Scholarly record

FAN CULTURES IN THE 21st CENTURY: A MEDIA STUDIES PERSPECTIVE

Jana Radosinska, S. Micova

Abstract

One of the most important characteristics of media communication in the 21st Century is the active participation of media audience members in creating cultural meanings. The scholarly article deals with a particularly important way media audiences actively participate in media culture and its processes – fandom. The authors aim to reflect on ‘the culture of the fans’ and its current understanding in the light of media culture and media studies, drawing attention to related cultural phenomena. Given the scope and range of the topic, there are many facts to consider; for instance, new ways of seeing fans as more than just people obsessed with specific celebrities, motion pictures, television shows or musicians, social competence of fans, emotional ties fans develop towards artefacts of media culture, or manifestations of fan culture within the digital environment. The authors work with the basic assumption that fan cultures of the new Millennium are transformed, developed, encouraged and influenced by so-called “institutionalized fandoms” and that media producers nowadays not only support but also actively initiate and encourage fan activities in order to maintain their target audiences’ interest and attention.

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