Browsing by Subject "Fandom"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13

Aesthetic fandom : furries in the 1970s
(2021-05-06) Dunn, Kameron Isaiah; Davis, Janet M.
This report offers a cultural history of the furry fandom by analyzing their emergence in the 1970s within broader transnational economic and cultural flows. The furry fandom is a community of people interested in anthropomorphic animals, the kind you see in Disney animated films and newspaper cartoons. This aesthetic interest differentiates furries from other fandoms emerging at this time whose congregation is normally predicated on an interest in a particular piece of media, such as Trekkies and their love of Star Trek. Furries’ interest in the aesthetics of anthropomorphic animals can be transformative and places them within a group of people who foster this niche interest as well as aspects of their queerness. Indeed, the furry fandom is majority LGBTQ+-identifying. This history examines niche interest and the queerness of the furry fandom, placing these facets into broader conversations of queer theory and consumer capitalism. Ultimately, this report shows how furries co-construct a sort of utopic reality within larger society’s political and economic anxiety in the 1970s, and how these originating practices continue today. Furry cultural production demonstrates elements of American cartoons as well as Japanese anime made manifest in their art, such as their alter-egos known as “fursonas.” This blending of anthropomorphic styles into something uniquely furry is a practice that is ongoing. This report utilizes a mixed methods approach including historiography and visual analysis to tell this story of furries’ origins in the 1970s and their persistence to today.
ATX television festival : fans, industry, and television in context
(2017-10-26) Lanier, Kelly Elizabeth; Schatz, Thomas, 1948-; Perren, Alisa
The purpose of this report is to map the relationship between television festivals, film festivals, and pop culture conventions, using the ATX Television Festival as a case study. With television viewing practices changing and more television content available than ever before, this report argues that television festivals provide a unique setting for television fans and producers to celebrate television.
Celebrity and fandom on Twitter : examining electronic dance music in the Digital Age
(2012-12) Anaipakos, Jessica Lyle; Kumar, Shanti; Staiger, Janet
This thesis looks at electronic dance music (EDM) celebrity and fandom through the eyes of four producers on Twitter. Twitter was initially designed as a conversation platform, loosely based on the idea of instant-messaging but emerged in its current form as a micro-blog social network in 2009. EDM artists count on the website to promote their music, engage with fans, discover new songs, and contact each other. More specifically, Twitter is an extension of a celebrity’s private life, as most celebrities access Twitter from their cellphones and personal computers, cutting out gatekeepers from controlling their image. Four power player producers in EDM are used as case studies for analysis of the intimacy and reach Twitter provides. Chosen because of their visibility, style, and recognition, Deadmau5, Diplo, Skrillex, and Tiësto represent different EDM subgenres, run their own record labels, have dedicated fans, and are accessible through social media. All use Twitter to announce shows, interact with fans, promote contests and merchandise, and share stories and pictures of their personal lives with their fan followers. Tweets are a direct line for fans to communicate with these celebrities through the reply, retweet (RT), and mention functions on Twitter. Fan tweets to and from these EDM celebrities are also examined by looking at celebrity-fan encounters in the cyber world and the real world, aftereffects of celebrity RTs, and engagement with said celebrities. The internet is the lifeline for this subculture as it changed the way EDM is shared, promoted, and packaged. Twitter and other social media sites give producers the exposure they never experienced with traditional media and allow fans to participate in a global subculture. To sum up, this is a study on how Twitter influenced EDM and personalized the relationship between producers and fans.
Crossing boundaries : transnationality, intertextuality, and intermediality in the work of Guillermo del Toro
(2019-05-08) Turnage, Emily Christian; Berg, Charles Ramírez, 1947-
This thesis explores the hybridity found in both the work and identity of Guillermo del Toro through the lens of his transnationality, intertextuality and fandom, genre hybridity, and intermediality. Using del Toro’s films as case studies, this thesis analyzes the ways in which del Toro expresses his hybridity through his films in addition to his self-expression through social media platforms like Twitter and his own personal artifact collection of fantasy and horror memorabilia. Particularly, this thesis explores the ways in which del Toro is able to cross boundaries, between nations, between texts, between genres, and between forms of media.
Hallyu fandom in Mexico City and Lima : soft power, gender, and new media self-fashioning of transcultural youth
(2021-09-03) Kim, Min Suk (Ph. D. in Iberian and Latin American languages and cultures); Salgado, César Augusto; Arroyo, Jossianna; Cárcamo-Huechante, Luis; Straubhaar, Joseph D.
