While fans used to be seen as an overly obsessed fringe audience, shifts in technology and production in the last few decades have made fandom a central mode of media consumption. An abundance of theorists have emerged in parallel to explore this phenomenon, many specializing in particular kinds of fan research. Although the volume will not address sports fandom, it will aim to include insights from research linked to many other kinds of media, including television and popular music fandom. With a foreword by Matt Hills, Understanding Fandom introduces the whole field of fan studies by looking at the history of debate, key paradigms and methodogical issues. The emphasis will be on showing how fan studies is an emergent interdisciplinary field with its own key scholars and a tradition that is distinct from both textual analysis and reception studies. It draws together a range of debates from media studies, cultural studies and psychology to argue that fandom is particular kind of an engagement with the power relations of media culture.
Industry Reviews
[Duffett's] strategy is primarily educative: to usefully and clearly explain the methods, discourses and debates that emerge from thinking about a body of work on fandom ... The book [has] immense value as an introduction to media fandom. Duffett's authoritative voice and theoretical acumen are much needed as fan studies becomes a pressing subject for more than a few graduate researchers. -- Daniel Cavicchi * Popular Music, Vol. 34.2 *
A well-researched, clearly organized, and forcefully argued revisionist treatise. [Duffett] has crafted an innovative, positive study on media fan culture that challenges the previous negative interpretations of Theodor Adorno and many other 20th-century writers. Duffett's arguments are both convincing and ground-breaking ... a massive stride forward in recognizing the flexibility, imagination, multi-generational make-up, and synergy among media fans. -- B. Lee Cooper, Newman University * Popular Music and Society *
In a world in which digital media are near ubiquitous, facilitating unprecedented access to and participation in mediated content, the affective preferences and attachments by which fans choose to engage with certain content over others out of the digital plethora of texts become central to understanding contemporary life and culture. Understanding Fandom offers an impressive overview of unparalleled scope in examining the many traditions, concepts and methodologies in the study of fans. It is an indispensable text for students and scholars alike. -- Cornel Sandvoss, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, UK
An accessible overview that defines, organizes and develops fan studies as an area of inquiry. Mark Duffett is inclusive in his assessments and insightful in his suggestions. He offers a valuable compendium of what fandom can tell us about how we make--and are made by--our connections to popular culture. -- Joli Jensen, Hazel Rogers Professor of Communication, University of Tulsa, US
