Audience research project: Tumblr study group research “How do ‘Fandoms’ on Tumblr react to new media content?”

Abstract

This paper looks at fan activity on the social networking site Tumblr. Many fan communities on Tumblr have dubbed themselves as ‘Fandoms', resulting in the increased rate in which fan related content is produced. Fan related content ranges mainly from fan-fiction, fan-art, costume play, role-playing and the new concept of ‘shipping' (the bonding of characters usually through hypothetical relationships). This has created a huge group of ‘Prosumers', who consume related media content, then produce their own fan-created content to share with this online community. Drawing upon my own experiences as an avid Tumblr user, and witness to this trend, I investigated the way in which these Fandoms react to and consume related media content and analyzed the end result. My key findings showed that 100% of the people involved in the study had heard of and were part of at least one ‘Fandom' on Tumblr. In addition to this, 90% of participants stated that they ran an active blog, which was at least 50% dominated with ‘Fandom' related content.