This dissertation examines why Hallyu (the global consumption of Korean popular culture in the New Millennium) operates as a class-based and gendered phenomenon in Latin America. With a fanbase predominately comprised of women and LGBTQ+ communities from lower-middle classes and non-White populations, young Latin Americans adopt Korean popular culture to (re)imagine and fashion their identities beyond the social constraints of the nation-state. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research methods (in-depth interviews, participant observation, grounded theory) and data collected in Mexico City and Lima, Peru, between 2016 and 2019, I analyze, reconceptualize, and recontextualize less visible layers of Hallyu fandom demographics in Latin America in relation to questions of social belonging. My research reveals that Hallyu fans in Mexico City and Lima are culturally hybrid, technologically savvy, and socially nonconforming young people who resist the normative impositions of a binary gender system and hegemonic social inequality for upward mobility. Hallyu, as a vital point of reference to study the intersectionality of local and global forces, enables us to interpret recent class, racial, gender, and age dynamics in a digitally connected Latin American youth culture in new, still underexplored ways.
Heroes of the past, readers of the present, stories of the future : continuity, cultural memory, and historical revisionism in superhero comics
(2014-05) Friedenthal, Andrew J.; Davis, Janet M.
This dissertation is a study of cultural memory, exploring how superhero comic books, and their readers and creators, look back on and make sense of the past, as well as how they use that past in the creation of community and stories today. It is my contention that the superhero comics that exist as part of a long-standing "universe," particularly those published by DC and Marvel, are inextricably linked to a sense of cultural memory which defines both the organization of their fans and the history of their stories, and that cultural memory in comics takes the twinned forms of fandom and continuity. Comic book fandom, from its very inception, has been based around memories of past stories and recollections about favorite moments, creators, characters, etc. Because of this, as many of those fans have gone on to become creators themselves, the stories they have crafted reflect that continual obsession with the histories -- loosely termed "continuity" by creators, fans, and comic book scholars -- of these fictional universes. Often, this obsession translates into an engagement with actual events from the past. In many of these cases, as with much art and ephemera that is immersed in cultural memory, these fans-turned-creators combine their interest in looking at the history of the fictional universe with a working out of actual traumatic events. My case studies focus on superhero comic books that respond to such events, particularly World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11.
“I purple you” : a look at fandom identity, behaviors and loyalty among BTS’ ARMY
(2022-05) Hing, Zoie Ruyii; Tindall, Natalie T. J., 1978-; Sanders, Meghan S
Bangtan Sonyeondan, also known as BTS for short, have taken the global music scene by storm. BTS, both as a brand and as a music group, experienced great success in recent years largely due to the efforts of their fandom, whom they call ARMY. Little research has explored fandom identity, motivations, and behaviors in the context of a K-pop fandom as it relates to brand loyalty. This research project utilized eudaimonic and hedonic motivational theories to explore fandom motivations, fandom theories, such as fandom landscapes, to understand how ARMY identify themselves, and attachment theory to explore brand loyalty. A mixed methods approach was used in this research to provide a more holistic view of ARMY beliefs, behaviors, and experiences. An online survey was used to explore various factors that ARMY used to identify themselves, types of behaviors they engaged in, the degree to which they engaged with BTS as a brand, and some motivations as to why they partake in certain behaviors (N = 144). A series of interviews (N = 14) were conducted to further explore the motivational aspect and degree of loyalty aspect of the research. Findings show that authenticity, community, parasocial relationships, eudaimonic motivations, and hedonic motivations were important factors impacting brand loyalty. Fandom identity appeared to be segmented by degree of knowledge and engagement both within the fandom itself and with BTS as a brand. The fandom appeared to adopt a fandom landscape approach, with no real hierarchical structure or titles defining individuals at different levels of fandom. Behaviors appeared to indicate specific labels, rather than levels, within the BTS fandom landscape, such as “hardcore fans” and “casual fans.” The study lends itself to future research on K-pop fandom and brand loyalty, as well as additional opportunities to further explore brand loyalty between ARMY and BTS.
Let's have a gay old time : how lesbians shaped early Hollywood
(2021-07-30) Reinschmidt, Janet; Isenberg, Noah William
This thesis puts forth Alla Nazimova, Kay Francis, and Greta Garbo as case studies for early Hollywood lesbian stardom and reception and unpacks how their star personas were constructed as well as the fan responses to their image and work. Through intersections of star studies, reception studies, classic literature, and queer historical texts, I discuss each star’s life and career with textual analysis of their films and primary sources such as fan letters, fan magazines, advertisements, and newspaper articles. I argue that each star represents a queer, and more specifically lesbian and bisexual, sensibility within the early Hollywood film industry that deserves more scholarly attention. The fan letters columns within old Hollywood fan magazines such as Photoplay and Modern Screen particularly illustrate the construction of queer star personas and the impact that they had on informed movie fans. Nazimova, Francis, and Garbo were all-powerful and influential figures in the film industry during significant periods of change such as the rise of the studio era, the arrival of sound, and the shift from pre-Code to the production Code era. Their star personas reflect how they were influenced by and went on to influence these critical transitions in Old Hollywood. There is a fundamental activist function to this work, to remind audiences that queer people have always existed, even without a framework to discuss identity, and this work endeavors to show a dedicated lesbian influence and audience of early Hollywood.
