Montreal Comiccon 2015 - Katniss Everdeen (19462705781)

A fandom is a subculture composed of

fans Fan commonly refers to: * Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling ** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling * Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...

characterized by a feeling of

empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for ...

with particular practices, differentiating fandom-affiliated people from those with only a casual interest. A fandom can grow around any area of human interest or activity. The subject of fan interest can be narrowly defined, focused on something like an individual

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

, or encompassing entire

hobbies A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing oth ...

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

s or

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion i ...

s. While it is now used to apply to groups of people fascinated with any subject, the term has its roots in those with an enthusiastic appreciation for sports. Merriam-Webster's dictionary traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903. Many fandoms overlap. There are a number of large conventions that cater to fandom such as film, comics, anime, television shows, cosplay, and the opportunity to buy and sell related merchandise. Annual conventions such as

Comic Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

Wondercon WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and film convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area (1987–2011), then—under the name WonderCon Anaheim—in Anaheim, California (2012–2015, 2017–present), and WonderCon Los Angele ...

, Dragon Con and

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a ...

are some of the more well known and highly attended events that cater to overlapping fandoms.

Organized subculture

Fans of the literary detective Sherlock Holmes are widely considered to have comprised the first modern fandom, holding public demonstrations of mourning after Holmes was "killed off" in 1893, and creating some of the first fan fiction as early as about 1897 to 1902. Outside the scope of media, railway enthusiasts are another early fandom with its roots in the late 19th century that began to gain in popularity and increasingly organize in the first decades of the early 20th century. A wide variety of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

modern organized fannish subcultures originated with

science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

, the community of fans of the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

s. Science fiction fandom dates back to the 1930s and maintains organized clubs and associations in many cities around the world. Fans have held the annual World Science Fiction Convention since 1939, along with many other events each year, and has created its own

jargon Jargon is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a partic ...

, sometimes called "

fanspeak Fanspeak is the slang or jargon current in science fiction and fantasy fandom, especially those terms in use among readers and writers of science fiction fanzines. Fanspeak is made up of acronyms, blended words, obscure in-jokes, puns, coinages ...

". In addition, the

Society for Creative Anachronism The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes ...

, a medievalist re-creation group, has its roots in science fiction fandom. It was founded by members thereof; and many science fiction and fantasy authors such as

Marion Zimmer Bradley Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley (June 3, 1930 – September 25, 1999) was an American author of fantasy, historical fantasy, science fiction, and science fantasy novels, and is best known for the Arthurian fiction novel ''The Mists of Avalon'' an ...

Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...

Randall Garrett Gordon Randall Phillip David GarrettGarrett, Randall
in ''

David D. Friedman David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on m ...

, and

Robert Asprin Robert Lynn Asprin (June 28, 1946 – May 22, 2008) was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, known best for his humorous series '' MythAdventures'' and '' Phule's Company''. Background Robert Asprin was born in St. J ...

have been members of the organization. WSFS 001

Media fandom split from science fiction fandom in the early 1970s with a focus on relationships between characters within TV and movie media franchises, such as '' Star Trek'' and ''

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

''. Fans of these franchises generated creative products like

fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...

and fan fiction at a time when typical science fiction fandom was focused on critical discussions. The MediaWest convention provided a video room and was instrumental in the emergence of

fan vids Vidding is a fan labor practice in media fandom of creating music videos from the footage of one or more visual media sources, thereby exploring the source itself in a new way. The creator may choose video clips in order to focus on a single chara ...

, or analytic music videos based on a source, in the late 1970s. By the mid-1970s, it was possible to meet fans at science fiction conventions who did not read science fiction, but only viewed it on film or TV.

Anime and manga fandom Anime and manga fandom (otherwise known as fan community) is a worldwide community of fans of anime and manga. Anime includes animated series, films and videos, while manga includes manga, graphic novels, drawings and related artworks. The anime a ...

began in the 1970s in Japan. In America, the fandom also began as an offshoot of science fiction fandom, with fans bringing imported copies of Japanese manga to science fiction conventions, conventions. Before anime began to be licensed in the U.S., fans who wanted to get a hold of anime would leak copies of anime movies and subtitle them to exchange with friends in the community, thus marking the start of fansubs. While science fiction and anime grew fandom in media the Grateful Dead subculture that emerged in the late 1960s-early 1970s created a global fandom around hippie culture that would have lasting impacts on society and technology. Furry fandom refers to the fandom for fictional anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. The concept of ''furry'' originated at a science fiction convention in 1980, when a drawing of a character from Steve Gallacci's ''Albedo Anthropomorphics'' initiated a discussion of anthropomorphic characters in science fiction novels, which in turn initiated a discussion group that met at science fiction and comics conventions. Additional subjects with significant fandoms include comics, animation, animated cartoons, video games, sports, music, films, television shows, pulp magazines,Cook, Michael L. (1983). ''Mystery fanfare: a composite annotated index to mystery and related fanzines 1963–1981.'' Popular Press, (p. 24-5) soap operas, celebrities, and game shows.

