Submitted by Aelson Maciera (aelsoncm@terra.com.br) on 2017-08-09T14:59:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCMGM.pdf: 2404358 bytes, checksum: dd0bc47365f773e8e2e95e5711c3f00e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-09T17:07:22Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCMGM.pdf: 2404358 bytes, checksum: dd0bc47365f773e8e2e95e5711c3f00e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-08-09T17:07:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCMGM.pdf: 2404358 bytes, checksum: dd0bc47365f773e8e2e95e5711c3f00e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-09T17:12:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissCMGM.pdf: 2404358 bytes, checksum: dd0bc47365f773e8e2e95e5711c3f00e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Known as the Age of Conversation, the present time is marked by horizontal communication, based on connectivity between people and their networking. This setting reconfigures the media landscape from new conversation environments such as podcast. The present dissertationinvestigates the contents of Podcasteros produced by a network of Brazilian fans of the television series Game of Thrones (HBO, United States, 2011-present). The understanding of the series, the strategies used by HBO and content produced by fans aims to discuss a business model based on participatory culture that prioritizes dialogue not always friendly between producers and fans. At first, the series will be presented whose complex narrative universe unfolds through multiple plots, characters and settings - which leads the viewer to search for information on other platforms to understand not only what is narrated as sharing, networking, their impressions and versions of history. Observe the discursive network of fans around the series, therefore, requires the understanding that it is formed from ephemeral and temporary ties and marked by discursive diversity of its members. Finally, the Podcasteros content analysis will be addressed. The methodology proposed merges content analysis and netnography and is an investigative journey that seeks to meet the specific characteristics of the object and its sound nature in the context of discursive networks of fans and their dialogic practices. / Conhecida como a Era das Conversas, a atualidade é marcada pela comunicação horizontal, baseada na conectividade entre as pessoas e suas redes de interesse. Esse cenário reconfigura a paisagem midiática a partir de novos ambientes de conversação, como o podcast. A presente pesquisa investiga o conteúdo do Podcasteros, produzido por uma rede de fãs brasileiros do seriado televisivo Game of Thrones (HBO, Estados Unidos, 2011-atual). A compreensão da série, das estratégias utilizadas pela HBO e do conteúdo produzido por fãs servem para discutir um modelo de negócios baseado na cultura ligada em rede que prioriza o diálogo, nem sempre amistoso, entre produtores e fãs. Em um primeiro momento, será apresentada a série cujo universo narrativo complexo se desdobra por meio de múltiplas tramas, personagens e cenários – o que leva o espectador a buscar informações em outras plataformas para entender não somente o que é narrado como compartilhar, em rede, suas impressões e versões da história. Observar a rede dos fãs em torno da obra, para tanto, requer o entendimento de que tal ambiente é formado por vínculos efêmeros e temporários e marcado pela diversidade discursiva de seus membros. Posto isto, trataremos da apresentação e análise de conteúdo do Podcasteros. Dentro desta perspectiva, a metodologia de captação e seleção escolhida para a pesquisa foi baseada na Netnografia, no armazenamento dos comentários e na decupagem do material sonoro. O arranjo metodológico proposto que mescla, ainda, a Análise de Conteúdo é um percurso investigativo que busca atender às especificidades do objeto da presente pesquisa empírica e sua natureza sonora a partir de uma análise feita no contexto das redes de fãs e suas práticas dialógicas. Por meio dos resultados obtidos, foi possível definir o espaço do podcast como um ambiente que aproxima os fãs interlocutores dos fãs ouvintes.

Social media enable celebrity to interact with their followers and enable followers to build the relationship through the interaction. Former research has found that openness and perceived interactivity are antecedents for parasocial interaction. In order to investigate the way to increase user’s engagement in celebrity’s social media page, this research examines the relationship between celebrity’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, parasocial interaction, parasocial relationship, and social media engagement. Survey data were collected from 595 followers of one Chinese celebrity through an online survey. The results indicate that neither celebrity’s nor other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity direct lead to user’s social media engagement. However, PSI and PSR, which increased by celebrity’s and other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, have a positive relationship with user’s social media engagement. It provides support for the mediating role of PSI and PSR to social media engagement.

