ATTACK ON FANDOM: A STUDY ON ANIME FANS’ FANDOM EXPRESSIONS
ATTACK ON FANDOM: A STUDY ON ANIME FANS’ FANDOM EXPRESSIONS
ABSTRACT
Fans express their fandom in a variety of ways and this study delved specifically on anime fans’ fandom expressions. These include consumption and production of related media, and those not involving media products. Guided by the theoretical concepts of John Fiske’s Fan Productivity and Anthony Giddens’ Structuration theory, this study aimed to (1) identify and describe the different forms of expression that anime fans engage in; and (2) identify the factors that affect the way fans express their fandom. The study conducted interviews through the Reflexive Dyadic method to self-proclaimed anime fans gathered through convenience and snowball sampling.
This study proved that anime fans tend to consume/produce anime-related media products as expressions of their fandom. At the same time, convergence occurs in the media industries as fans follow the products in whatever platform they are. But with the manifestation of the confluence culture, changing of platforms does not necessarily happen the way it was before with the digital platform. Furthermore, anime fans engage in non-media product-related expressions to fulfill their needs and wants that the media cannot provide as they integrate fandom in their everyday lives.
The interplay of human agency and social structures were seen as factors that affect the fandom expressions of fans. Societal practices, norms, fandom culture, social relationships, financial capital, and availability and accessibility of media and non-media products play huge roles as social structures enabling and constraining the fans in their expression of fandom. But in the end, how fans express their fandom is determined more by their personal preferences and interests and willingness to invest what they have.
An interesting point of analysis that the study found out is that anime does not only affect the media industry as a whole, but also other industries not directly related to it as the effect of non-media product-related fandom expressions. Furthermore, though piracy has long been a problem in the media industry, fans can still actually support the industry or even the country of Japan indirectly.
Keywords: anime, fandom, fandom expressions, human agency, social structures, structuration
Alano, A.J.E. (2015). Attack on Fandom: A Study on Anime Fans’ Fandom Expressions, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.