Fan activities

Members of a fandom associate with one another, often attending fan conventions and publishing and exchanging fanzines and newsletters. Amateur press associations are another form of fan publication and networking. Originally using print-based media, these Subculture, sub-cultures have migrated much of their communications and interaction onto the Internet, which they also use for the purpose of archiving detailed information pertinent to their given fanbase. Often, fans congregate on forums and discussion boards to share their love for and criticism of a specific work. This congregation can lead to a high level of organization and community within the fandom, as well as infighting. Although there is some level of hierarchy among most of the discussion boards in which certain contributors are valued more highly than others, newcomers are most often welcomed into the fold. Most importantly, these sorts of discussion boards can have an effect on the media itself, as was the case in the television show ''Glee (TV series), Glee''. Trends on discussion boards have been known to influence the writers and producers of shows. The media fandom for the TV series ''Firefly (TV series), Firefly'' was able to generate enough corporate interest to create a movie after the series was canceled. Some fans write fan fiction ("fanfic"), stories based on the universe and characters of their chosen fandom. This fiction can take the form of video-making as well as writing. Fan fiction may or may not tie in with the story's Canon (fiction), canon; sometimes fans use the story's characters in different situations that do not relate to the plot line at all. Especially at events, fans may also partake in ''cosplay'' (a portmanteau between ''cos''tume and ''play'')the creation and wearing of costumes designed in the likeness of characters from a source workwhich can also be combined with role-playing, reenacting scenes or inventing likely behavior inspired by their chosen sources.Matt Thorn, Thorn, Matthew (2004
Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan's Amateur Comics Community
in Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Contemporary Japan William W. Kelly, ed., State University of New York Press Others create

, or analytical music videos focusing on the source fandom, and yet others create

. Such activities are sometimes known as "fan labor" or "fanac", an abbreviated form of the phrase "fan activity". The advent of the Internet has significantly facilitated fan association and activities. Activities that have been aided by the Internet includes the creation of fan "shrines" dedicated to favorite characters, computer screen wallpapers, and avatars. Furthermore, the advent of the Internet has resulted in the creation of online fan networks who help facilitate the exchange of fanworks.Stanfill, Mel and Megan Condis (2014). "Fandom and/as Labor"
''Transformative Works and Cultures'', no.15 Some fans create pictures known as ''Fan edits, edits'', which consist of pictures or photos with their chosen fandom characters in different scenarios. These edits are often shared on social media networks such as Instagram, Tumblr, or Pinterest. In some edits, one may see content relating to several different fandoms. Fans in communities online often make gifs or gif sets about their fandoms. GIF, Gifs or gif sets can be used to create non-canon scenarios mixing actual content or adding in related content. Gif sets can also capture minute expressions or moments. Fans use gifs to show how they feel about characters or events in their fandom; these are called reaction gifs. Jediism, The Temple of the Jedi Order, a self-proclaimed "real living, breathing religion" views itself as separate from the Jedi as portrayed in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Despite this, sociologists view the conflation of religion and fandom as legitimate in some sense, classifying both as participatory phenomena. There are also active fan organizations that participate in philanthropy and create a positive social impact. For example, the Harry Potter Alliance is a civic organization with a strong online component which runs campaigns around human rights issues, often in partnership with other advocacy and nonprofit groups; its membership skews college age and above. Nerdfighters, another fandom formed around Vlogbrothers, a YouTube vlog channel, are mainly high school students united by a common goal of "decreasing world suck".Kilgler-Vilenchik, Neta (2013). "Decreasing World Suck: Fan Communities, Mechanisms of Translation, and Participatory Politics." ''USC''
/ref>

In film

Notable feature-length documentary film, documentaries about fandom (some more respectful of the subjects than others) include ''Trekkies (film), Trekkies'' and ''A Brony Tale''. ''Slash'' is a movie released in 2016 about a young boy who writes slash fanfiction. The SiriusXM-produced audio documentary ''Comic-Con Begins'' was launched as a six-part series starting June 22, 2021 and presents the history of both the San Diego Comic-Con and the modern fandom scene it helped to spawn as told by nearly 50 surviving foundational SDCC members, fandom experts, and special guests such as: Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Felicia Day, Trina Robbins, Maggie Thompson, the Russo brothers, and Bruce Campbell. Cosplay pioneer, scream queen, and foundational SDCC member Brinke Stevens hosts the series. ''Comic-Con Begins'' was expanded into the book ''See You at San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture'' by creator Mathew Klickstein and published by Fantagraphics on September 6, 2022. The book includes forewords by cartoonists Stan Sakai and Jeff Smith (cartoonist) , Jeff Smith, and an afterword by Wu-Tang Clan , Wu-Tang Clan's RZA. The audiobook version was released on the same day by Blackstone Audio.

In books

''Fangirl (novel), Fangirl'' is a novel written by Rainbow Rowell about a college student who is a fan of a book series called Simon Snow, which is written by a fictional author named Gemma T. Leslie. On October 6, 2015 Rainbow Rowell published a follow-up novel to ''Fangirl''. ''Carry On'' is stand-alone novel set in the fictional world that Cath, the main character of ''Fangirl'' writes fanfiction in.

