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Published April 21, 2023 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Postemotionalism, McDonaldization, and transmedial worlds as commodifying mechanisms in fan fiction communities

  • 1. University of Tartu

Description

Abstract. The intent of this article is to understand the commodification of leisure and labour within fan fiction writing communities. To accomplish this, I attempt a theoretical synthesis of postemotionalism, McDonaldization, convergence culture, transmedial worlds theory, and literature on fan fiction writers and identity. Commodification and rationalisation through the internet have been studied quite heavily, Terranova (2013) and Fuch (2014) for instance have taken more Marxian/Marxist approaches, and Ritzer (2019), and Jenkins (2006) have demonstrated how implosions, or convergences, create exploitative media and mechanisms. However, the increasing rationalisation of the social world through online space calls for a closer look at the formalising and implosive processes within the Internet itself, and I attempt this through reviewing rationalising mechanisms noted in the literature on fan fiction. The article concludes that the emotions and community created by transmedial world fan fiction writers attract and hold writers to said community by blurring leisure and labour. The writers' continuous interactions through their leisure time activities of socialising and fan fiction writing create said community, while simultaneously offer uncompensated support and labour for the expansion and maintenance of transmedial worlds and media culture products.

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