We collected tag data for posts related to specific TV fan groups in order to analyze the phenomenon of “Tag Culture,” or the way that fans on Tumblr use tags as a medium to serve as a space for discourse, to build communities, and provide classification and commentary on media. Downtime, time in between new episodes of a TV show for example, traditionally leads to high volume fan creation, discussion, and community building. The goal of this project was to determine whether Tag Culture can offer insights into how fans use downtime in an era when media is instantly accessible and always on and in a time when fans have the means to participate in the creation and distribution of media.
For more information about this project, contact: kjmoore@mit.edu
Project icon adapted from “Hashtag” by matthew hall and “Tumblr” by Lubos Volkov at The Noun Project under a Creative Commons license.