Fandoms

College sports coaches and administrators can use open letters to repair images and weather crises, especially during losing seasons. Our rhetorical analysis uses Benoit’s typology of image repair to reveal three primary strategies attempted during losing seasons: evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, and corrective action. We take note of how open letters distributed via electronic media channels widen the audience of such letters, but also, complicate issues of timing and of targeted audience analysis. We offer five implications for scholars and practitioners, including the importance of audience analysis, the value of corrective action, the ineffectiveness of attacking accusers, and the unique value of transcendence in sport communication image repair rhetoric.

Talking politics online is not exclusively reserved for those spaces dedicated to politics, particularly the everyday political talk crucial to the public sphere. However, past net-based public sphere research has focused mostly on political spaces thereby neglecting an array of other genres. The aim of this article is to move beyond politically oriented communicative spaces by investigating political talk within the British reality TV discussion forum Wife Swap. The purpose is to see whether a forum dedicated to reality TV provides the communicative space, content, and style for politics that extends the public sphere. The central question is whether it fulfils the requirements of rationality and ‘decent’ deliberation. Moreover, the analysis moved beyond a formal notion by investigating how expressives influence the more traditional elements of deliberation. The findings revealed that Wife Swap participants engaged in political talk that was often deliberative. Moreover, it was a space where the use of expressives played a key role in enhancing such talk.

Hiroki Azuma es uno de los pensadores sociales más interesantes y lúcidos de nuestra época y sin embargo ha pasado bastante desapercibido en el mundo occidental hasta 2009, cuando Jonathan E. Abel y Shion Kono decidieron traducir a lengua inglesa una de sus obras principales; “Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals”, escrita originalmente en 2001, de la cual aún no existe versión en castellano.
La obra, muy concisa, de menos de 150 páginas, refleja de forma incisiva las particularidades de la sociedad y la juventud japonesas del momento, en concreto de los grupos “otaku”; lo que los anglosajones llamarían “geeks” y los hispanohablantes “frikis”.
Estos colectivos han cobrado especial importancia en los últimos años en todo el mundo y su impacto social puede verse claramente en las tendencias cinematográficas, televisivas, literarias, y en general de ocio a nivel global. Han fomentado nuevas formas de consumo y han colonizado la red como espacio propio. Por todo ello, resulta de especial importancia revisar una obra de estas características, en la
que Azuma nos enseña la base y el funcionamiento interno de este movimiento, en su vertiente oriental.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

http://sainsbury-institute.org/news-events/legislating-manga-workshop/

This talk will explore the implications of the Prohibited Images of Children section of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 for Boys' Love and Yaoi in the UK. The British legislation will be set in context briefly with regard to the legal situation in North America, Australia, Japan and China. Anna is Chair of Qualitative Inquiry in the School of Psychology at the University of Leeds and is author of 'Boys’ Love manga for girls: Paedophilic, satirical, queer readings and English law' in Children, Sexuality and Sexualisation (2015). Her online BL fandom survey can be found at https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Obscure Object of Cuddle. On Controversial Portraits of Furry Fandom in Popular Culture

My article is an attempt to interpret media-generated stereotype of furries by exploring some influential and at the same time biased cultural representations of the fandom. Instead of looking for ultimately true furry identity, I pose some questions about contemporary culture which seems to have a mysterious interest in showing furries in a particular way. All this fleeting yet intense fascination comes neither from furries’ nature nor authors’ inner selves, but is a consequence of lack which constitutes a symbolic order. It is also a reason why we find it so difficult to look at furries objectively and why they are forced to hide themselves behind the discourse of authenticity.

Cada época de la historia genera, promueve y es sorprendida por diferentes y específicos fenómenos sociales. Uno de los fenómenos más potentes y a la vez más desconocidos de la nuestra es el de la cultura friki y, en España, este fenómeno adquiere unas dimensiones y consecuencias diferentes y específicas de lo que ocurre entre los geeks estadounidenses y los otakus nipones, cuyo ejemplo nos llega, rodeado de cierta fascinación por lo exótico, pero también tamizado y transformado por la idiosincrasia de la tradición europea. Esta investigación pretende estudiar la cultura friki en España desde un punto de vista descriptivo, pero también analítico, exponiendo qué significa "ser friki" y quiénes son los frikis en España, y también profundizando en la importancia de que existan estos colectivos -o fandom-, cuáles son sus causas de aparición, qué repercusiones tienen en la sociedad en general y en fin qué puede la sociología sacar en claro de las vivencias de estas personas. Para aproximarnos a esta realidad, hemos añadido a las técnicas de investigación tradicionales otras más novedosas y adecuadas al objeto de estudio, apoyándonos en internet como patria de adopción de los frikis, especialmente a través de un panel de opinión online en el que, durante tres meses, se contó con más de doce opinantes frikis que contestaban en profundidad preguntas diarias sobre distintos temas de su cultura, en un feedback constante con la investigadora; una herramienta que ha demostrado ser especialmente útil para recoger y desmenuzar el discurso y aprovechar al máximo las técnicas de investigación cualitativas.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