The approach that emphasises the active audience, and the subversive potential of audience encounters with texts, has greatly influenced the study of media fandom which has tended to see media fans, and the cultures they produce, as set in opposition to writers and producers. My thesis challenges this view of the relationships between fans and producers by examining fan-producers in contemporary television. This research challenges the influential theoretical models that see authorship as a major source of social control and thus sees audiences that 'poach' meanings from texts as engaged in rebellion. The approach that perceives fandom as in opposition to the meanings of production falls short in representing the complexity of fan and producer interactions and thus curtails our understanding of these relationships. My thesis moves beyond the untenable opposition between fans and producers and, in doing so, paves the way for an understanding of fan studies more suitable for the contemporary, and still developing, climate of audience interactions. I believe that the practices of fandom demonstrate that consumption and authorship are more closely linked than previous tendencies to divide them would suggest. Previous works have served to both underestimate fandom, as powerless rebels or dupes, or exaggerate its position as a force of political or cultural resistance. My research engages with the contemporary developments within fan culture, and emphasises the importance of deconstructing monolithic ideas of the media industry in order to better understand the influences and pressures placed on the figure of the fan-producer. I argue that the media industries are not as homogeneous as previously implied, and that the fan-producer is forced to negotiate the complex and often conflicting relationships within the worlds of both fandom and official production.

Tesla är ett multinationellt företag som tillverkar och säljer elbilar bland många andra produkter och tjänster. Vår studie kommer primärt fokusera på Tesla Motors, den del av företaget som producerar och säljer bilar. Tesla är inte ett traditionellt företag när det gäller reklam och marknadsföring då de aldrig har marknadsfört sig via traditionella mediekanaler som TV-reklam, tidningar eller radio. Istället förlitar de sig på sina fans, och använder deras sociala mediekanaler för marknadsföringsändamål. Eftersom Tesla är ett modernt och tekniskt företag som får stor uppmärksamhet runt om i världen är det inte konstigt att människor finner företaget och deras produkter intressanta, därav har en fan-gemenskap vuxit kring upp företaget. Fandom är en kultur baserad på ett gemensamt intresse kring ett visst ämne eller en specifik sak. Kulturen är byggd på gemenskap och ett gemensamt intresse kring ämnet i fråga där fansen delar samma värden. Syftet med fandomproduktioner är inte att tjäna pengar, utan att dela materialet med andra personer som har samma intresse för ämnet. Tesla är medvetna om att det finns en stark fangemenskap runt företaget, vilket ledde till att de lanserade "Project Loveday" - ett projekt där deras fans fick möjligheten att skapa egna Tesla-reklamfilmer som senare skulle sändas och publiceras på Teslas egna hemsida. Syftet med vår studie är att få fram vad Teslas fans och entusiaster vill kommunicera i sina egenproducerade filmer under kampanjen “Project Loveday”. Detta kommer göras genom att vi besvarar våra frågeställningar som innefattar hur fans och entusiaster framställer Teslas elbilar i sina egenproducerade filmer, samt vilka futuristiska konnotationer, symboler, ideologier, och myter som syns i dessa filmer. Med hjälp av semiotisk analys som metod kommer vi kunna tolka de olika tecken som förekommer i de utvalda filmerna, samt analysera dess innehåll på ett begripligt sätt för att sedan skapa en djupare förståelse kring vad man försöker förmedla. Studiens resultat visade att de föreställningar kring framtiden som förekommer i Project Loveday innefattar associationer till rymden och den teknik den bär med sig, samt att Tesla Motors besitter denna teknik och därmed kan ses som en del av framtiden. / Tesla is a multinational company which manufactures and sells electric cars among many other products and services. However, our study mainly focuses on Tesla Motors – the part of the company which produces and sells automobiles. Tesla is not a traditional company when it comes to advertisement or marketing – they have never advertised themselves through traditional media channels such as TV-commercials, newspapers, or radio. Instead they rely, and use their own fans and consumer’s media channels for marketing purposes. Since Tesla is such a modern and technological company which gets a lot of attention around the world, it is not strange that people find them and their products interesting. Therefore, a fan community has grown around the company. Fandom is a culture based on a mutual interest about a certain or specific matter. The culture is based on community, values and a shared interest in the subject. The purpose is primarily so share material with people with the same interest, not to profit on it. Tesla is aware that they have a strong fan community, which led them to launch “Project Loveday” – a project where their fans got the possibility to create their own Tesla commercials which later would be broadcasted and posted on Teslas own website. The purpose with this study is to obtain what Teslas fans and enthusiasts wants to communicate in their own produced movies in the “Project Loveday” campaign. This will be done by answering our questions of issue, which includes how fans and enthusiasts presents Teslas electric cars in their own produced movies, as well as what kind of futuristic connotations, symbols, ideologies, and myths that can be seen in these movies. By using semiotics as our choice of method we will interpret the different signs which occurs in the chosen movies, and analyze their content in an understandable manner regarding what they try to mediate. The result of the study shows that the perceptions about the future which occurs in “Project Loveday” includes associations to space, and the technique it brings along. It also shows that Tesla possesses this technique and therefore can be seen as a part of the future.

