Methodology
The site of my research is, as previously discussed in my
introduction, the “aoje” tag on Tumblr. Tumblr is designed as a largely visual
online space, and usually still and moving images are common features of the
most popular posts on Tumblr. The “aoje” tag is not quite as graphics-based as
the site at large. Fan contributions to the tag most frequently consist of text
posts that discuss recent episodes, ponder nuances of the series (most often
characterization), and speculate over what might happen in future episodes.
Visual graphics can also be found on the tag; they are just slightly less
common than text posts. Due to the largely text-based nature of the “aoje” tag,
there is a strong sense of community between the tag’s participants.
The participants of the “aoje” tag are, to the best of my
knowledge, regular Tumblr users. The number of participants has gone up
considerably since I began monitoring the tag in September of 2013. When I
first began observing the tag, there were around two dozen participants, and it
was an easy task to keep track of every post added to the tag. Now in December
of 2013, checking the tag on a daily basis no longer allows me to stay on top
of all the contributions. Information about the particular demographic is not
easily attainable, since it is usually irrelevant to participating in the
fandom. If the “aoje” tag correlates to the larger-scale Tumblr user demographic,
which I suspect it does, then participants are most often female and in their
teens or twenties. This demographic includes the actual cast and crew of AOJE: showrunner Nessa Aref and lead
actress Alysson Hall both use the “aoje” tag somewhat frequently (on around a
weekly basis), as do a few other members of the
crew. There is a strong sense of awareness within the “aoje” tag that the
show’s creators are present; this awareness results in a rather affectionate
back-and-forth between fans and creators. Fans frequently voice their
appreciation for the creators’ efforts in the “aoje” space; the creators do the
same for the fans.
I myself have contributed eight posts to the tag since
September; a few are visual graphics, though the majority are text posts. I am
not nearly as frequent a participant as many of my fellow Tumblr users. Still,
what little I have posted has gained a fair amount of attention, which suggests
that the community is very enthusiastic and receptive of new contributions. My
first post received attention from actress Alysson Hall, which made the
potential for interaction between fans and creators very clear for me early on.
When I am not contributing to the tag, I still participate regularly – if fairly
passively – by reading each of the posts and liking or reblogging them. (A
further explanation of liking and reblogging, the two most popular Tumblr functions,
can be found in my Polished Analysis.)
For my data, I have studied both my own contributions to
the tag and the contributions of others. The first data analysis I conducted
considers the interaction between fans and creators in the tag, specifically
through looking at Alysson Hall’s reblog of one of my visual graphics posts and
looking at how the popularity of the post was affected by her participation. My
second data analysis studies AOJE’s
construction of (fictional) identity in online spaces and fan reactions to that
transmedia-savvy characterization technique; for this data analysis, I considered
a small number of the “aoje” tag reactions to an episode of AOJE that partook in a popular YouTube
vlogger meme, “Draw My Life.” My last data analysis examines AOJE’s use of transmedia – and, more
specifically, the way that Tumblr fans bring that transmedia to the “aoje” tag in
order to make sure that all the series’s followers are aware of the developments
occurring in the series across media platforms. All three of these sets of data
and subsequent analyses help to capture an understanding of how fans receive AOJE’s use of transmedia, affinity
spaces, and other digital literacies conventions.
My analysis has drawn upon the tradition of fandom studies;
many of the foundational concepts in the field come from the work of Henry
Jenkins. Jenkins' concepts of convergence culture and transmedia have been
subsequently discussed by many scholars -- among them Shefrin (2007), Williams
(2008), and Wood & Baughman (2012) -- as the internet environment becomes a
more lively and vibrant place for fan participation. I feel that AOJE represents a step forward in the
realm of digital literacies and fandom, wherein both fandom and canon occupy
the same space.
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