This article addresses the research question: How do Chinese Yaoi fans read Yaoi stories? Yaoi is a female-oriented genre of Japanese popular culture which describes romantic and erotic relationships between men. We interviewed twenty Chinese nationals who are self-defined fans of Yaoi (mean age=23.5 years). Although men were not excluded, none volunteered. A Yaoi fandom survey was created in Chinese and in English with five sections: demographics, Yaoi materials, feelings about Yaoi, social relationships, and other erotic materials (Chinese N=1085; Anglophone N=1615). Thematic Analysis of the interviews produced five themes suggesting the existence of a heteronormative frame: social and family approval, everlasting romantic relationship, heteronormative couple, dislike reversible relationship, and gay relationships in reality. We then selected questions from the survey for statistical analysis on the rationale that these items might inform this frame and help us interpret and contextualise the qualitative analysis. Our survey results support our thematic analysis that Chinese Yaoi fans tend to read Yaoi through a heteronormative frame and, importantly, that in comparison with Anglophone fans, this is differential to Chinese culture.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

The aim of this study is to compare Sinophone and Anglophone fan fiction consisting of female-oriented male-male romance: danmei and slash, respectively. To increase comparability, we analysed Harry Potter fan fiction in which the characters Harry and Draco are married. Male-male marriage was selected because our online Sinophone and Anglophone BL fandom surveys indicate this to be the most popular story element of the nine options we provided. We analysed five stories originally written in Chinese and five originally written in English which subsequently had been fan-translated into Chinese. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) we found some robust patterns. In contrast to the Anglophone fiction, the Sinophone tended to: stress the importance of family approval for the marriage; incorporate a wedding ceremony; employ clearly gendered roles between partners; utilise extended, as opposed to nuclear, families; and showed the couple to produce children, particularly boys. Hence, the stories mirror the relative social conservatism and social liberalism of their cultures of origin. However, in reading and writing such danmei young Chinese women are still pushing at the boundaries of the traditional family.

O presente trabalho pretende analisar a campanha Not in Harry's Name, organizada pela Harry Potter Alliance, a fim de observar como os fandoms se conformam como espaços de engajamento cívico e político. Poucos estudos exploram a relação existente entre fandoms e participação cívica sob o viés do ativismo de fã, como indicam Vimieiro (2014), Jenkins (2012), Brough e Shresthova (2012). Em vista da escassez de artigos e publicações que explorem essa relação de politização e apropriação de personagens e narrativas sob tal ótica, no esforço de pesquisa desenvolvido aqui, pretende-se analisar como ações que emergem de tensões entre o fandom de Harry Potter e os produtores da narrativa canônica (J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros, roteiristas e diretores com controle criativo da obra) podem ser caracterizadas como fã-ativismo, a fim de constatar em quais condições e situações comunicacionais fandoms podem se conformar como espaços de engajamento político, e de que maneira, caso se conformem. Para tal, foi realizada uma revisão teórica em torno dos conceitos de fã, fandom e da noção de ativismo de fã; além de uma contextualização do objeto dentro da comunidade de fãs escolhida. Posteriormente, a campanha selecionada foi analisada com base na discussão realizada na revisão teórica, levantando estratégias e metodologias utilizadas pela Harry Potter Alliance, uma organização sem fins lucrativos dirigida principalmente pelos fãs de Harry Potter, que atua em frentes como alfabetização, reforma da imigração nos Estados Unidos, justiça econômica, direitos da comunidade LGBT, sexismo, direitos trabalhistas, saúde mental, imagem corporal e mudanças climáticas.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Yaoi or BL (Boys’ Love) is a genre of Japanese subculture presenting in comics, videogames, novels and fan art which describe the fantasy erotic and romantic relationships between men. This is a female-oriented subculture which originated in Japan in the early 1970s. It has spread globally and has become a phenomenon in China through websites hosting countless fan fictions.
This presentation will report on one potential explanation for the popularity Yaoi in China – that it creates an ideal romantic relationship for young women to enjoy. First, in contrast to heterosexual romance, that between two men might more easily be presented as a relationship between two equal individuals. This allows the romance to jettison or revise conventional gender roles. Second, most relationships in Yaoi avoid reproduction. This makes the relationship independent of family expectations for (grand)children and offers a challenge to pro-family rhetoric. Third, male-male romance establishes the hurdle of social disapproval that the partners must surmount together. Hence, theirs may be presented as a particularly strong love because it has to endure many sacrifices.
Although Yaoi as ‘ideal romantic relationship’ is likely to be attractive to women across the world, this may be particularly so in China. China has a strongly traditional culture while, on the other hand, has massively improved the education and life expectations of girls over the last 2 or 3 generations. Hence, many young Chinese women may see in Yaoi the kind of relationship they aspire to with a man while they are, at the same time, subject to social and family pressures to maintain tradition roles of wife and mother.

Este artículo se propone analizar qué implica ser fan a partir del caso del «fandom» de Harry Potter en Argenti-na. Para ello, se indagarán las representaciones, actividades y vínculos de los fans. Se recurrió a una metodología antropológica centrada en el trabajo de campo etnográfico clásico y virtual, complementado por análisis de fuen-tes. Sostengo que ser fan implica determinadas formas de hacer, pensar y sentir en torno a un objeto de interés. Del mismo modo, formar parte de un «fandom» conlleva la construcción de identidades compartidas y colectivas

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Genre, genealogy, and gender: Reflecting on Boys' Love manga This presentation will focus on a genre of manga known as Boys' Love, BL or 'yaoi'. The central trope of BL is the portrayal of sexual and romantic relationships between, usually young, men. Originating from shojo (girls) manga in early 1970s Japan, BL is now a worldwide phenomenon. This presentation will trace briefly the complex genealogical development of BL (sub)genres. Current findings from the largest – and ongoing survey of the Anglophone BL fandom will be presented (https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey) to provide insights into the fandom demographic with regard to gender and sexual orientation. The meaning of BL as a genre will be interrogated using data from the presenter's coding of 240 original Japanese BLmanga available in commercial English translation and survey data on the erotic material preference of the Anglophone fandom. This will include consideration of questions such as the extent to which BL is a 'parasitic' genre and whether it might be considered to have its own distinct chronotope. Finally, the importance of male-male erotic fantasy for women prior to the development of BL and outside its fandom is explored. In conclusion, the evidence and arguments presented will be drawn together to suggest that BL is possibly one of the most visible modes of working through the 'hysteric's' fundamental questions of being: 'am I a man or a women?' and 'what is a woman?'

