Introduction: New Directions in Fan Studies

Through psychoanalytic case study analysis, he introduces the notion of cyclical fandom to explore new questions of fans' self-discovery and self-transformation through media consumption. [...]our own contribution ("Global Television Distribution: Implications of TV 'Traveling' for Viewers, Fans, and Texts") addresses viewership and fanship in a global context, drawing on the "traveling theory" of global television to examine the role of distribution practices in transforming our understandings of TV viewers, fans, and texts. [...]these contributions challenge established scholarly and common-sense notions of fandom as enduring (Hills's cyclical fandom), as enabled by textual polysemy (Sandvoss's neutrosemy), as reflections of textual like/love (Gray's antifandom), as entrenched in the popular (Brooker's literary fandom), as apolitical or prepolitical (Scardaville's fan activism), and as rooted in industry practices of production and consumption (our look at media distribution).