Understanding Fandom An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture

While fans used to be seen as an overly obsessed fringe audience, shifts in technology and production in the last few decades have made fandom a central mode of media consumption. An abundance of theorists have emerged in parallel to explore this phenomenon, many specializing in particular kinds of fan research. Although the volume will not address sports fandom, it will aim to include insights from research linked to many other kinds of media, including television and popular music fandom. With a foreword by Matt Hills, Understanding Fandomintroduces the whole field of fan studies by looking at the history of debate, key paradigms and methodogical issues. The emphasis will be on showing how fan studies is an emergent interdisciplinary field with its own key scholars and a tradition that is distinct from both textual analysis and reception studies. It draws together a range of debates from media studies, cultural studies and psychology to argue that fandom is particular kind of an engagement with the power relations of media culture.

Dr Mark Duffett iw Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Chester, UK.

Foreword - Matt HillsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2. Stereotypes and Representations Chapter 3. Beyond the Text Chapter 4. The Pathological Tradition Chapter 5. How do People become Fans? Chapter 6. Fan Practices Chapter 7. Fandom and Gender Chapter 8. Myths, Cults and PlacesChapter 9. Online and Offline: the Fan CommunityChapter 10. Researching Fandom Chapter 11. Conclusion: Frontiers of Fan Research