This essay seeks to illuminate a fascinating aspect of global popular culture - fandom - by devising an original analytic frame based in Religious Studies which demonstrates that fandoms not only provide their devotees with new mythologies and communities but also succeed in creating subjunctive 'as-if' worlds for their adherents, thus providing a real alternative to traditional religions rather than simply a crude imitation of them. The fandom being examined here is devoted to the Cthulhu Mythos, a series of short interwoven sci-fi horror stories about monstrous alien gods and their dealings with human beings. Born of the pen of pulp author H.P. Lovecraft during the 1920s, this unique brand of "cosmic horror" survived its author's death by continually mutating to this day, attracting a wide ranging group of individuals who have "consecrated themselves" to Lovecraft's literary legacy and "long for the return of the monster gods" he dreamed up.

A growing trend is the participation in online fandom communities through the support of the blogging platform Tumblr. We investigated Tumblr fandom users’ motivations behind participating in fandoms, and how they interacted within the Tumblr community. Our results show that fandom users feel their Tumblr experience is ‘always-on’ where they participate at nearly any point in the day. They have also adopted a unique set of jargon and use of animated GIFs to match their desired fandom activities. Overall, our results show that Tumblr fandom users present a unique culture, much different from other social networking sites.

Survey Question:  How can fanfiction studies enrich student learning in the classroom and within their own reading and writing practices?

The study of fanfiction within the classroom has the potential to enrich and expand students' learning of creative practices overall. Using a shared canon as the basis for works, students could examine how interpretative practices can vary between readers (viewers) and how author intent (canon) is often a jumping off point for the consumption of these works. Additionally, utilizing the concept of fanfiction creation, it allows for students to learn how to produce creative works within a structured environment with clear rules (canon) of character history and current status. Creating within these confines is beneficial to learning the process of writing and how both fanfiction and original writing have strengths and limitations during their creation.

Esta tesis de licenciatura investiga la construcción social y simbólica de fandoms en Argentina entre fines de los noventa y la actualidad, a la luz de la antropología de la religión y mediante un estudio de caso de los fans de Harry Potter. Para ello, siguió una metodología centrada en la etnografía clásica y virtual. En el trabajo se abordan las prácticas de los fans en torno a su objeto de devoción, así como sus identificaciones, relaciones y representaciones sobre el fandom. Asimismo, se analiza la simbología apropiada, producida y utilizada por los fans, atendiendo a las influencias de los símbolos propios del catolicismo.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Yaoi or BL (Boys’ Love) is a genre of Japanese subculture presenting in comics, videogames, novels and fan art which describe the fantasy erotic and romantic relationships between men. Yaoi is a female-oriented subculture which, since its origins in the early 1970s, has spread globally, especially during the 1990s. In the 21st century, yaoi has become extremely popular in China. This presentation will explore the different preference for animal-related themes between Anglophone and Chinese fandoms comparing the results of a survey with an English version (n=2417) and Chinese version (n=1129). The survey includes 43 questions. Those relevant to animal themes appear in the options provided on ‘risqué sexual content’ and the options provided on ‘specific elements’ in yaoi. The survey results demonstrate that animal themes are popular for Chinese fans, whether or not associated with sexual content. On the other hand, the Anglophone survey results showed animal themes to be generally less popular, while demonstrating differences between simple animal elements (ears or tails) and animals as whole creations who can have sex with humans or who transform into human shape. Chinese yaoi - both original and fan work - has developed a particular style based on Chinese mythology, history, folktale. Animal themes are common in traditional Chinese mythology and folktale in which animals are presented as showing emotion, having sensations, and demonstrable intellect much like humanity. Although imported Japanese manga, anime, and video game brings many animal themed contents to an Anglophone audience, animal themes involving sexual contents may present an interesting cultural boundary.

The issue of fair use has become more relevant in the past few years as consumers are becoming creators through transformative works and remixed content. This is an act in which the consumer takes the presented media source content and then rearranges the audio or visuals to present a new interpretation (Burwell 2013; Coppa 2011). They are seeking ways to interact with the content; presenting their own takes of what the media means to them. And, in turn, these transformative works are becoming a cornerstone in an ever-evolving dialogue between the original creators and their fans. Remixed content is being used to both expose the prominent messages of popular culture (Busse & Lothian 2011) and re-imagine the text in ways that expose the absence of representation, such as certain cultural groups that feel pushed to the outer edges of mainstream culture (Burwell 2013). Through the use of transformative works, these consumer-creators can make their voices heard and bring to the forefront media messages that are often unacknowledged. The ensuing dialogue has the potential to transform the societal messages that media highlights, perhaps inciting change through consumer-creator involvement.

