Fan Culture: From Consumption of the Mass to Creation of the Popular

The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence of fan culture, analysing its evolution from passive consumption of mass culture products to active creation of popular culture. Research methodology. General scientific methods were used: analysis and synthesis – to interpret fan studies and consider contemporary scientific discourse. The comparative method was used to compare the features and characteristics of fan cultures and to show the difference between fans and fanatics. The historical method was used to show the evolution of fan culture. The scientific novelty lies in the identification of the essence of fan cultures and their contribution to the creation of contemporary popular culture, fan cultures and their contribution to the creation of contemporary popular culture. Conclusions. It has been established that, in a broad sense, fan culture is a specific way of life of fans of a particular cultural phenomenon or a carrier of a particular cultural tradition. In a narrower sense, fan culture is not a homogeneous entity with the same characteristics, so the term "fan culture" is used to refer to a number of different groups of fans who have united around a common interest in a particular mass cultural product. It is proved that the emergence of fan communities as groups of joint creativity of fans of literary works, television series, comics, computer games and other mass culture products has become a vivid phenomenon of popular culture creation. It finds that the intensive development of digital technologies has contributed to the transfer of fan communication to the Internet and the emergence of media fandom as a fan community in the digital age. The digital practices of media fandom are found to contribute to the expansion and enrichment of cultural diversity and creativity, adding new meanings, interpretations, genres, and styles to the creation of contemporary popular culture.