An Ode to Fandom
From 'The Beatles' to 'BTS' - the rise of fandom culture has accompanied teenagers through their adolescence for decades but due to the introduction of digital media, fandom is having a much more significant influence on the world around us. In this essay, I will be diving into the influence that fandom has had on morality and online culture and applying modern media theories such as 'Fandom theory' by Henry Jenkins, his 'textual poaching' theory, 'the stars in our eyes' theory by Julie Klam, John Fiske's theory of audience importance as well as ideas proposed by other theorists. I am going to be focusing my argument within contemporary fandom culture and particularly social media 'stans' however the ideas and theoretical evaluation proposed will be applicable over a wide period of time. Morality, the distinction between right and wrong, is something that is inherently subject to change as time progresses. What was once considere...