One area where the idea of transformative works has received much interest, and much debate, is in the realm of fan vids. This form of production has been referred to as 'textual poaching' in that it steals commercial products for the purpose of transforming (Lothian 2013). In these types of videos, fans take source content from their favorite media and rework or re-imagine the content to present commentary on what had previously gone unseen, and often are doing so in contradiction to the intended messages set forth by the original creator (Costello & Moore 2007). Vids such as the 2007 “Vogue” by Luminosity, which re-aligns the male gaze in Frank Miller's 300, or T. Jonesy and Killa's well-known 2004 Star Trek vid “Closer”, which looks at the concept of desire (Coppa & Tushnet 2011), are re-appropriating the original text in order to make commentary upon it. By doing so, though, these vidders and others are using visual, and often audio, content that they do not own the copyright to. This brings under scrutiny the question of content ownership and what legal rights these creators hold when presenting transformative works in the form of fan vids. Who holds the overall rights to the transformative works? And what legal allowance do transformative creators have when re-appropriating source content of others?

While fair use is often used by fan vidders as a means of protection for these works against copyright claims by the source content owners, the concept of ownership is often unclear and application of fair use principles conditional to the individual situations in which interpretation is needed. Additionally, the fan vidder's understanding of fair use application is often variable, and some vidders seek to function on the theory of allowance until being told to cease. But functioning on the basis of ignorance until being educated cannot hold fast in the ever-changing media landscape and the legal constraints within which participants must function. With the role of transformative works becoming more prominent in media culture, a more thorough understanding of the legal role of fair use is needed from both the media consumer and media owner's perspective. The two communities must learn how to address the inter-relational exchanges that have emerged as being a rule rather than an exception.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey

Yaoi or BL (Boys' Love) is a genre of Japanese subculture presenting in comics, videogames, novels and fan arts which describe the fantasy erotic and romantic relationships between males. This is a female-oriented subculture which originated in the early 1970s spread globally, especially during the 1990s. In contemporary China there is a huge population of Yaoi consumers and producers with an inestimable number of Yaoi novels serialized online and many other kinds of Yaoi material uploaded to the internet. However, Yaoi culture and fans face much prejudice in China, even compared to Yaoi as it has been received and produced in the West. An aim of our study of Yaoi culture in China, was to determine the demographics of the Chinese fan-base and to compare this to the demographics of the Anglophone fan-base. Hence, this presentation will report the comparisons of demographic information from our BL Fandom survey data of Sinophone and Anglophone Yaoi fans. We collected 1527 Chinese and 1700 Anglophone survey responses from almost identical surveys in Chinese and in English over a 3 year period from 2014-2017. Demographic data included gender (male, female, other), age, sexual orientation, occupation, strength of fandom identification, acceptance of male/male and female/female relationships in real life, and consumption of non-BL pornographic materials. Results suggested that compared to Anglophone fans, Chinese fans identified less strongly as a BL fan, were less accepting of non-heterosexual relationships in real life, and consumed less non-BL pornography. These finding are commensurate with the relative social conservativism of Chinse culture, including the greater regulation and criticism of Yaoi culture and self-uploaded on-line material. We are still exploring our data and expect to report additional findings during the presentation.

This essay discusses the German fans of author Karl May's Westerns against the backdrop of a broader community of German hobbyists devoted to the American West, as this community developed after 1912 – examining the impact of political repression, war, and the division of Germany after 1945 on these fan communities and their interpretations of the American West. German fans of the 'Old West' (both 'Indian' re-enactment hobbyists and fans of Karl May's more fictionalized story world) created their own bodies of knowledge and celebratory performances over the last century, reinterpreting and exploring the world of May's novels. The historical American West is part of the 'Primary World,' as defined by Mark Wolf, but this essay argues that the diverse versions of the West created by German fans can be understood as partly or entirely secondary, since neither May, nor many of the first generations of German fans, ever visited the American West. Both May's stories and fans' interpretations of the West were partly based on fiction, even as many tried to recreate an 'authentic' world that they had never seen. The story world created by May, and the broader fictionalized world of the American West created by German fans, was also transmedial before media convergence, tentatively before 1945 and increasingly so after 1960. But the German versions of Karl May's stories and the American West that extended across varied media during the twentieth century were often inconsistent, created by a variety of producers as a result of political regime turnover in twentieth century Germany, the expiration of copyright over May's novels, and the growing consumer culture of West Germany after 1945. The lack of any centralized editorial control over transmedia versions of both Karl May's story world and the fictionalized American West helped German fans to make the American West their own, creating their own versions of the 'Western' stories, characters, and cultures suited to the politics and culture of each decade, and circulating these interpretations among other fans.

The aim of this study then is to move beyond politically oriented discussion forums by also examining the  communicative practices of participants within fan-based forums. The focus is on how participants talk politics in online informal discussion forums. By informal discussion forums, I am referring to those forums that are not bound to any formal predetermined agendas such as e-consultations or e-juries, but rather to forums who’s primary purpose is to simply provide a communicative space for talk, e.g. fan-based discussion forums, news media message boards, and Usenet newsgroups. By political talk, I am referring to everyday, informal, political conversation carried out freely between participants in these online spaces, which is often spontaneous and lacks any purpose outside the purpose of talk for talk sake, representing the practical communicative form of what Habermas (1984, p. 327) calls communicative action. It is through this type of everyday political talk whereby citizens achieve mutual understanding about the self and each other, and it represents the fundamental ingredient of the public sphere.

