Fans of Q

The Stakes of QAnon's Functioning as Political Fandom

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4899433
AutoresCarrielynn D Reinhard (0000-0003-4144-9165, Dominican University, autor de correspondencia), David Stanley (0000-0001-7767-5442, Department of English, University Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA), Linda Howell (0000-0001-8717-2195, University of North Florida)
Año2022
Volumen66
Número8
Páginas1152-1172
Fecha de publicación2022-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00027642211042294
OpenAlexW3197458839
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas19
Referencias citadas9

Affective activation, and the community engagement it fosters, is the driving mechanism of all fandoms, irrespective of the specific "objects of affection" around which they coalesce. These centralized objects of affection may hail from popular culture, such as in the form of sports teams, television shows, cartoon characters, or musicians. As fan scholars have increasingly recognized, fandoms can also emerge around profit-driven brands, specific politicians, and social movements. Much has been said regarding the dangers of the online conspiracy theory QAnon. However, these warnings have tended to overemphasize the rapidly evolving, amorphous beliefs of its adherents, rather than recognize the affective activation propelling the movement. Through its analysis of affect-driven communities, the field of fan studies can be productively applied to investigate the online discursive activities of QAnon community members. Framing QAnon as a fandom elucidates the functions through which the conspiracy theory radicalizes "normies" by exploiting the types of fan activities already well-established in mainstream fan communities. Underscoring the transferability of fan studies concepts to political movements and communities, this exploration outlines the societal stakes of QAnon's manipulation and normalization of the toxic emotions cohering its adherents into a fanatic community

Aesthetics · Affection · Art · Fandom · Framing (construction) · Incentive · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Sociology · Transferability · History · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology