractured fandom on this blog for awhile now, because I have been concerned with the problems and tensions fans are facing in contemporary fan communities and fandoms. Across the Internet and around the world, it seems that hardly a day goes by without another story, another anecdote,…
The Pop Culture Lens: Episode on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Fandom
On a special episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I discuss a subject that has been one we have debated numerous times in our private lives and has become one that I have been focusing on as a research project: fandom, is it good or bad? http://ThePopCultureLens.podbean.com/mf/web/4kuzg8/Ep9FandomGoodBadUgly.mp3 We begin the conversation…
Fandom as Repeatedly Returning to What Matters Most
Being a fan can mean many different things to many different people. It may mean a person likes to collect memorabilia for a favorite sports team. It may mean a group like to wear costumes and reenact an important event. It may mean individuals compete with one another to test their knowledge in trivia contests….
On the Nature of Being a Fan
I have an idea. An idea for how to look at fans, fandoms, fan communities, being a fan. It’s an idea in its early stages, one I need to ruminate over and let gestate and grow. It’s an idea that relates to my fractured fandom thoughts, but it goes beyond that, into a view on…
Fractured Fandom and Contemporary Issues in Fan Communities
Today I launch an online survey to gather people’s anonymous and confidential stories of their experiences dealing with other fans. This survey is part of my ongoing research into the phenomenon I call fractured fandom. Primarily, with this story, I want to hear people’s real problems of dealing with fans, whether they were fans of…