The purpose of this study first is a normative one; it is to examine the democratic quality of this fundamental ingredient, of the communicative practices of participants within online discussions forums in light of a set of normative conditions of the public sphere. It is also to move beyond a formal notion of deliberation (beyond rationality via argumentation) by providing a more accurate account of how the political emerges in online discussions (particularly within nonpolitically oriented forums), how people actually talk politics in those discussions, and finally, how alternative communicative forms such as humor, emotional comments, and acknowledgements interact and influence the more ‘traditional’ elements of deliberation (e.g. rational-critical debate and reciprocity). Consequently, I present the following three research questions, which are central to this study:

To what extent do the communicative practices of online political discussions satisfy the normative conditions of the process of deliberation of the public sphere?

What role, if any, do expressives (humor, emotional comments, and acknowledgements) play within online political discussions and in relation to the normative conditions of deliberation?

How does political talk emerge in nonpolitically oriented discussion forums?

Together, the answers to these questions present a more comprehensive account of online political talk. They seek not only to offer insight into the quality of such talk, but also to provide a better understanding of its expressive and affective nature. Moreover, they seek to improve our understanding of how political talk occurs outside the realm of politically oriented discussion forums, and how it emerges in such communicative spaces. Therefore, in order to answer these questions and provide this insight, I examine and compare political talk within three online discussion forums of the Guardian, Big Brother, and Wife Swap. A comparative study design with normative, descriptive, and explorative characteristics was utilized. A content analysis with both qualitative and quantitative features was employed as the primary instrument for examination. Additional textual and network analyses were carried out to provide more depth to the investigation.

En los últimos años, gracias a la consolidación de la web 2.0 y al apogeo de las redes sociales, se han incorporado formas de interactividad que establecen las lógicas del nuevo paradigma de comunicación. En el contexto de la ficción televisiva, esta revolución digital en la comunicación ha convertido a las audiencias tradicionales en sujetos estratégicos que dejan de ser espectadores pasivos para convertirse en generadores de contenido entorno a las ficciones muy capaces de contribuir a la promoción y difusión del contenido de las series. Este nuevo espectador-usuario, realiza aportaciones en torno a la ficción que se convierten en nuevas producciones, nuevas narrativas transtextuales pero tambiéntransmediáticas que sirven como producto de consumo de otros usuarios con intereses similares, contribuyendo así al fenómeno fandom.

Por un lado, analizamos la actividad de la comunidad fan en YouTube en torno a las series televisivas de producción española a partir de un análisis comparativo de género. Para ello, presentamos un estudio exploratorio a partir de una muestra que recoge más de 100 vídeos subidos a YouTube por los fans y cuyo contenido es relativo a series españolas de estreno en 2013. Clasificamos los vídeos según el género y profundizamos en los contenidos de los vídeos con el objetivo de observar qué papel tiene la mujer en el vídeo (protagonista, secundario o coral) y que relación guarda su rol con el género de quien sube el vídeo. Por otro lado, observamos qué tipo de vídeo suben hombres y mujeres con la finalidad de conocer quién es más creativo a la hora de expandir la narración de la ficción. Los resultados indican que los vídeos subidos por los hombres son ligeramente superiores en número a los subidos por las mujeres. Sin embargo, ellas son más fanáticas porque superan a los hombres en la creación de contenidos más elaborados e inéditos que expanden la narración ficcional de la serie. En las tres categorías de roles, principal secundario y coral, los hombres superan a las mujeres en la aportación de vídeos con representación de roles femeninos.

In this article, called Ministerical Fannibals: the power of the fandom
it will be analyzed how the fandom has become in recent years an essential role. While this is not something new or belonging exclusively to the field of seriality, as well Henry Jenkins (2006) explained in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, it is true that has evolved to become one of the key elements of the serial food chain. His contributions and especially their involvement have decided on several occasions the continuation of a series or the defenestration of a character, and perhaps most importantly, have led to the generation of
surrounding and alternative narrative universes. This paper aims to deep into the behavior of fandom and its consequences through the study of different samples and examples of actions taken (transmedia or not) in relation to different series produced specially in United States in the last 15 years. And although various serial fandom will be analyzed in different ways, the focus will be specially on two recent quite different cases: the fannibals –fandom of Hannibal (NBC, 2012- 2015)– and the ministéricos, fandom of the TV series El ministerio del tiempo (La 1, 2015-), for being two very different series and therefore two fandoms also very different, but the two of them are very active. The first, an American series of three seasons whose cancellation has awakened an increasing cohort of followers; and the second, a Spanish series that was initially planned for one season and, die to its success, its second season is already on the air for 2016. The main objective is to establish the high influence of these groups in the series of the third age of television, whether in reference to the constructive elements of the series, in their characters or with respect to the scope of transmedia, where perhaps there has been more the evolution of the footprint of this group in the world of fiction in recent years.

"Reception theory gives me permission to change the past since it attacks the assumption of the passive spectator, installing his imaginative intervention, the degree of agency that enables the seaming of the viewed into the viewer’s life-experience context. This is an approach that challenges the media ideology tradition by focusing on what viewers do with media consumption, the ‘uses’ and ‘gratifications’ of social and psychological needs. Television thereby relates to issues of personal identity and values. It can be used to help negotiate social identity, or escape from it." This paper uses reception theory and fan studies to discuss the traumatic moment when the original Doctor appeared to die in front of child audiences at the end of the first Cyberman story in 1966 (this was retrospectively described as the first 'regeneration') and suggests that our experiences and memories of the event are mixed up with our changing relationship to the 'natural' and cyber body.

At !rst glance religions and fandoms have little in common. Religions are traditionally venerable, being founded centuries or millennia ago, where fandoms are contemporary, emerging from modern capitalism and pop culture. Religious scriptures are respected as the source of divine standards for human life, while fandom texts are entertainment and fiction.

