What Does Media Fandom Mean?
Fandom CultureThe historical term for fandom organized around TV shows and films — as distinct from literary science fiction fandom, from which it split in the zine era. Modern transformative fandom largely descends from media fandom's lineage.
Media Fandom in Practice
When Star Trek fandom exploded in the late 1960s and 1970s, its fanzine culture — heavy on fiction, including the first slash — grew apart from the older SF convention fandom centered on books and pro authors, and 'media fandom' named the new branch. The distinction carried real social weight: media fandom was disproportionately female, fanfiction-centered, and often looked down on by literary fandom, a dynamic fans still invoke when tracing the gendered history of transformative work. Zines, letterzines, and eventually mailing lists and archives were media fandom's institutions. The term appears now mostly in historical discussion and on Fanlore, but the culture it names is the direct ancestor of AO3-era fandom.
Example usage
"Her collection of 1980s zines is a museum of media fandom before the internet got to it."
Related Terms
Fanzine
A fan-published magazine collecting fiction, art, and writing — fandom's original distribution medium, now revived as polished collaborative zine projects. Shortened to zine.
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Slash
Fanfiction centering a same-gender pairing, historically male/male — named for the literal '/' in 'Kirk/Spock.' One of fandom's oldest and most culturally significant genres.
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Fan Convention
An in-person gathering of fans — from massive commercial events to small fan-run cons — featuring panels, dealers' rooms, cosplay, and the rare experience of fandom with faces attached. 'Con' is the universal short form.
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Fanlore
The wiki run by the Organization for Transformative Works that documents fandom history, terminology, communities, and events from a fan's-eye perspective. It is the closest thing fandom has to an institutional memory.
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More Fandom Culture Terms
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