Mariachiara Montebello

Fandom! TV Series vs Music Mariachiara Montebello

This research has the purpose to compare TV series fandoms and the ones of musicians, choosing as study cases the fans of the TV series House Of Cards and the ones of the songwriter and musician Justin Bieber. What will be examined is the level of fans' involvement in the medial phenomenon, but also what elements of the content and the fans' experiences will prove themselves to be more or less relevant, and what languages fandoms use to express themselves. What it's expected to be proved is that, while House Of Cards is more inclined to be considered just as simple entertainment about which you can chat online, in the Justin Bieber fandom the level of involvement will be so high that it will overstep the distance between the "medial product", the fandom and the emotional life of the single fan. If House Of Cards fans will have names, faces and well expressed opinions, Beliebers, despite of "hiding" themselves behind nicknames and pseudonyms, will hardly limit themselves to the expression of a simplistic appreciation for the content, but will be more inclined to use social networks to share with the rest of the fandom deeper and more personal thoughts. Afterwards, in the qualitative part of the research, it will be verified if, on an individual level, it is possible to find the same interests, motivations and feelings that push fans to collaborate collectively. That is to say, to complete the switchboard resulted from the quantitative research, "tracing" the path of some fans in order to reveal the presuppositions that come before their online expression, but that, being those practises repeated daily, can remain tacit.