Freakin' sociology... help!

[burnfor]

So we have to do an essay outline (which will be turned into an essay next semester) and we get to choose our own topic/thesis. What I wanted to focus on was fan culture. That's where I'm stalled at the moment. I have to approach fan culture in a sociological perspective... but I really don't know how. The material I'm finding is broad and I'm not

Comments

[mrflibbleseyes]

HAI! I did my degree in Sociology and was really tempted to do something similar for my dissertation (ended up doing Harry Potter and the American Christian Right) but it is hard to narrow down. Have they given you a particular focus for it - e.g. a broad title or looking at it from a particular perspective/particular author in mind? I would pick a specific fandom to use as an example to illustrate your point whatever it might be, or you could compare and contrast two fandoms - see if there's common themes in each.

Fannish culture is pretty hard to look at as a whole - I would think you need to look at one aspect - community and how's it's expressed (fic, art, meta, squee), fandom norms and ettiquette (what's acceptable and not and how those are enforced) etc.

Of course I could be completely off base so feel free to ignore me!

[burnfor]

EEE! *cling* Nope, they gave us no guidelines/restrictions which is making this a lot harder for me to focus my idea

[mrflibbleseyes]

That does make it harder. How long have you been studying it? Don't make it too hard for yourself! Also if you do decide to do something on fandom I'd pick not just one fandom but one segment of fandom - for example a message board or lj, or even not internet based fandom - trying to cover all the bases would be very broad

[burnfor]

This is my first sociology course. (SOCY100! ack!) And the stuff we did in high school really wasn't.. interesting in the slightest.

Hmm.. I think I'm going to sleep on that tonight and see if I can puzzle something out. (I had to travel home for thanksgiving weekend!) This is starting to give me a headache and make me anxious. TWO DAYS OMG. *spazz*

There's just so much that I want to cover, yet I know it's not possible. And knowing that I need to be able to find at least six academic resources on this (along with annotated bibliographies) freaks me out a little.

And I absolutely don't mind the mega long comment. It's a little bit clearer in my head as to the vague direction I really need to head in.

[shing_]

I can not help cause I was a business student. I don't think I even really know what sociology is. Anyway, I was reading through fandom_wank and someone mentioned this comm -- fanthropology -- which may help?

[burnfor]

S'alright! I'm definitely looking through fanthropology at the moment. Thanks very much for the link! I had no idea that existed.

P.S. Where'd you DL Ring of Endless Light from? I'd been looking for that thing everywhere I could think of and there wasn't a peep.

[shing_]

Oh noes, I completely forgot about uploading this for you! Apologies. Do you have HJ-Split cause I'm gonna need to split the file.

I got the movie from a comm I'm a member in (check my info)

[burnfor]

Hee, s'alright! I know you must've been busy/recovering.

I do believe I have HJ-Split on my laptop in rez.

[rubymiene]

I never did sociology either, but perhaps...comparng fandom norms of attribution/remixing/approprition of fanworks as opposed to mainstream works. Fanfic of a book or show without explicit permission seems more acceptable than fanfic of another fanfic, but fanart of fanfic also seems to happen without explicit permission. What's the reasoning? Ease of communication? Substitutability?

[burnfor]

Hmm. Fandom norms seems to be something I can prod at. Thanks very much for your input!

[mashimero]

This would be the kind of think I would love to do if I was majoring in anything even vaguely related to the humanities. Sorry I can't be of any help.

Also, boo to useless TAs. I've got more than my share this semester :(

[burnfor]

Heh, I couldn't think of any other topic that would be able to hold my interest for the next couple of months. S'alright! I sure know I'm not any help to anyone else.

D: Yeah, useless TAs really suck. Hope they eventually turn into a somewhat useful source?