Fans as Homo Narrans: How User Participation in Transmedia Collective
Storytelling Shapes Dream SMP Fan Identities on Twitter
Abstract
Note: This is an extended abstract accpeted by the 2022
International Conference on Social Media & Society. See
https://socialmediaandsociety.org/2022-2/2022-accepted-papers/
Abstract: Transmedia and collective storytelling has become one
of the most distinctive means of participation in online fandom
communities. Meanwhile, networks of scalable sociality afforded by
social networking sites have facilitated the engagement of global media
prosumers in participatory cultures where collective narratives unfold.
During story-telling processes of negotiated readings and creative
appropriation of canon, participants of fan culture explore their roles
in the fandom and relations to other community members, constantly
shaping and re-shaping their understandings of themselves as fans. This
study zooms in on a case study of the Dream SMP fandom on Twitter to
understand this phenomenon. By qualitatively analysing 200 relevant
tweet threads and conducting 20 interviews with Dream SMP fans on
Twitter, this study explores how fan identities are situated and defined
in the collective making of transmedia narratives on social media.