La presente ponencia es parte de mi investigación de tesis de licenciatura, en la cual me propongo contribuir al análisis de la construcción de fandoms en Argentina entre fines de los noventa y la actualidad a partir del estudio del caso de los fans de Harry Potter. La configuración y crecimiento de este fandom en Argentina deben entenderse como parte de un proceso caracterizado por cambios en las relaciones entre fans, y entre éstos y sus objetos de interés, proceso en el que la virtualidad tuvo un rol fundamental. Además de encontrarse cara-a-cara, los fans comenzaron a valerse de las vías de sociabilidad habilitadas por las nuevas tecnologías y la globalización. En esta ponencia, me centraré en las relaciones que se construyen entre los fans en espacios virtuales y físicos. A su vez, analizaré los procesos de identificación y comunalización que se ponen en juego dentro del fandom. Mi metodología de investigación se basó en el trabajo de campo etnográfico clásico y virtual en convenciones, eventos y grupos de Facebook y de Whatsapp. Palabras clave: fan, Harry Potter, virtual, comunalización, identificación INTRODUCCIÓN En las últimas décadas, surgieron y proliferaron en Argentina diversos fandoms 2 centrados en todo tipo de objetos. Esto debe entenderse en un contexto de globalización y aparición de comunidades transnacionales (cfr. Rosas Mantecón, 1993) y en un contexto 1 Profesora de Enseñanza Media y Superior en Ciencias Antropológicas, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires. [email protected] 2 Contracción de las palabras inglesas fan y kingdom, que podría traducirse como "reino de fans". Existen discusiones sobre su etimología; esta traducción es la que aparece más frecuentemente en el sentido común nativo y académico.

La apropiación de los contenidos televisivos ha motivado diversos estudios a lo largo de los años. La impronta de las nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación y el nacimiento de nuevos hábitos de consumo nos obligan a analizar formas inéditas del comportamiento de la audiencia. En este trabajo expondré el caso de una serie de TV que cuenta con varias facetas de interés en cuanto a la participación y acción del público fiel del relato. Analizaré la comunicación entre productores-consumidores y la generación de nuevas piezas vinculadas a la historia original. Intentaré mostrar que el universo 3.0 pone en jaque las ideas rígidas que marcaron por años el pulso de los medios.

The act of shipping slash couples was once considered taboo, but now has become commonplace. The gender pairing of couples is no longer limiting on what is deemed acceptable for the purpose of shipping. However, there are still lines that are being crossed in the name of shipping, and one of those is within incestuous pairings. Breaking free of the societal boundary of familial love in order to explore physical love might be frowned upon in reality, but it has not stopped fans from taking their favorite sibling characters and adding a new element to their relationship.

In this article, called Ministerical Fannibals: the power of the fandom it will be analyzed how the fandom has become in recent years an essential role. While this is not something new or belonging exclusively to the field of seriality, as well Henry Jenkins (2006) explained in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, it is true that has evolved to become one of the key elements of the serial food chain. His contributions and especially their involvement have decided on several occasions the continuation of a series or the defenestration of a character, and perhaps most importantly, have led to the generation of surrounding and alternative narrative universes. This paper aims to deep into the behavior of fandom and its consequences through the study of different samples and examples of actions taken (transmedia or not) in relation to different series produced specially in United States in the last 15 years. And although various serial fandom will be analyzed in d...

This essay charts the history of Star Wars fans’ tumultuous relationship with franchise creator George Lucas. Drawing on the theories and insights of writers and scholars such as Bruce Lincoln, John C. Lyden, Andrew Briton, Hiroki Azuma, Jonathan Z. Smith, Tom Shone, and Ben Brazil, the argument is made that the relationship between Lucas and his fans can be understood as comparable to that of the relationship that exists between a hierophant and their devotees in a traditional religious setting. However, Lucas’s subsequent decision to tamper with the sacred
canon of Star Wars with the Special Editions re-releases, and his altering of core elements of Star Wars mythology via the poorly received Prequel Trilogy, made Lucas guilty of sacrilege, leading to his eventual rejection by Star Wars fans. This rejection in turn opened up a position of power that would eventually be filled by J. J. Abrams, whose film successfully returned the saga to a more conservative status quo.

Yaoi/BL Fandom Survey (only takes 10 mins to complete): https://leeds.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/blfandomsurvey
Boys’ Love (BL) is an umbrella term for female-oriented media, predominantly manga, anime, light novels, and games usually of Japanese origin which focus on erotic relationships between men. There is also a tremendous amount of related amateur male-male erotic fan-art, fan-fiction, and manga (known as yaoi dojinshi) on the internet and sold at the massive Japanese comics markets. It is well-known that most BL readers, mangaka (author-artists), and yaoi dojinshi creators are female. The history of BL is the history of its progenitor genres. Shonen-ai – literally ‘boy love’ – is the name given to a genre of male-male romance developed in Japan by a small number of ground-breaking female mangaka during the 1970s. In the 1980s, young Japanese women began to be more irreverent with fictionalised, male-male sexuality, creating amateur parodies of existing, non-erotic works, which became known as ‘yaoi’. Shotacon contains of erotic material which deliberately portrays young, often pre-pubescent, boys and female-oriented, male-male shotacon is sometimes, and controversially, considered a BL sub-genre. Since the mid-1990s, BL/yaoi has become a global phenomenon with products available in commercial translation and numerous fan-created, in-copyright-infringement, scanlation (‘scan-and-translate’) on-line. One of the, possibly particularly, surprising aspects of BL is its, often, risqué sexual content including rape/non-con/dub-con, BDSM, incest, and underage sex. I offer an introduction to BL as both a professional and as an amateur activity and in an Asian as well as in a Western context, where its relationship to male-male slash fiction is considered. Particular emphasis will be given to what is known, or speculated about, the pleasure afforded women through their engagement with BL, and I will present interim results from my on-going on-line survey of the Anglophone BL fandom (current n=998).

