important to define the word ‘fandom’ to gain a better understanding of fans as a media audience. In a way we are all fans of something in the sense that we all as individuals respect, admire and desire. However it is important to distinguish between a ‘fan’ and an individual who just simply respects or admires a certain individual. Three scholars have different definitions of fandom and the first scholar is Joli Jensen who: “Surveys the social scientist’s view of fandom as pathological and deviant
For my ethnography project, I chose to study the fandom of The Walking Dead. For the purpose of this paper, I will refer to The Walking Dead as a comic, a video game, and a TV series. The focus of this ethnography is to understand how the comic book culture influences many fans. Since the series is based on a graphic novel series, and some of the fans are schooled in comic culture; they arrive with literacy in comic storytelling. Others who are not fans may recognize the visually and narrative
Origins of The Walking Dead For my ethnography project, I chose to study the fandom of The Walking Dead. For the purpose of this paper, I will refer to The Walking Dead as a comic, a video game, and a TV show series. The focus of this ethnography is to understand how the comic book culture influences many fans. Since the series is based on a graphic novel series, and some of the fans are schooled in comic culture; they arrive with literacy in comic storytelling. Others who are not fans may
Positive Effects of Tumblr on Teen Culture Teenagers use social media for many different reasons. They use it to feel deemed worthy by their peers, to post personal opinions, and to share their daily life. They spend more time with their phones, laptops, iPads, etc. than they do with their family, friends, boyfriends and girlfriends. Tumblr is a popular blogging website/app that has gained popularity in the last few years. Tumblr has a positive effect on teen culture because unlike Facebook and other
The Brony fandom exposes some gaps that traditional understandings of masculinity cannot take into account. Connell and Messerschmidt establish through hegemonic masculinity the development of hierarchy within the constructs of gender formations. Their framework provides the negotiations regarding the desirable masculine traits for a given society, thereby creating representations of a dominant gender construct. However, it is not the sole creator of masculine identity. “The concept of hegemonic
as the otaku. For now, just bear in mind that the otaku are a group of consumers, often male, who purchase items associated with popular cartoons, videogames, and comics. They purchase these items and care for them with a reverence comparable to Western fandoms. The otaku, however, are more than fans. They engage in normal fandom behaviors, such as consuming popular media, creating works associated with the media they are a fan of, and supporting the creator or studio that produces the media they
Studying popular culture reveals the culture of society at the time. Further, popular culture reveals the underlying belief, power structures, and philosophical and moral frame of the society that produces those cultural products. Studying popular culture gives us an accessible vehicle through which to explore philosophical and moral questions, as well as the functioning of society on a smaller scale (fan based, consumption), through which we can make larger assumptions. Studies of popular culture
has become one entity. Consequently, different cultures have been integrated to what we today known as popular culture. The Internet has converted everything instantly viral like movies, series, book sagas, comics, anime and video games. There is no place on social media where you cannot feel identified with someone with an affinity of your resemblance. Today, being a geek is not an oddity, to the contrary, being a geek has become part of pop culture up to the point where it has turned into a part
masculinity requires continual verification to remain secure. These moments of reification could include moments of physical aggression, substance abuse, and other high risk behaviors. While much is made about the toxic culture of military hypermasculinity, there is another side of military culture that does not receive the same amount of attention from the civilian world. As Claire Duncanson suggests, civilians often only see the more robust and rugged aspects, “many accounts of military training demonstrate
“masculine” must contribute to this vicious cycle as well. In addition, the masculine gender role often exemplifies the type of behavior considered “natural” for men. In American culture, part of this “natural” masculine gender role assumes that men will be complicit ,if not actively participating, in patriarchal culture and the poisonous values often associated with it. The traditional masculine model is made to seem so “right” that men portraying this gender role, and the women reading about this