This study aims to examine how Swedish fans of the TV-series Skam use the Facebook group Kosegruppa Sverige in order to construct and maintain a fandom, and how fan practices can contribute in creating identity among the members of the group. Theories related to fan research, discourse psychology and intersectionality were applied, as well as a brief overview of earlier research results related to these areas. By using a netnographic approach combined with a discourse analyses, posts made by fans on Kosegruppa Sverige during December 2016 were examined and analyzed. Three main fan practices were found to be used in constructing fandom in the group; fans made their own material such as edits, videos and attire that had a connection to the narrative, they acted out on their fandom both by adapting their language and looks, and finally by buying and selling merchandise and thus collecting things related to the series. Identity was created through intersectional perspectives of gender, sexuality and age. Finally, the study concluded that fandom could be seen as an integral tool within media production, which blurs the line between producers and consumers.

This thesis aims to explore how fans use social media to participate in activities relatedto the idol, and what is the level of participation of different fans in the fan group. Thisthesis used qualitative research methods – online observations and semi-structured indepth interviews to collect the empirical data, through focusing on the fan group of KrisWu. The theories of Jenkins and Carpentier are also applied to explore and describe theparticipatory practices of fans. By employing the theory of Jenkin’s participatoryculture to the first part of the analysis, the research results show that for the fans, socialmedia plays an important role in their participation, providing fans with a newenvironment to communicate and organize activities. Fan activities can be categorizedinto three major types: online consumption behaviors, fan text productions, and onlinesupporting activities. By applying the political and critical approach of participation, aswell as Carpentier’s four-level analytical model to the second part of the analysis, thisstudy finds that there are three sub-processes related to online fan communities – themanagement subprocess, the activity organization subprocess, and the subprocess oftext production and distribution. In each fan group, there are four different roles of fans– leaders, creators, supporters, and less active fans. Besides, through analyzing theidentities and decision-making moments, it can be said that although each fan isrelatively equal in the whole participatory process, there are still certain power relationsbetween each role of fans, especially in the process of fan group management.