About Facebook Groups and Fandom
Facebook Group Basics
“A Facebook Group is a place for group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion. They let people come together around a common cause, issue or activity to organize, express objectives, discuss issues, post photos, and share related content.”- Elise Moreau, Lifewire
Facebook Groups are used by are variety of people for a variety of reasons including:
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Fandoms
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Sports Teams
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Businesses
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Social Justice
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Knowledge Sharing
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Local Communities
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School Year Groups
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Study Groups
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MEME Sharing
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Buy/Swap/Sell
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Ect.
Setting Up a Group
Anyone can set up a Facebook Group. When setting up a group there are a few different privacy options. You can make a group public, so that anyone can join it, or you can make it private so that only members can see posts and make posts in the group. Within the private setting there is the option to make the group either visible or hidden. If the group is visible anyone can find the group and request to join it. If it is hidden, then only people invited by a member of the group can join it. Hidden groups are also known as secret groups.
Knowledge Sharing in Facebook Groups
An integral part of Facebook groups is knowledge sharing. A study conducted on this by Shih-Ming Pi, Chen-Huei Chou and Hsiu-Li Liao revealed that ‘Facebook Groups members would be willing to share their knowledge when they found the sharing beneficial to others. In addition, they would make an effort to share knowledge when they perceived that other members would expect them to do so.’ (Pi et al., 2013) The knowledge sharing could be anything from a local car crash being reported in a community group page to a new fan theory in a fandom group. Through sharing and receiving knowledge people in Facebook Groups are forging connections with others and thinking about what the greater community might need or want to know.
Understanding Fandoms
A Condensed Glossary from Mark Duffet’s book- Understanding fandom : an introduction to the study of media fan culture
Fan: a self-identified enthusiast, devotee or follower of a particular media genre, text, person or activity.
Fanagement: fan-focused management online akin to a revamped version of word-of-mouth advertising.
Fan base: the entire group of fans who support a particular person or text. This group can include closet fans who are not in the fan community.
Fan community: a socially organised group of fans who share one hero, text or genre and then network with each other.
Fandom: a way of identifying oneself on a deep level as being a fan and enacting that role (e.g. ‘My fandom for manga cartoons’). I describe this as personal fandom; a shorthand for the fan community: ‘Many fans feel freer in fandom than outside to express themselves, ask questions, and discuss alternative viewpoints’ (Jenkins 2006, 85).
Fandom research: the entirety of academic scholarship that has taken fans and fandom as its object of study. Fandom research is older and larger than fan studies and can include Adorno’s work on music listeners, pre-1990s fan research, articles in psychology journals and other such material.
Meta-text: the meaningfully whole constellation of texts that encompasses one phenomenon. For example, a rock star’s meta-text might include his/her music, publicity, endorsements and biography. Franchises are meta-textual phenomena. Crucially, the boundaries of the meta-text are created, distributed, shared and policed with each fan community.
Participatory culture: the idea that the distinction between active producers and passive consumers has been reduced or sometimes even erased as both are now actively engaged as players in the flow of new media. It does not entirely negate the power relations between and within the two groups, but it does reformulate them (Jenkins 2008, 3). Participation is shaped by cultural and social protocols. The idea implies a kind of utopianism, in that previous incarnations of the media (cinema, TV and radio) historically appeared to promote less active one way relationships between members of the mass audience and broadcast media.
Shippers: fans who are much more interested in the triumphs and tribulations of romantic relationships than other aspects of the dramatic text.
Spoiler: information usually related to plots or contest winners that, once known, ends the central mystery of a narrative.
Social Media and Fandoms
Bertha Chin discusses social media and participatory fandom. She explains the culture of fandom by stating that, ‘they experience an emotional connection to each other as well as the org/producer, and they expect authentic, human connection and feel a sense of ownership in the brand, organization, or product.’ (Chin, 2016) It is particularly important to note about the sense of ownership, many fandoms will take something that they love and take ownership of it. This ownership can be expressed in many ways including FanFics, Fan Art, Cosplay, Fan Theories and more. Chin states that ‘The most loyal fans would move across different platforms such as digital games, comics, exclusive web content, and so forth to uncover layers of storyline related to the source text.’ (Chin, 2016) While many fandoms do have large community Facebook Groups they can spread across multiple social media platforms for different areas of the Fandom. However Facebook Groups are one of the most engaging platforms as they allow for actual connection and discussions between fans with the use of both text and image.
Nicolle Lamerichs also explores technology in fandoms explaining, ‘Technologies do not produce certain effects but are given meaning by the social groups that operate them. Although common user patterns may arise, there is great leeway in how we understand these technologies and what types of culture can form around them. Technology is not a neutral tool but is always given meaning by the users themselves.’ (Lamerichs, 2018) The users of Facebook Groups ultimately decide the culture within them and the way in which the tool is utilized. Within Facebook groups the Admins or Creators make rules that the community must follow, if they do not the Admins have authority to remove people from the group. When joining a private group you must first agree to these rules before being accepted into the group.
Fandoms of Facebook
A breakdown of two Fandom Facebook Groups