Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-274). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Title from title screen. Ted Friedman, committee chair; Angelo Restivo, Kathy Fuller-Seeley, committee members. Electronic text (125 p.). Description based on contents viewed May 2, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-125).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-71).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Edinburgh, 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2004. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 66-71)

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2007. Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-105).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-188). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-188). Also available on the Internet.

A number of scholars in the past decades have addressed the importance of conducting researches on audiences. They have examined fan identities, fan behaviours, fan communities, fandom, fan consumption patterns and anti--‐‑fans with different methods such as applying sociological, psychological, economical, and cultural approaches. Many of these studies have made conclusions on fans in general and some have generated behavioural patterns into theories, but they have rarely explored the affections of individual enthusiasts with participating in fan activities as well as understanding fans’ daily livings as an in--‐‑depth investigation. This dissertation mainly focuses on drafting portraits of a group of Hong Kong fans who are supporting a Japanese boy band called Arashi. In order to discuss their subconscious identities, motivations, fan activities and unauthorised fan groups organisations, this research has been carried out grounding on an anthropological approach that ethnographic participant‐observations and interviews were applied to form case studies. To depict these cases, daily livings of individual Hong Kong Arashi admirers, events organised by unofficially formed fan groups, and researcher’s experiences of attending Arashi’s live concerts were documented and analysed. At last, a summary is drawn to illustrate the significant of these Hong Kong fans. The key implication of this thesis is to provide a new perspective on studying individual fans and fandom as an aca-fan. There are also case studies to unfold fans’ inner mechanisms on choosing and ranking idols as well as how do they interpret their idols into new meanings. This paper is not a generalisation of Hong Kong fans of popular music but an attempt to demonstrate different representations from cases of Arashi’s fans in Hong Kong by means of ethnography documentations. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The thesis begins by acknowledging the writer's status as a fan. The stimulus for the enquiry emerges from the discrepancy the writer encounters between his fan experience and the ways in which the academy conceptualises fandom. Such theories serve to position the fan at extremes of the field of reader response: as either a passive, cultural dupe or as a radical, textual freedom fighter. By contrast, this thesis aims to take the diversity of fan response into consideration, and situate its analysis in very real concepts of people's lives. In the first of three parts, a typology is developed that examines the contested and disputed nature of fandom. Reference points are drawn from academic writing, popular media and a focus group session with fans of diverse interests. The second part is devoted to fieldwork. Fan conversations, observations and reflections are combined to create six intimate pen-portraits that convey differing ideas of fandom. Topics covered include fans of Doctor Who, The Adventure Game, Sheffield Wednesday football club; the users of archive TV website The Mausoleum Club; attendees at a Kirsty MacColl get-together;Panopticon( a Doctor Who convention); Forbidden Planet (a collector's shop). The final part, `Fandom and Modem Life', draws together the ideas of the thesis to propose a series of maxims on how fandom operates that emphasise complexity, diversity, the significance of emotional attachment, and fandom's interrelation to capitalism (of it, but not about it). Fandom's role is considered in relation to notions of religiosity and sexuality. Fandom is defined ultimately as a form of social identity possible in contemporary western society. The thesis concludes by speculating on how fandom may evolve in the future.