Believe it or no, but Iāve finally found the time to draw up this post and share the results of the research project with everyone here!
Quick remark before I delve into the content of my thesis. As always when doing qualitative research (which is what I did), you end up with a lot of data. Like - a lot. This inevitably meant that I had to make choices with regard to what to focus on and what to actually put in my thesis (which was only a masterās thesis, after all). Despite this, I tried my best to do justice to the experiences and accounts of the people who participated in this study. I hope I succeeded.
So, just to remind you all. As you can read elsewhere on this blog, this research project focussed on the ways in which fans use Tumblr to inhabit and explore the fictional worlds they encounter in different media. It may sound a bit odd, but I was particularly interested in the offline component of this interaction;Ā in a society where we constantly engage with realities beyond our day-to-day lives (the reality of books, films, games, social media, etc.), what do these realities come to mean to us? How do we make sense of them, what messages do we take from them, and what role does this play in our daily lives? Or: how do fictional, virtual and everyday reality interrelate in the context of fandom?
I found that Tumblrās virtual world might best be explained as a āliminoid sphereā, a space betwixt and between the structures of normal life, which gives fans a freedom fromĀ social expectations and everyday obligations, and a freedom toĀ play with elements from both real life and their favourite story worlds. This becomes visible in a variety of fan practices or fan works (fics, fan art, graphics, and so on).Ā Fictional story worlds and the virtual environment of Tumblr can therefore fulfil an important fuction that fiction has often been praised for: it offers playgrounds where we can explore what our own world is like, could be like, or should be like. Transformative (fan)work can show perspectives that the official, canon material doesnāt; it may for example transform the storyline to explore another outcome or change an ideological point of view, or it may change white, heterosexual, cisgender characters into a more diverse cast, with different ethnic backgrounds, sexualities and genders. This holds potential for actual change.
Be that as it may, I also found that itās not quite that simple. For when we look beyondĀ what happens online - when we pay attention to for example the devices that people use to enter Tumblr and examine the everyday contexts from which people visit Tumblr - it turns out that fans not only bring different realities together, they also deliberately keep them apart. I tried to understand this process by means of the concept of ādynamic framingā, arguing that fans use this technique to switch between different perspectives on what Tumblr, fandom and fiction are about. On the one hand, there are moments when fan practices are experienced as earnest, tactical performances intended to affect the real, outside world in some way, fictional worlds and characters representing real life equivalents. On the other, when the situation calls for it, it may also be that it simply works better for fans to set Tumblr and fan practice aside as something silly or distractive that is best not taken too seriously, fiction then being no more thanĀ ājust fictionā. These perspectives can exist next to each other, people sliding from one into the other depending on the context they are in. But they are perhaps most visible when they clash, when people with opposite perspectives bump heads with each other (aka, in moments of drama or discourse).
Thereās much to say about the latter, but in my thesis, I primarily emphasised that these findings mean that scholars should take everyday contexts into account when they study online culture, as they are part of what shapes how people make sense of and experience the things they encounter online. I believe this also means that our interactions with fiction through fandom are not automatically the powerful, potentially world-changing engagements that some have argued it to be.
Personally, I find the ambiguous nature of a platform like Tumblr, and the different ways in which fannish and fictional realities can be framed and thus be experienced, a fascinating phenomenon that I hope Iāll be able to further examine in future research. If you find this interesting as well, and want to know more about this studyās outcomes, please feel free to message me and ask away. :) I also really donāt mind to share the complete thesis with you, so if you want to receive it in order to read it or simply look it over, please do ask!
One last thing Iād like to say, then. I would like to once again thank everyone who participated in this research project.Ā Thank youĀ for letting me be your Tumblr follower for a while, for answering my questions, for welcoming me into your homes, and for sharing your thoughts and feelings so openly. Iām truly grateful - without you, this project simply would not have been possible!
