Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > ‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’

Research

Links

Text available via DOI:

Keywords

View graph of relations

‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’: Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Published

Standard

‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’: Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community. / Fathallah, Judith.
In: New Media and Society, Vol. 26, No. 10, 31.10.2024, p. 5638-5657.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Fathallah, J 2024, '‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’: Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community', New Media and Society, vol. 26, no. 10, pp. 5638-5657. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221138768

APA

Fathallah, J. (2024). ‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’: Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community. New Media and Society, 26(10), 5638-5657. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221138768

Vancouver

Fathallah J. ‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’: Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community. New Media and Society. 2024 Oct 31;26(10):5638-5657. Epub 2022 Nov 24. doi: 10.1177/14614448221138768

Author

Fathallah, Judith. / ‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’ : Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community. In: New Media and Society. 2024 ; Vol. 26, No. 10. pp. 5638-5657.

Bibtex

@article{611da7b1b1104758a631b1a49a207575,
title = "{\textquoteleft}BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK{\textquoteright}: Gatekeeping Reddit{\textquoteright}s True Crime Community",
abstract = "All fandoms engage in gatekeeping. Whether or not we agree that contemporary media fandoms comprise something like {\textquoteleft}communities{\textquoteright}, the {\textquoteleft}-dom{\textquoteright} suffix to the term {\textquoteleft}fan{\textquoteright} necessitates some conception of a group, and groups have boundaries. These boundaries are always in tension, and self-defined true crime fans are a tricky case. True crime is mainstream, an endlessly profitable and staple of the media landscape. However, true crime fans must negotiate and police a boundary that separates them from the posited figure of the Bad Fan. This article examines the Reddit subforums r/TrueCrime and r/SerialKillers, analysing posts that discuss and police the boundaries separating the right kind of interest in true crime from this posited Bad Fan. I argue that while true crime enthusiasts tend to present their gatekeeping work as an ethical practice, it is often more to do with maintaining gendered norms than it is about morality or propriety.",
keywords = "Dark fandom, fan community, fan studies, gender, othering, serial killers, true crime",
author = "Judith Fathallah",
year = "2024",
month = oct,
day = "31",
doi = "10.1177/14614448221138768",
language = "English",
volume = "26",
pages = "5638--5657",
journal = "New Media and Society",
issn = "1461-7315",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",
number = "10",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘BEING A FANGIRL OF A SERIAL KILLER IS NOT OK’

T2 - Gatekeeping Reddit’s True Crime Community

AU - Fathallah, Judith

PY - 2024/10/31

Y1 - 2024/10/31

N2 - All fandoms engage in gatekeeping. Whether or not we agree that contemporary media fandoms comprise something like ‘communities’, the ‘-dom’ suffix to the term ‘fan’ necessitates some conception of a group, and groups have boundaries. These boundaries are always in tension, and self-defined true crime fans are a tricky case. True crime is mainstream, an endlessly profitable and staple of the media landscape. However, true crime fans must negotiate and police a boundary that separates them from the posited figure of the Bad Fan. This article examines the Reddit subforums r/TrueCrime and r/SerialKillers, analysing posts that discuss and police the boundaries separating the right kind of interest in true crime from this posited Bad Fan. I argue that while true crime enthusiasts tend to present their gatekeeping work as an ethical practice, it is often more to do with maintaining gendered norms than it is about morality or propriety.

AB - All fandoms engage in gatekeeping. Whether or not we agree that contemporary media fandoms comprise something like ‘communities’, the ‘-dom’ suffix to the term ‘fan’ necessitates some conception of a group, and groups have boundaries. These boundaries are always in tension, and self-defined true crime fans are a tricky case. True crime is mainstream, an endlessly profitable and staple of the media landscape. However, true crime fans must negotiate and police a boundary that separates them from the posited figure of the Bad Fan. This article examines the Reddit subforums r/TrueCrime and r/SerialKillers, analysing posts that discuss and police the boundaries separating the right kind of interest in true crime from this posited Bad Fan. I argue that while true crime enthusiasts tend to present their gatekeeping work as an ethical practice, it is often more to do with maintaining gendered norms than it is about morality or propriety.

KW - Dark fandom

KW - fan community

KW - fan studies

KW - gender

KW - othering

KW - serial killers

KW - true crime

U2 - 10.1177/14614448221138768

DO - 10.1177/14614448221138768

M3 - Journal article

VL - 26

SP - 5638

EP - 5657

JO - New Media and Society

JF - New Media and Society

SN - 1461-7315

IS - 10

ER -