Browsing by Subject "Fandom"
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Item Celebrity and fandom on Twitter : examining electronic dance music in the Digital Age(2012-12) Anaipakos, Jessica Lyle; Kumar, Shanti; Staiger, JanetThis 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.Item 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.Item Identity, rhetoric and behavior: The contradictory communities of Wizard Rock(2010-12) Rohlman, Kelli M.; Smith, Christopher; Cimarusti, Thomas M.; Mariani, AngelaSince 2000, a new musical genre has emerged revolving around the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling. This genre, called Wizard Rock, is comprised of more than 700 bands and thousands of listeners. These individuals make up the Wizard Rock community, a musical subculture founded on the ideals of unity, charity, and equality. However, like many musical communities, Wizard Rock participants struggle to behave according to their rhetoric. In this thesis, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at Wizard Rock events around the United States, videography, audio analysis, field interviews, and other ethnographic data, I will argue that there is a noticable disparity between Wizard Rock community rhetoric and its behaviors, particularly focusing upon various constructions of Identity, Social Activism, and Gender and Sexuality.Item Indie music blogging: An examination of culture, fandom and community through online discourse(2010-12) Miles, Stephanie; Peaslee, Robert M.; Chambers, Todd; Johnson, TomThe Internet is becoming a primary source for cultural groups to socialize and communicate about a particular area of interest. Independent music blogs provide a space for disseminating cultural information regarding indie music and festival activities. This analysis uses Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus to examine the content and fan interactions on independent music blogs over the course of a festival event. Blogs are explored as a field within which certain individuals interact and gain power through online discourse. Results of this study indicate that bloggers use exclusivity and discovery to gain status within the indie music blogging community. In addition, fandom and in-group versus out-group were common practices found in the blog and Twitter postings.Item Nerds of Colors Assemble: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Fandom(2012-12-10) Williams, Simon 1984-With shows such as Big Bang Theory and the increased mainstreaming of San Diego Comic-con, now more than ever before, it is acceptable to be a ?nerd?. The question now becomes what efforts are being made to appeal to fans of color in traditional ?nerd? activities, specifically comic books (this can include television shows and movies based on comic book characters), anime, and science fiction. Throughout the decades, there have been various attempts to have a discourse about the lack of diversity in nerd culture, both among its creators and characters from various properties considered beloved to nerds. Only, at the time of this writing, in recent years does there seem to be an increase among fans of color discussing these issues in the world at large, and not just in their own social group(s). This research will discover how minority fans feel about representation, or lack thereof, in the three above fandom. It will examine how minority fans feel about specific instants involving race and ethnicity in fandom from the past year. What I have discovered is that, issues of race are not discussed among the majority of fans and creators. Occasionally, when such issues are discussed there is an amount of hostility from white fans.Item The new curators : bloggers, fans and classic cinema on Tumblr(2014-05) Cain, Bailey Knickerbocker; Frick, CarolineThis 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.