The Diary Confessions of a One Direction Fan: A Look Into the Reception of Real Person Slash Fiction by Queer Individuals
Tiu, J.H. (2018). The Diary Confessions of a One Direction Fan: A Look into the Reception of Real Person Slash Fiction by Queer Individuals. Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines Diliman: College of Mass Communication
Abstract
This thesis is a descriptive study of how audiences participate in fandom-related activities. It examines how the representation of queer individuals in online environments play into the consumption and meaning-making of audiences. Specifically, this research examines the presence of self-identified queer people in fandom and how they engage in fandom-related activities. The study asks what meanings do queer individuals who write fanfiction make from consuming real person slash fiction in the One Direction fandom, and how these meanings reflect in their daily lives This study uses Henry Jenkin’s Fan Theory to explain fandom and participatory culture within the One Direction Fandom, which allows them to gather and discuss their interpretations of source material, and create different types of fan labor such as fanfiction. Stuart Hall’s Encoding-Decoding model is then used to establish that fans are not passive consumers, and Schrøder’s Multidimensional model is used to categorize and analyze the meanings interpreted by the fans. Lastly, Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life is used to show how fans who read real person slash fiction in the fandom “poach” certain elements from those texts, constructing and social and cultural identity around those texts. In this study, I analyze the individual. I selected seven queer fans to write diary entries about both their everyday lives and the Real Person Slash Fiction they read. It is through their motivations, their reactions, the ideas they gathered, and their interpretations of certain elements within the text that I determine how queer individuals consume real person slash fiction, and what meanings do they make from it. Through this study, I aim to contribute to the discourse regarding fan studies and shed some light on a severely-overlooked genre of fanfiction, the real person fiction.
Keywords: queer individuals, consumption, real person slash fiction, interpretations
