Kultura fanów w Internecie
Fan Culture on the Internet

Summary/Abstract: Fan cultures, previously only peripheral in academic inquiry, in recent years have been the subject of serious consideration not only by scholars but also journalists, lawyers and mass culture producers. As Henry Jenkins claims, such increased attention is to a large extent the result of the movement of much fan activity into the Internet. The virtual realm has not only granted fans great possibilities of creation, self-expression, communication and activism but also considerably increased their visibility. In my essay I will focus on the changes fan communities have been experiencing since they started to make use of the potential the Internet offers. I will discuss the ways in which the Net has transformed fandom and analyze chosen forms of fan activity online, such as fan fiction, hackfiction, spoiling and fan activism against certain decisions of media corporations. I will discuss issues such as collective intelligence and subcultural capital and point at the hierarchies which exist within fan communities. The reactions of media producers towards the increasing significance of online fandom will be also examined. Having analyzed new forms of cultural production of fans active online I will pose a question whether the majority of media consumers can be described as an active audience.

• Details
• Contents