OTW Fannews: Documenting Fandom

[otw_staff]

• The Hollywood Reporter wrote about Japan smashing the tweets per second world record. The reason? The word "balus" was tweeted "during a television broadcast of Hayao Miyazaki's anime classic Castle in the Sky (Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta)."
  


• Retired English teacher Bill Kraft published a book about his 13-year campaign to honor Star Trek on a U.S. postage stamp. "The 72-year-old became a Trekkie in 1979 as he watched the last 10 minutes of 'Trek: The Motion Picture,' which ended with the creation — instead of the destruction — of a new life form..." His book contains "more than 140 letters endorsing the idea, including supporting words from Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, NASA, Arthur C. Clarke and then- U.S. Sen. John Kerry. 'I had these beautiful, eloquent letters in my crawlspace for 15, 20 years, and I thought, "What a terrible shame. This should be part of the public record in some way,"' Kraft said."
  


• The Central Florida Future wrote about in-person fandom clubs on college campuses. The Harry Potter club, "[I]n addition to visiting Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the group would love to attend LeakyCon, a Harry Potter convention that is coming to Orlando in 2014. Already boasting a group of about 90, the club expects a spike in enrollment following the opening of Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando." Also mentioning the Doctor Who and My Little Pony groups, the article concludes that college life "might just be the perfect place to cultivate friendships and a fandom."
  


• Meanwhile professors are studying fandom at Dragon Con. "Dunn and Herrmann's quantitative survey will look mostly at cosplay but will also encompass fandom in general and what specifically draws these people to Dragon Con." Students of cosplay courses might also be a good group to talk with. "ETSU offers a unique thespian course over the summer semester that teaches cosplay with a focus on 'acting for the convention goer.'"
  

What fandom documentation have you seen in the mass media? Write about it in Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.

We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

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