National Basketball Association fandom in China : a comparative analysis of fan behaviors, fan motivation, and team identification
(2017-05) Zhang, Yahui, M.A.; Brown-Devlin, Natalie
This study examines NBA fandom in China and the U.S. in terms of fan behavior, fan motivations, and team identification. Two hypotheses and three research questions are proposed to examine the relationship among sport fandom, team identification, and sport consumption on social, and how fan motivations differ across two nations. One Chinese sample and one American sample are collected to test the hypotheses and answer the research questions. Results from both studies revealed several differences. Demographic analyses showed gender difference in differentiating fandom and team identification in both of the two nations. Further intercultural research input is called for into this area.
The new curators : bloggers, fans and classic cinema on Tumblr
(2014-05) Cain, Bailey Knickerbocker; Frick, Caroline
This study examines the role of social media in maintaining interest in classic cinema in today’s media culture. Ethnographic analyses and case studies were performed within a robust classic cinema fan network on the social media blogging site Tumblr. The practices of these bloggers and their online platform are framed against the traditional structure of the curator and museum, indicating that they serve many of the cultural functions attributed to these institutions. This study further demonstrates that these Tumblr networks serve as a resource for young people to discover, share, and create communities relating to classic cinema. Due to the networking capabilities of Tumblr’s youth-oriented platform, these fan activities reach a broad range of individuals, exposing them to scenes and actors from classic cinema, stimulating interest in and acceptance of the cinematic framework of classic films. This content visibility and distribution potentially draws those outside the community into the extant fan network. These communities and practices represent previously unexplored methods by which classic cinema appreciation may develop and thrive within the fast-paced media culture of the 21st century.
Nothing but net : examining the introduction of advertising sponsors on NBA jerseys
(2017-05) Graeber, Justin Michael; Drumwright, Minette E.; Close Scheinbaum, Angeline
Beginning in the 2017-18 season, the National Basketball Association will be the first of the four major American sports to monetize official, regular-season game jerseys and implement an advertising program in the form of sponsor patches. This study examined the effects that the presence of these advertisements had on attitude toward the team and the sponsoring corporation. Additionally, the effect of setting on attitude toward the sponsor was examined, and whether the presence of a sponsor logo during a socially responsible team activity resulted in a more positive attitude toward the sponsor than the presence of a sponsor logo during an active gameplay setting. This hypothesis was not supported, and significantly lower attitude toward the sponsor in the CSR setting indicated a potential skepticism toward sponsors when present in these environments. Lastly, the relationship between attitude and what participants attribute the implementation of jersey ads toward were examined, including differing attributions toward improved fan experience, team performance, profit-driven motivations, and socially responsible motivations. Results indicated that with fan or socially oriented attributions, sponsors enjoyed more pronounced improvements in attitude than teams. Practical implications and directions for future research are also discussed.
Theater bootlegs : discourses on access and class in theater fandom
(2019-02-06) Stickler, Toni Maria; Scott, Suzanne, 1979-
This thesis contributes to the growing field of theater audience studies by focusing on a particular theater fan practice: recording and watching bootlegs. While scholars have extensively researched bootlegs of music concerts, bootlegs of theater have not been studied even though they are a crucial aspect of the contemporary theater fandom experience. This is a significant gap in understanding how audiences relate to theater, especially because theater as a medium is relatively expensive and inaccessible. This thesis frames bootlegs as filling a demand for greater access to professional theater and considers the political ramifications of their circulation. To this end, I examine the construction of theater as a “high class” medium and how prioritizing the “liveness” of theater contributes to its exclusivity. I examine how these conceptions of theater permeate the discourses of theater producers and performers who condemn the recording of bootlegs. Finally, a survey of the community of theater bootleg traders illuminates the tensions that currently exist for bootleg traders as they attempt to circulate bootlegs while avoiding unwanted attention from theater producers.
Transformative gameplay practices : speedrunning through Hyrule
(2017-06-22) Hilburn, Kaitlin Elizabeth; Scott, Suzanne, 1979-; Fuller-Seeley, Kathy
The term “transformative” gets used in both fan studies and video game studies and gestures toward a creative productivity that goes beyond simply consuming a text. However, despite this shared term, game studies and fan studies remain fairly separate in their respective examination of fans and gamers, in part due to media differences between video games and more traditional media, like television. Bridging the gap between these two fields not only helps to better explain transformative gameplay, but also offers additional insights in how fans consume texts, often looking for new ways to experience the source text. This report examines the transformative gameplay practices found within video game fan communities and provides an overview of their development and spread. It looks at three facets of transformative gameplay, performance, mastery, and education, using the transformative gameplay practices around The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) as a primary case study.