Living with Star Trek investigates the connections between Star Trek fandom and the Star Trek text. This study identifies and examines the American themes of utopia, community and self-improvement inherent within the fictional text which also form the thematic framework for letters written by fans to express their affection for the series. These letters represent a `network of support', whereby a community of fans is able to communicate with each other through written correspondence sent to producers, edited collections, and fan magazines. In talking about the series, fans confess and share intimate stories, often based around trauma or bereavement, and at the same time describe how Star Trek has played an important and inspirational part in their daily lives; Star Trek's utopian vision and communal spirit has given them the impetus to enact positive change. Drawing together the themes identified in the text and fan letters, the first half of the thesis examines Star Trek's use of history, narrative and myth to tell its futuristic stories. In particular, I examine how Star Trek has used the distinctive literary tradition of the Puritan American Jeremiad to create a didactic narrative that emphasises the attainment of utopia through communal effort and personal change. The second half of the thesis continues this inquiry by examining a range of letters that describe how fans are able to tap into the open nature of the Star Trek text and use it to fulfil needs and desires in their own daily lives. In particular, I stress how the letters are not just examples of fan affection but also represent a reciprocal relationship where fans can criticise and engage with the programme as well as use it as a form of motivation.

Musicians who die young often become more famous after their death and moreover, this popularity sometimes continues to exist years or even decades afterwards which consequently has a chance to turn these musicians into legends. Research has shown that the development of media and the growing celebrity culture have impacted the ways individuals perceive famous people. The fans may often view celebrities as a part of their personal lives which may be a reason for them to strive for maintaining the presence of deceased artists by, for instance, listening to their music or posting content connected to them on social media. This study aims to determine the ways in which individuals mourn and grieve over their idols, the role of media in this process and as a result, how the presence of deceased musicians is maintained in a long-term by the forces of fans, media or other heritage left after the artists. With this in mind, the research questions of this study cover such aspects as the extent to which fans’ lives are affected by their idol, common practices of mourning and grieving over deceased musicians, the role of media in this process, and the role of the audience in the growing popularity of deceased musicians. After exploring previous research and preparing the theoretical framework for the study, an online survey was distributed to the fans of the chosen deceased musicians. Respondents were asked questions about celebrities and their deaths, the ways in which the participants were coping with loss, the role of media in this process, and the reasons for them to continue getting back to the art created by those musicians. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that the development of media has made it easier for the fans to share their feelings, discuss difficult topics, and open up about their struggles online. Additionally, it turned out that despite a strong emotional connection with the late musicians, when listening to their music, the fans, in fact, were reconnecting not with the musicians, but with their own past that the music reminded them of. Given these points, it may be concluded that media performs an important function for individuals who have experienced loss through granting them a chance to speak openly about their feelings or struggles, connect with other adherents, and even more so, connect with their true selves.