Talking politics online is not bound to spaces dedicated to politics, particularly the everyday political talk crucial to the public sphere. The aim of this article is to move beyond such spaces by examining political talk within a space dedicated to popular culture. The purpose is to see whether a reality TV discussion forum provides both the communicative space, content, and style for politics that both extends the public sphere while moving beyond a conventional notion. The central question is whether it fulfils the requirements of rationality and deliberation. The analysis also moves beyond a formal notion by investigating how expressive speech acts interact and influence the more traditional elements of deliberation. The findings indicate that nearly a quarter of the postings from the Big Brother sample were engaged in political talk, which was often deliberative in nature. It was a communicative space where the use of expressives both facilitated and impeded such talk.

THE FAN STUDIES NETWORK 2014 CONFERENCE

27-28th September 2014
Regent’s University London, UK 

Keynote Speakers:
Dr Paul Booth (DePaul University)
Dr Rhiannon Bury (Athabasca University)
Mr Orlando Jones (star of Sleepy Hollow, appearing for a virtual Q&A)

For two years the Fan Studies Network has provided a fruitful and enthusiastic space for academics interested in fans and fandom to connect, share resources, and develop their research ideas. Following the success of our first symposium in November 2013, we are delighted to announce the FSN2014 Conference, taking place over two days at Regent’s University London from 27-28th September 2014.

FSN2014 will feature three fantastic keynote speakers. The first will be Dr Paul Booth, author of Digital Fandom: New Media Studies (Peter Lang, 2010), Time on TV: Temporal Displacement and Mashup Television (Peter Lang, 2012) and editor of Fan Phenomena: Doctor Who (Intellect, 2013). His newest book, Media Play: Pastiche, Parody, Fandom, is forthcoming from University of Iowa Press. The second keynote will be Dr Rhiannon Bury, author of Cyberspaces of Their Own: Female Fandoms Online (Peter Lang, 2005) and currently writing her second book for publication with Peter Lang, entitled Television 2.0: New Perspectives on Digital Convergence, Audiences, and Fans. We are also incredibly delighted that Mr Orlando Jones, an American film and television writer, producer, and actor who currently plays Captain Frank Irving in Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 2013-) and vocal proponent of fan culture, will be joining us via Skype to participate in a virtual Q&A session.

We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words for individual 20 minute papers that address any aspect of fandom or fan studies. We also welcome collated submissions for pre-constituted panels. We encourage new members, in all stages of study, to the network and welcome proposals for presentations on, but not limited to, the following possible topics:

- Activism and fandom
- Producer-audience interactions
- Non-Western fan cultures
- Ethics in fan studies
- Defining fandom
- Anti-Fandom and Non-Fandom
- Fan use of social media platforms
- Fandom (and) controversies
- The future of fan studies

We also invite expressions of interest (100- 200 words) from anyone wishing to host a short session of ‘speed geeking.’ This would involve each speaker chairing a short discussion on a relevant topic of their choosing, and then receiving extensive feedback, making it ideal for presenting in-progress or undeveloped ideas. If you have any questions about this format of presentation, please contact Richard McCulloch at [email protected]. 

Please send any enquires/abstracts to: [email protected] by SUNDAY 1st JUNE.
Notifications of decisions will be sent out w/c 16th June.
You can find out more information on
http://fanstudies.wordpress.com/ or talk about the event on Twitter using #FSN2014.

Conference Organisers:
Lucy Bennett and Tom Phillips (FSN chairs)
Bertha Chin, Bethan Jones, Richard McCulloch, Rebecca Williams (FSN board)

In this paper we present the Tumblr analytics dashboard, tApp. tApp is designed based on findings from a study we completed on Tumblr and fandoms. Within, we describe an overview of seven sections of the dashboard, reasoning behind the design, current prototype screen shots, one use case scenario and proposed future work.

"Adrift somewhere between childhood and adulthood, teens live in a period of transition, especially in terms of bodily changes and identity formation. While both are key themes of young adult (YA) literature, YA fantasy, through its departure from consensus reality, plays a particularly pivotal; it is a space of possibility, a space for bodies and identities to be explored. However, in order for this possibility to occur, the logically created Secondary World is essential, and to this end, maps – or their conspicuous absence – are critical to these texts, as is the case for Tamora Pierce’s Tortall universe, Kristin Cashore’s Graceling Realm series and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles. Thus, this paper explores how maps function – to ground readers in a particular fantasy world, to establish a space for identity formation and to introduce notions of creation – within these texts.

