Culture and Community Online How Fanfiction Creates a Sense of Social Identity by Reshaping Popular Media

Abstract

The internet contains an ever-expanding space where people interact, forming groups and developing customs which, to an outside observer, may seem strange. This project focuses on the motivations behind writing fanfiction and the communities of fans who reinterpret popular media plots and characters—here considered a form of modern folklore—in order to make it more appealing to female and queer identities. The chapters focus on individual issues, such as the nuances of digital ethnography and a brief ethnographic survey which places respondent answers within the larger context of scholarship on online activities, and form as a basis through which further research on fanfiction and its creators/consumers may be conducted.