Fandom History

Abstract

Although the rise of the internet since the late 1990s has led to more people than ever defining themselves as fans, historically, fans and fandom are inextricably linked with the genre of science fiction (sf). Fans are people who actively engage with something, such as a television show or a sports team; they then self-arrange themselves into a fandom, the community formed around a specific text, object and/or activity. While this mode of participatory, often transformational, fandom, which has come to be the dominant strain in the United States in particular, was not created by Star Trek fans, it has come to be associated with them, and Star Trek fans’ practices continue to inform general understandings of fans and fandoms. This chapter will interrogate the history of this fandom, tracing it from its roots in the 1960s with its zines, through the era of the early World Wide Web to today’s world of social media and vast online communities.