Date of Award

12-1-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Heather Crandall

Abstract

This study focuses on fanfiction culture online, particularly how the stories relate to television fandoms and a need to participate or reinterpret a text on an individual and a global level to find meaning in the encoded messages. The study follows theoretical groundwork from Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding and Walter R. Fisher’s narrative paradigm. Philosophical considerations are given to communitarian ethics and how humans innately need community to successfully fulfill the need to communicate with others. Through ethnographic research, the study discovers how and why fanfiction is being used to uncover and discover identity, meaning, and community by exploring a community on fanfiction.net.

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