CfP Digital Icons: Special Issue Digital Fandom & Media Convergence

[Ellen Rutten]

CfP Forthcoming Special Issues
Digital Fandom and Media Convergence

Issue editors: Natalia Sokolova (Samara University) and Sudha Rajagopalan
(Utrecht University)
Deadline for submission: 1 August 2012 (see
www.digitalicons.org/forthcomingfor details)

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.
*To find out more about Digital Icons editorial practice and submission
guidelines, visit our *Information for Authors<http://www.digitalicons.org/news>
 page.



> Digital Icons Editorial Team:
> Vlad Strukov (London)
> Natalia Sokolova (Moscow)
> Henrike Schmidt (Berlin)
> Ellen Rutten (Amsterdam)
> Sudha Rajagopalan (Utrecht)
>
> Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media
> (Digital Icons) is an online publication that appears twice per year. The
> journal is a multi-media platform that explores new media as a variety of
> information flows, varied communication systems, and networked communities.
> Contributions to Digital Icons cover a broad range of topics related to the
> impact of digital and electronic technologies on politics, economics,
> society, culture, and the arts in Russia, Eurasia, and Central Europe.
> Digital Icons publishes articles from scholars from a variety of academic
> backgrounds, as well as artists' contributions, interviews, comments,
> reviews of books, digital films, animation, and computer games, and
> relevant cultural and academic events, as well as any other forms of
> discussion of new media in the region.
>

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