Mushroom for improvement: a model for the circulation of fanfiction sub-genres

This thesis explores the circulation of fanfiction sub-genres across fan communities as starting point for further inquiries into fan object movement among fans. Fan studies has long been interested in the circulation of fan objects, but lacks a broad understanding of how these objects move through space and time (Hills 2014). In applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia to describe fan communities, objects and circulatory behaviours, I analyze two case studies to propose a new model. The first tracks the circulation of a trope on Tumblr, while the second explores the movement of a fanfiction sub-genre across platforms, post types and fandoms. My proposed model is based on the radiating structure of mycelium (the vegetative part of a fungus). Mycelium’s branching and agile nature provides a more accurate framework for ever-evolving fannish circulatory practice

Framing the Future of Fanfiction: How The New York Times’ Portrayal of a Youth Media Subculture Influences Beliefs about Media Literacy Education

This article discusses how online fanfiction communities, their members, and their literacy practices are portrayed within popular and news media discourses. Many media literacy scholars believe these youth media subcultures practice complex and sophisticated forms of “new media” literacy. However, when educators attempt to incorporate these practices into K-12 literacy programs, the public’s reactions may be heavily influenced by the media’s documented patterns of marginalizing, dismissing, and denouncing youth subcultures. This study employs frame and critical discourse analysis in order to examine how the news media’s portrayal of fanfiction shapes and reflects the beliefs of teachers, students, and parents

The fan fiction reading guide: the use of multimedia and comments as close reading tools

This paper considers the benefits of including multimedia in fan fiction multimedia and its effects on the close-reading and critical analysis skills of readers. By completing an illustrative and cumulative case study with three fan fiction authors who are currently writing and publishing a new fiction (fic), the author was able to view the production and promotion of fan fiction and its accompanying multimedia. Additionally, this research analyzed the comments from these works through topic modeling and term frequency as well as other data analysis methods. Through both the data analysis and the interviews, several conclusions were discovered, including the conclusion that readers are able to build their skills through fan fiction and multimedia

How is Fanfiction Framed for Literacy Education Practitioner Periodical Audiences : Media Frame Analysis (2003 - 2013)

This dissertation reports out the results from a socio-cultural media research study that examined how professional periodicals written for United States K-12 public school literacy educators described fanfiction-based recreational literacy practices between 2003 and 2013. In the first decade of the 21st century, many K-12 literacy scholars advocated for the adaptation of predominantly out-of-school literacy practices for use within US public school literacy instruction programs. During this period, some literacy researchers expressed concerns that teachers may have held incomplete or inaccurate conceptions of fan-based literacy practices such as fanfiction, to the detriment of their students and the literacy practices themselves. This research study investigates these concerns within the context of journal articles that describe and discuss fanfiction literacy practices. Practitioner research journal articles were collected and analyzed using socio-cultural media frame analysis in order to determine how fanfiction was presented and evaluated for inclusion within US public school classrooms. Analysis of data uncovered three dominant frame categories -- the youth practice frame, the out-of-school practice frame and the utilitarian practice frame -- each of which reflected how discussions of fanfiction literacy practice were aligned with particularly salient perspectives on the nature and worth of K-12 students\u27 recreational literacy practices. The youth practice frame reflects an orientation toward the view that recreational literacy is juvenile, the out-of-school practice frame reflects the implications and connotations associated with labeling recreational literacy practices as non-academic, and the utilitarian practice frame reflects how recreational literacies are evaluated in terms of their ability to foster in-school literacy performance and assessment. By exploring how fanfiction literacy practices were framed over a decade punctuated by successive US K-12 public school literacy education reforms, this dissertation helps to illustrate the extent to which the qualities and merits of recreational literacy practices are often reoriented, reshaped, and resold to educators as solutions to classroom problems

Fandom and Coercive Empowerment: The commissioned production of Chinese online literature

