When Film Fans Become Fan Family: Kevin Smith Fandom and Communal Experience
2011; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2034-7669
Autores Tópico(s)Media Studies and Communication
ResumoIn September 2009 I began an AHRC-funded audience study of online fan communities, investigating the ways in which participants negotiate and categorise their fandom and online relationships, using Kevin Smith fans as a case study. Admitting to my scholar- fandom of Smith, my methodology required entree into the field of study, with the resultant communication between myself and Smith fans adding to my own conceptualisation of the fan community. Initially, my virtual conceptualisation of Smith fandom placed an emphasis on fan cultural capital (Fiske, 1992: 33). However, this view was challenged during a research trip to Red Bank, New Jersey in August 2010. Based on interviews with fans taken prior and during this trip, this article will explore the way in which the communal experience of meeting fellow enthusiasts can strengthen fandom, and how collective experience can add to the self-defined notion of the fans as a family. The paper will examine how fans who attend meet-ups categorise themselves in relation to those who do not, as well as those not active online, and the extent to which Kevin Smith fandom becomes secondary to the group's family dynamic. Following the lead of Matt Hills' suggestion that the concept of fan social capital 'must ... be closely investigated in future *fan studies+ analyses' (2002: 57), this paper will take into account the way in which the Smith fan audience considers their network of fan friends as a large part of the appeal of Smith fandom, and how cultural capital regarding Smith's films is no longer necessary.
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