Here’s a roundup of stories explaining fandom that might be of interest to fans:
- As awareness of fandoms and the fandom market grows in the commercial sector, the media has followed suit, offering posts that “explain fandom” to their users. In some cases the financial motivation is obvious, such as this CNBC article informing the public that Bieber is passe while Kpop may be the new cash cow. In others, the fan practices are explored as a form of community reporting, looking at those activities in isolation.
- More thoughtful discussions are rarer but exist, such as this patient exploration of fanfic in the Wall Street Journal which explains fanfic to a reader who apparently missed its recent three pronged feature on the topic. The Kansas City Star included commentary from the OTW’s Francesca Coppa in its fanfic discussion, who summed things up nicely by saying ““We may have momentarily forgotten that this is how literature works, people telling stories over and over again and changing them,” Coppa said. “Fan fiction is where non-commercial storytelling lives.””
- But the mass media isn’t the only source of fandom explanations. There’s always a more academic approach, such as this look at Olympic memes or the IDEA Channel’s latest fanworks segment looking at fanfic activity through history. And nowadays there are entire academic courses to explain fanworks, such as the one at Yale which has students “writing their own fan fiction and analysing existing fan fiction.”
- Then there are the introductions done on a more fan-to-fan level such as this introduction to Korean dramas on The Learned Fangirl, or this Q&A with a maker of fan films. Indeed, introductions and explanations can be a part of overall fannish discourse such as this series on fan practices.
If you’ve got your own fandom explanations to share, why not share them on Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.
We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.