Initially, the map locates readers, quite literally, within a particular space. The visual image of the map appeals, perhaps ironically, to a reality outside of the text’s narrative. It both, visually represents the world of the narrative and, at the same time, creates it, marking out its boundaries and borders. For the (teen) reader, the visual image of the map appeals to a sense of stable reality – this is the world. The map also invites readers into the fantastic world, asking them to partake and to participate, to accept (at the most basic) the ground rules of the world. To this end, while Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles do not (yet) include any maps, it has not stopped fans (readers) from beginning to create their own. It is to this notion of fan as secondary creator, as sub-creator, with which this paper concludes – the map marks a beginning to the visual images related to these texts, but it is not the end. 
"

In the present chapter we present general statistics about the furry fandom to answer a number of questions that are often asked about furries (e.g., what is a furry, what are the demographics of the furry fandom, what is the content of the fandom?). Through the use of converging methodology that compares furries to interesting control groups, researchers have shed light on a group which, for years, has been known to most only through stereotypes and misconceptions. Demographic information provides a first look at the fandom and the social context through which to interpret other findings. A look at the idiosyncrasies and trends in the fandom helps us to better understand the experience of the average furry and what the fandom is and is not. Finally, a look at some of the psychological mechanisms associated with the furry fandom illustrates that, far from being trivial or insignificant, time spent in the furry fandom can have real, lasting effects on furries.

Hoy existen múltiples estudios que abordan el análisis de las culturas participativas y, más específicamente, el espectador fan de películas o series de televisión. Henry Jenkins, huyendo del estereotipo de brainless consumers y social misfits que dedican su vida a cultivar un “conocimiento inútil”, marca un punto de inflexión al plantear un perfil de fan que se corresponde con personas cultas. Desde este momento, los fan studies están viviendo su época dorada con diferentes investigadores o aca-fans que estudian y analizan el fenómeno en sus diferentes países de origen. El objetivo general de esta investigación es realizar una radiografía, estudio y descripción del espectador fan español en relación con sus competencias digitales. Además, se persiguen dos objetivos secundarios: realizar una comparativa entre espectadores fan y espectadores no fan de acuerdo con sus competencias digitales y analizar el grado de correlación existente entre el nivel de competencias digitales del espectador fan y el número de series y películas del que se considera fan. Para abordar estos objetivos, se administró un cuestionario en línea elaborado ad hoc, en el que participaron 1003 consumidores de ficción audiovisual, cuyos datos se analizaron utilizando una metodología cuantitativa. Los análisis descriptivos y comparativos nos permitieron concluir que, en primer lugar, la práctica que dominan los espectadores fans es la búsqueda de información. En segundo lugar, que el espectador fan tiene mayores competencias digitales que el espectador no fan. Y, por último, que el nivel de competencias en los ítems de interacción y edición de contenidos en los fans es directamente proporcional al número de productos de los que el espectador se considera fan.

This dissertation examines how adolescent pop culture fans seeking “imaginary solutions” for adulthood interact with the structural processes of vocational education and a globalized pop culture production industry job market. A qualitative study of students enrolled as animation and manga majors at two Japanese vocational schools in Tokyo, Japan based on qualitative fieldwork, interviews and surveys of students and staff, and internal school data explores the following issues. 1) How explicit vocational training and implicit socialization at vocational schools transform pop culture consumers into skilled workers in the pop culture industry. As youth are transformed during the school-to-work process, they also impact the practices of both schools and production employers.  2) How Japan’s non-university post-secondary educational sector is shaped by market pressures to entice enrollment and informal hiring agreements with industry employers. Targeting young pop culture fans to enroll in two-year vocational programs produces an influx of socially awkward and introverted students who must be re-socialized to meet workplace communications and social interaction expectations. 3) How industry professionals hired as contract lecturers provide legitimacy for schools with students and employers, while as master craftsmen and role models they train students to meet employers’ standards for skilled workers. 4) How the push to meet global market demands for Japanese pop culture products is transforming the Japanese domestic industry into a two-tiered global job model, with consequences for youth who train for the lower tier of skilled working class jobs in terms of social status, quality of life, and job mobility.

The book and film franchise of Harry Potter has inspired a monumental fandom community with a veracious output of fanfiction and general musings on the text and the vivid universe contained therein. A significant portion of these texts deal with Professor Severus Snape, the stern Potions Master with ambiguous ethics and loyalties. This paper explores a small community of Snape fans who have gone beyond a narrative retelling of the character as constrained by the work of Joanne Katherine Rowling. The ‘Snapewives’ or ‘Snapists’ are women who channel Snape, are engaged in romantic relationships with him, and see him as a vital guide for their daily lives. In this context, Snape is viewed as more than a mere fictional creation. He is seen as a being that extends beyond the Harry Potter texts with Rowling perceived as a flawed interpreter of his supra-textual essence. While a Snape religion may be seen as the extreme end of the Harry Potter fandom, I argue that religions of this nature are not uncommon, unreasonable, or unprecedented. Popular films are a mechanism for communal bonding, individual identity building, and often contain their own metaphysical discourses. Here, I plan to outline the manner in which these elements resolve within extreme Snape fandom so as to propose a nuanced model for the analysis of fandom-inspired religion without the use of unwarranted veracity claims.

I'm writing this quite informally as I'm assuming (hoping) this does not count as part of my actual dissertation. I remember the first time we met, I was in my final year of Music Journalism, and I walked past your office. I saw a cardboard cutout of a Doctor Who character and without realization of what I was doing, I walked your office unannounced. You were sat at your desk writing something, and I vaguely introduced myself (as a massive Doctor Who fan) and complemented you on the various Doctor Who memorabilia you had placed around the room. I cannot remember the exact details, but I remember a brief conversation where I said that you were living the dream, an academic who gets to write about a show that they love, even If you have to critique it. I said that I'd love to do that one day...a year later, here I am. I have written something that I am genuinely proud of. I could not have done this without your insight, humor, and sincere care. It has been a particularly hard time for all students, but it is tutors like you who really make a difference. Thank you for all your wisdom and corrections, for calming my irrational fears and keeping me focused.