This was a very interesting article, but I must oppose the notion that fandom is primarily a Western media phenomenon. You just have to look at the wikipedia articles for Comiket or DÅjinshi to see that Japanese fans have organised themselves for a long time and in huge numbers in a development separate but similar to Western Media Fandom. They just tend to focus on fancomics rather than fanfiction.
I also think that the English speaking anime/manga/J-game fandom grew out of the Japanese fandom culture and adopter terms, behaviour, and modes of expression from there rather than from Western fandom. Especially during the nineties/early 2000 when English speaking a/m/Jg fandom existed largely in personal websites connected in webrings and on mailing lists and archives.
But as a history of Western Media Fandom this was a great read!
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I also think that the English speaking anime/manga/J-game fandom grew out of the Japanese fandom culture and adopter terms, behaviour, and modes of expression from there rather than from Western fandom. Especially during the nineties/early 2000 when English speaking a/m/Jg fandom existed largely in personal websites connected in webrings and on mailing lists and archives.
But as a history of Western Media Fandom this was a great read!