Relationship with the media industry

The film and television entertainment industry refers to the totality of fans devoted to a particular area of interest, whether organized or not, as the "fanbase". Media fans, have, on occasion, organized on behalf of canceled television series, with notable success in cases such as ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek'' in 1968, ''Cagney & Lacey'' in 1983, ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', in 1995, ''Roswell (TV series), Roswell'' in 2000 and 2001 (it was canceled with finality at the end of the 2002 season), ''Farscape'' in 2002, ''Firefly (TV series), Firefly'' in 2002, and ''Jericho (2006 TV series), Jericho'' in 2007. (In the case of ''Firefly'' the result was the movie ''Serenity (2005 film), Serenity'', not another season.) It was likewise the fans who facilitated the push to create a ''Veronica Mars'' film through a Kickstarter campaign. Fans of the show ''Chuck (TV series), Chuck'' launched a campaigned to save the show from being canceled using a Twitter hashtag and buying products from sponsors of the show. Fans of Arrested Development (TV series), ''Arrested Development'' fought for the character List of Arrested Development characters, Steve Holt to be included in the fourth season. The Save Steve Holt! campaign included a Twitter and Facebook account, a hashtag, and a website. Such outcries, even when unsuccessful, suggests a growing self-awareness on the part of entertainment consumers, who appear increasingly likely to attempt to assert their power as a bloc. Fan activism in support of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike through Fans4Writers appears to be an extension of this trend. In

, a large number of the practitioners and other professionals in the field, not only writers but editors and publishers, traditionally have themselves come from and participate in

, from Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison to Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Toni Weisskopf. Ed Brubaker was a fan of the ''Captain America'' comics as a kid and was so upset that Bucky Barnes was killed off that he worked on ways to bring him back. ''The Winter Soldier'' arc began in 2004, and in the 2005 sixth issue it was revealed that the Winter Soldier was Bucky Barnes. Many authors write fan fiction under pseudonyms. Lev Grossman has written stories in the ''Harry Potter'', ''Adventure Time'', and ''How to Train Your Dragon'' universes. S. E. Hinton, S.E. Hinton has written about both Supernatural (U.S. TV series), ''Supernatural'' and her own books, ''The Outsiders (novel), The Outsiders''. Movie actors often cosplay as other characters to enjoy being a regular fan at cons. Daniel Radcliffe cosplayed as Spider-Man at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. Before the release of ''The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 film), The Amazing Spider-Man'', Andrew Garfield dressed up as Spider-Man and gave an emotional speech about what Spider-Man meant to him and thanking fans for their support. The relationship between fans and professionals has changed because of access to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. These give fans greater access to public figures such as creators, authors, and actors. Online platforms also give fans more ways to connect and participate in fandoms. Some fans have made the work they do in fandom into careers. The book ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' by E.L. James was originally a fan fiction of the ''Twilight (novel series), Twilight'' series published on FanFiction.Net. The story was taken down for mature content that violated the site's terms of service. James rewrote the story to take out any references to ''Twilight'' and self-published on The Writer's Coffee Shop in May 2011. The book was published by Random House in 2012 and was very popular, selling over 100 million copies. Many fans were not happy about James using fan fiction to make money and felt it was not in the spirit of the community. There is contention over fans not being paid for their time or work. Gaming companies use fans to alpha and beta test their games in exchange for early access or promotional merchandise. The TV show ''Glee (TV series), Glee'' used fans to create promotional materials, though they did not compensate them. The entertainment industry has promoted its work directly to members of the fandom community by sponsoring and presenting at events and conventions dedicated to fandom. Studios frequently create elaborate exhibits, organize panels that feature celebrities and writers of film and television (to promote both existing work and works yet to be released), and engage fans directly with Q&A sessions, screening sneak previews, and supplying branded giveaway merchandise. The interest, reception and reaction of the fandom community to the works being promoted has a marked influence on how film studios and others proceed with the projects and products they exhibit and promote.

Fandom and technology

The rise of the Internet created new and powerful outlets for fandom. This began with early engineers trading Grateful Dead set lists and discussing the setup of the band's concert speaker system, called the "Wall of Sound," on ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet. This led to tape trading over File Transfer Protocol, FTP, and the Internet Archive began to add Grateful Dead shows in 1995. Online tape trading communities such as etree evolved into Peer-to-peer, P2P networks trading shows through BitTorrent, torrents. After the birth of the World Wide Web, many communities adopted the practices of Deadhead fandom online.

References

External links

"Who owns fandom?"
– Salon.com December 13, 2000
"Rank and Phile"
– Arts Hub feature, August 12, 2005
Why I'm Not a Fan
by John Roderick (musician), John Roderick
HomeStuck
- official website
Organization for Transformative Works
– Non-profit organization promoting fandom and archiving fanworks.
"Surviving Fandom"
– Mookychick June 24, 2013
Harry Potter Alliance
- official website {{Fandom Fandom, Hugo Gernsback