This article examines how the relationship between consumers and producers of cultural products is shaped by the proprietary nature of digital platforms. Drawing on 4 years of online observation and analysis, we examine the relationship between the producers of online Chinese fiction, amateur writers, and their consumers, that is, the fan communities of readers who respond to their work. Enabled by Chinese literary websites, readers act like sponsors who provide emotional and financial incentives for writers to produce online fictions by commenting, voting, and sending money. Readers become actively involved not just because of the content of the stories but because they form strong commitments to stories and their writers, and gain reciprocity and a sense of self-determination during the interactional process. We argue that although writers are freer from state control online, they are still beholden to the whims of their fans because of what we call the commissioned production of fictions. We contribute to fan community studies by analyzing how commercialized website settings structure the strategies available to participants, how these settings affect the content of the cultural products, and how the Chinese historical and cultural contexts impact the dynamics of the online community.postprin

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Intra-action Among Young Adult Literature, Fans, and Fanfiction

Despite a growing body of research in New Literacies, the balance between providing strong New Literacies instruction while maintaining required traditional literacies instruction has been difficult for teachers. Incorporating ever-changing technologies can feel superficial, emphasizing a technology tool rather than the “ethos” of New Literacies. Despite efforts to increase the use of technology in the classroom, students still feel a disconnect between in-school and out-of-school literacies as in-school literacies, even with technology, do not capture the ethos of out-of-school experiences.To bridge this gap, this study takes a New Materialist approach to studying fanfiction, a phenomenon that incorporates both new and traditional literacies. This lens provides a way of accounting for multiple factors that create the ethos of a New Literacies experience, allowing for more effective transfer into the classroom. Using interviews with fanfiction writers as well as analyzing their fanfiction, I describe the intra-action among the fanfiction space, the source book (Throne of Glass), and the adolescent writer.Findings include the ways in which adolescents intra-act with fanfiction because of unique access, educational opportunities, self-expression, immersion in the story, social interaction, and pleasure. Findings also include the ways in which the Throne of Glass series intra-acted with the adolescents including personal connections with characters, the author, and other fans as well as engagement with elements of the story. Finally, findings showed that the Throne of Glass series intra-acted with the fanfiction space through multiple characters, a large fandom, a genre that includes a vast, ongoing, and intriguing world, an intricate and dramatic plot, and specific style.Discussion includes the ways in which the findings exemplified elements of both traditional and New Literacies as well as the ways in which these findings can be used to more effectively plan for New Literacies activities in the classroom. Findings suggest that teachers may wish to create literacy activities with multiple entry points including selecting texts with multiple, diverse characters that are part of contemporary cultural conversations or fandoms, incorporating choice in texts and product formats, and making assignments collaborative including instruction on how to engage a fanfiction audience

There Should be No Tolerance for Intolerance : Internal Antagonism in Online Fan Communities

This thesis focuses on exploring cases of internal antagonism in fan communities, with a specific focus on the Steven Universe (2013 -) and Undertale (2015) communities present on Tumblr and Twitter. Internal antagonism is a phenomenon that occurs when a community targets a member within itself instead of outside itself, often as a way to mediate and regulate the community and reinforce its values. This thesis considers three case studies of internal antagonism with both physical and digital implications in order to better understand the role it plays in shaping and sustaining online fan communities as well as mediating the roles of fans and creators. This research will give a better understanding of why this harassment happens and what folkloric function it fulfills. This research will reveal why individuals cleave to these communities and what their core values are. The first case study analyzed is the case of Zamii070, a fanartist who faced severe harassment from the Steven Universe fan community due to a “problematic” piece of fanart. The second case study revolves around Jesse Zuke, a former storyboard artist on Steven Universe, was on the end of internal antagonism because of perceptions that they were mocking queer fans. The last case study is that of a fanartist who received cookies with needles in them from a fan who disliked their fanart. This thesis discusses and analyzes the details of the incidents themselves, their results, and the reactions from the fan community using original posts related to the incidents, accounts of the incidents, and interviews with those involved in the community at the time. As context for ethnographic research, this thesis will also explore the Steven Universe and Undertale communities through public posts and interview