Generally speaking, media fandom operates on a labor theory of value—not necessarily in the Marxist sense of the phrase, but in the sense that value derives from work. Fandom’s gift economy assigns special worth to “gifts of time and skill”
[QUOTE] From Fan-Yi Lam, Comic Market: How the World’s Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dōjinshi Culture, p244
Comike was neither the first nor the biggest dōjinshi fair when it was established; its main purpose was to provide the freest market possible, and that freedom has come at a price. The dream of a Comic Market open to
[QUOTE] From Tisha Turk, Fan work: Labor, worth, and participation in fandom’s gift economy
The phrase fan work is typically used, by both fans and academics, in the sense of work of art; it refers to fan fiction, fan vids, fan art. Within fandom, these objects are “the main focus of most discussion outside
[QUOTE] From Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis, Editorial: Fandom and/as labor
It is now well established that watching television can usefully be conceptualized as work (Jhally and Livant 1986; Smythe 1977), and a labor framing has been applied to user-generated content by critical media studies scholars (Andrejevic 2009; Fuchs 2012; Hesmondhalgh
[QUOTE] From Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis, Editorial: Fandom and/as labor
To modify the open source software saying “Free as in free speech, not as in free beer,” fan work is “For free as in a gift, not for free as in without pay.” Mel Stanfill and Megan Condis, Editorial: Fandom and/as
[QUOTE] From tishaturk, fandom: best vs. favorite
One of the things I love about fandom is that fandom, for the most part, operates not on a “these are the best things” model (where the criteria for “best” are typically undefined yet implied to be shared by all