Fan Studies Network North America Conference 2020

13th - 17th October 2020

It's con time

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SALON: Online Spaces: The Present and Future of Virtual Fan Conventions

Many fan conventions have been postponed and cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, some smaller fan-run conventions (e.g. WisCon, VidUKon, CON.txt) translated their in-person programming into virtual forms. The necessity of moving online enacts and potentially redefines ‘fan spaces’. For example, this summer VidUKon used the new Conline platform for vidshows and panels, and a Discord server for conversation. This fannish ‘space’ expanded across time zones and continents; however, while this facilitated broader access (to a con typically held in Wales), the text-based and fast-moving Discord chat raised accessibility issues along multiple axes including physical limitations, mental load, and attention span. 

In this salon we will discuss online conventions – as fandom studies scholars, con attendees, and organisers – and reflect on what responses to the crisis reveal about how media fandom events are planned and run.

Participants: E. Charlotte Stevens (Birmingham City University), Naomi Jacobs (Lancaster University), Melanie E.S. Kohnen (Lewis and Clark University), Sebastian F.K. Svegaard (Birmingham City University) (moderator: Lesley Willard)
 

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