The democratization of new media technologies, particularly the software tools though which "content" can be manipulated, has invited a seemingly vast array of modes through which people can express themselves. Conversations in fan studies, for example, cite the novel ways in which new media allow fans to alter texts in the expression of their subcultural needs, while theorizations of media often reverse the paradigm by arguing how advances in technology will revolutionize how we interact with, and hence, know the world. Frequently overlooked are the ways in which these technologies and communities co-construct engagement and the extent to which this engagement spurs novel ways of interaction. This dissertation addresses these problems by theorizing the role of the medium as a ludic negotiation between text and fan, informed--but not determined--by the rules and strictures that construct both these discrete media artifacts and the communities in which these texts circulate. Nowhere are these concerns more evident than in the subcultural realm of anime fan translations, where an eclectic blend of tech-savvy, Japanese language proficient, culturally competent individuals from different backgrounds converge to form groups who have self-nominated themselves to spread anime through timely, efficient, and accurate translations. To be successful, they must navigate multiple linguistic and cultural currents as they move between Japanese and their target language, deftly avoid running aground on the shores that structure the boundaries of container media, all the while remaining mindful of ideological and subcultural discursive shoals as they scan the horizon for alternate paths to their translation goal. These fan translators are, to be less dramatic, limited in the types of translations they can provide by the formal properties of the selected medium, but these limitations should be conceived as a generative process motivating translators to seek novel ways of engagement with the medium to meet both their translation needs and the needs of the communities in which their translations circulate.

Fanfiction Phenomenon in Perspective of Historical Sociology My thesis presents fanfiction as a global phenomenon fully matured and adapted to the internet as its own milieu. It defines fanfiction in relation to the community that I call "online fanfiction community". It is characterized by specific forms of communication, most importantly: a specific form of active readership, where author, reader and critic merge together. Today, the full-blown sphere of internet fanfiction cannot be understood without noting its development which is tied to a new way of being an active fan in the era of mass culture. This way is characterized by fandoms, fanzines and cons which established fanspeak and forms of communication that stayed the same despite the development of new technologies. My thesis also discusses the interpretation of online fanfiction community as a subculture. It describes the strategies used by the community to keep itself apolitical and egalitarian and also these to keep activism of the fight against the repressive concept of copyright law and internet censorship separate from the fanfiction arena. My thesis also interprets fanfiction authorship as one of many concepts of authorship that are present in the frame of modernity.

The thesis is focused on researching the recent phenomena of the emerging virtual Esperanto communities. The aim is to understand how feeling of belonging and connectedness are generated online. The theoretical framework that the study follows is Sense of Community theory by McMillan and Chavis (1986). It presents 4 components that combined together create a strong bond within a community – membership, influence, shared emotional value, and reinforcement of needs, later revised to spirit, trust, art and trade respectively. This particular theory helped significantly structure the way the analysis was carried out. The main results from the qualitative and quantitative data are that the sense of connectedness the respondents demonstrated to the Esperanto communities was strong. The interview participants have been members for more than 10 years, and have indicated they believed they shared similar values and needs with their co-members, but most strong ones with the groups they shared other interests except Esperanto. The Internet, as all interview participants confirmed, has played a huge role for the development of the Esperanto language and culture and currently connects thousands of Esperantists worldwide and provides them with a space to be producers of their media, Esperanto. Furthermore, some statements demonstrated that not speaking the language results in excluding people from the group, excluding also new members who used auxiliary languages (e.g. English or German) along with Esperanto, to help their communication at Esperanto gatherings. Finally, there were also found signs of segregation among an older generation of Esperantists, who made division between Esperanto speakers and non-speakers and between the different Esperanto institutions.

This study examines how a music band can manage to build an image and story using social media platforms after the infamous break of the golden era. To put it further into perspective, the second part of the study focuses on the fans’ connection to the band and how they use social media themselves. The purpose of this study is, through interviews, qualitative content analysis and rhetorical analysis, to explore how a band successfully use social media to keep their fans’ anticipation alive. To explore my purpose, I have conducted and analysed qualitative interviews. In the analysis section, the data has been interpreted in relation to theories of star image, participatory fandom and the live experience as well as compared to previous research while connecting my own analysis to it. The study discusses tendencies shown in the results when analysing posts from Ghost’s official Facebook page, as well as how participatory fandom as we know it may be at risk, as social media giants keep growing and eliminating other forums that have been vital to fans.