Research Ideas

My two leading research project ideas are:

1. Online queer fan communities. When I used to have time to watch some TV shows regularly, I was pretty caught off-guard when I went online about how many online fan communities were based around a queer interpretation of the show. One of the major manifestations of this is "slash" fan fiction, in which the author writes a fictional romantic story about two male characters or two female characters from a TV show or movie. A lot of these communities also form around forums where they discuss everything from the last episode of the show in question to politics to their own lives. The best example that I have found so far would be "The Kitten, the Witches, and the Bad Wardrobe", a forum dedicated to the lesbian couple of Willow and Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Another example that kept coming up was fan fiction for the show Xena: Warrior Princess, which portrays the two main characters as romantically involved. One of the most popular sites in this category it seems would be the stories of Missy Good, who apparently became so popular among Xena fans that the producers of the show asked her to help write a couple of episodes.

2. Online advertising. It seems that a lot of companies are getting into the online advertising game, and in a more innovative way than in the past. Previously online advertising mostly consisted of targeted banner or text ads - now some companies are creating interactive online ads, videos, and other non-traditional ad projects. I think this really reflects the continuing growth and mainstream acceptance of the internet and world wide web, as now companies feel that they can reach more and more people online. One example would be Burger King's "Subservient Chicken" website, where the user can type in commands and watch a video of a man in a chicken costume carrying them out.

Right now I would say I am more drawn to the first topic, partially because even in the preliminary looking around that I have been doing, people in these communities have already been really helpful in pointing me in the right direction. That definitely makes my job a lot easier, especially in finding . Also, I think the topic is really interesting because some people literally spend every day interacting with these online communities, and they seem to be getting some sort of support and connection out of it that maybe they don't think they can get otherwise in their everyday life. I'm still not counting out the second topic, though.