[ecrea] CFP Special issue on 'Digital Fandom and Media Convergence'

 CFP: Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European
 New Media


 Special issue: 'Digital Fandom and Media Convergence'

Issue editors: Natalia Sokolova (Samara University) and Sudha 
Rajagopalan (Utrecht University)
Deadline for submission: 1 August 2012

While the history of fandom is long and storied, never before have fans 
(of television, cinema, games, sport or celebrities) operated in such a 
hypermediated environment as exists in the contemporary world. Just as 
cultural texts use multiple medial platforms, so too do their fans have 
access to and utilise this multiplicity of platforms to reify and 
display their commitment to the objects of their fandoms. As scholars, 
it is crucial to analyze digital fandom in order to understand the 
various processes in modern culture and the new media sphere, by virtue 
of fans’ active attitude to mass media, their practice of community 
formation and their engagement in the media industry. It is a truism, 
but it pays to reiterate that in this age of digital fandoms, the 
distinction between producers and consumers is no longer sacrosanct. 
Fans not only participate in debates about the media text(s) that are 
the objects of their fandom, but they also create cultural texts of 
their own—particularly, videos, fiction, games—that further the original 
text either by corresponding to it or deviating from it in imaginative ways.

In the years since Henry Jenkins pioneered the study of fandom, 
Anglo-American approaches to researching fandom have moved from a 
celebratory, romanticizing pitch to more measured analyses that examine 
the inherent tensions, particularly the politics and hierarchies, of fan 
communities. While these studies have investigated various aspects of 
(mostly) American fan cultures, this special issue of /Digital Icons 
/seeks to give fandom research in the region of Russia, Eurasia and 
Central Europe, a young and growing field, fresh impetus. This special 
issue on fandom in a new media environment invites not only textual 
analyses of fan production in the region, but encourages an examination 
of the digital affordances that engender fan practices. Further, the 
issue intends to address the local and transnational contexts of media 
production and economy in which these digital fandoms thrive.

*With this in view, several questions will serve to underpin this issue: 
are fandoms in the region the rich participatory and democratising world 
of Jenkins’ vision? In what ways does fan production – art, remix 
videos, fiction, games – augment, reinforce or radically alter the 
products of media industry? To what degree are digital fandoms rooted in 
regional cultural traditions – can we speak of ‘global’ fandoms and if 
so, what does such a distinction imply? In what ways and to what extent 
is media convergence in the region a reality? What is the impact of fan 
practices on media convergence, including convergence of media 
platforms, convergence of consumption and production, as well as global 
media convergence and various transmedial phenomena? How does the media 
economy affect fan engagement? How do digital fandoms affect the 
parameters and substance of stardom and celebrity? What does 
digital**fandom tell us about the relationship between online and 
offline worlds? How do fans/audiences act as publics if/when traditional 
public spheres appear unstable, particularly in post-communist states? 
How do fans engage with history and build upon cultural memory? What 
impact do social media have on fans` interaction and communication? What 
kind of new perspectives and approaches can the researcher utilise to 
study digital fandom in the region? These are just some of the important 
inter-disciplinary questions that can serve to guide submissions.*

We invite contributors from a wide range of disciplines to submit 
research articles and interviews, and reviews of relevant books, events, 
courses, platforms and projects. We also invite fans in the region to 
contribute meta-fandom texts, which are submissions that involve 
introspective, self-reflexive observations on being a fan in the region 
in the age of digital media.