Beyond the Final Frontier: Expanding the Role of Fan/Audience Studies
Melissa Beattie, PhD
Asst Prof General Education, American University of Central Asia
tritogeneia@aol.com
Job Talk
Abstract
Traditionally, Fan Studies has been associated with cult media fandom and/or sport fandom. Audience research, an outgrowth of this, is still often associated with quantitative work or the somewhat outdated idea of ratings. In this presentation I will discuss the ways in which fan/audience studies have expanded in the past decade. Though touching on some areas with which I do not directly engage (e.g., fandoms associated with political figures, sport fandoms, et cetera) I will focus instead upon three ongoing and developing research projects which utilise fan/audience research: reception of defamiliarised landscapes, reception and trust of digital weather media and work on fan-related archives. Through these projects I show that qualitative audience research is a viable and necessary part of understanding how audiences make meaning from and develop trust in
the different forms of media they consume, regardless of whether or not they consider themselves ‘fans’ of such texts. I also illustrate the depth and breadth of the texts to which audience research can be applied and the complexities involved in determining how audiences can, do and wish to see themselves represented on screen and to the wider global public(s).
Date: Nov. 11, 2026
Time: 12:30-13:30
Location: FB 309