[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-135261-en":3,"doc-seo-135261-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},135261,549768072016,"WPS_1786070896","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",8,"Research & Report","Capturing Differences in Character Representations Between Communities - An Initial Study with Fandom","Sociolinguistic theories emphasize that narratives are often collaboratively retold, co-constructed, and reinterpreted in interaction. This working paper studies how character representations—key elements of a narrative story-world—can be computationally compared across online communities using fandom as data. Text from the Harry Potter novels, the r/HarryPotter subreddit, and fanfiction on Archive of Our Own is analyzed for mention changes, co-occurrence centrality, and semantic associations, revealing community-specific character prioritization and distinct gendered associations across concepts.","Capturing Differences in Character Representations Between Communities: An Initial Study with Fandom  \nBianca N.Y. Kang 1[0009-0007-2745-0529]  \n1 Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA  \n[biancak@andrew.cmu.edu](biancak@andrew.cmu.edu)  \nAbstract. Sociolinguistic theories have highlighted how narratives are often retold, co-constructed and reconceptualized in collaborative settings. This working paper focuses on the re-interpretation of characters, an integral part of the narrative story-world, and attempts to study how this may be computationally compared between online communities. Using online fandom – a highly communal phenomenon that has been largely studied qualitatively – as data, computational methods were applied to explore shifts in character representations between two communities and the original text. Specifically, text from the Harry Potter novels, r/HarryPotter subreddit, and fanfiction on Archive of Our Own were analyzed for changes in character mentions, centrality measures from co-occurrence networks, and semantic associations. While fandom elevates secondary characters as found in past work, the two fan communities prioritize different subsets of characters.  \nWord embedding tests reveal starkly different associations ofthe same characters between communities on the gendered concepts of femininity/masculinity, cruelty, and beauty. Furthermore, fanfiction descriptions of a male character analyzed between romance pairings scored higher for feminine-coded characteristics in male-male romance, matching past qualitative theorizing. The results highlight the potential for computational methods to assist in capturing the re-conceptualization of narrative elements across communities and in supporting qualitative research on fandom.  \nKeywords: Online communities, characters in narratives, fandom.  \n1 Introduction  \n1.1 Collaboration and narratives  \nNarratives are a medium for signaling their tellers’ identities, values, and perspectives [1] . Current sociolinguistic theories point towards narrative as a highly interpretative and collaborative exercise [1], [2], [3] . Social groups frequently engage in collaborative storytelling [2], [4], which helps reinforce group membership [1] . These collaborative acts also underscore another feature of narratives – their fluidity. Instead of existing as complete, unmalleable units, they are often in flux, open to change and renegotiation across interactions and contexts [2] . People, relationships, events, and values are often reconceptualized in story-telling [4] .  \nThe structure and affordances of today’s social media platforms – comments, forum discussions, episodic updates – provide rich contexts to further our understanding of narrative non-linearity and collaborative construction and re-construction, beyond prior offline ethnographic studies [3], [5], [6] . In their networks, users remix and remake content from others [5]; the role of the community takes centerstage online [3] . The availability of online data and computational techniques (e.g., in framing) highlight a potential to study at scale how components of a story-world (characters, situations, events [1]) might be re-negotiated across communities. Characters and their relationships are central to modern analyses of narratives [7], our understanding of society [8], and phenomena like conspiracies [9] . In this working paper, I thus specifically explore how changes in character representations might be captured quantitatively as they are retold in different online communities with varying communicative contexts and goals.  \n1.2 Online fandom  \nDrawing from recent studies that have recognized online fandom as a resource for understanding broader phenomena like re-interpretation [10] and misinformation [11], this exploration is conducted via Harry Potter fan communities, which have had significant influence on modern Internet culture [12] . Specifically, character representations are compared between","cbCaihxjErB77wMU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihxjErB77wMU","pdf",340713,2,1,10,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# 1 Introduction\n## 1.1 Collaboration and narratives\n## 1.2 Online fandom\n## 1.3 Research questions","[{\"question\":\"What is the main goal of the study on fandom and character representation?\",\"answer\":\"The study aims to computationally capture how character representations shift when stories are retold across different online fan communities.\"},{\"question\":\"Which data sources are used to compare character representations across communities?\",\"answer\":\"The analysis uses text from the Harry Potter novels, the r/HarryPotter subreddit, and fanfiction on Archive of Our Own.\"},{\"question\":\"How are character changes measured in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"It examines changes in character mentions, centrality from co-occurrence networks, and semantic associations, including gendered concept associations.\"}]","Capturing Differences in Character Representations Between Communities - An Initial Study with Fandom | PDF",1787308194,25,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":29},"capturing-differences-in-character-representations-between-communities-an-initial-study-with-fandom","",{"@graph":37,"@context":86},[38,54,69],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,48,51],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/capturing-differences-in-character-representations-between-communities-an-initial-study-with-fandom/135261/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":42,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-24","2026-08-21",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What is the main goal of the study on fandom and character representation?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"The study aims to computationally capture how character representations shift when stories are retold across different online fan communities.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"Which data sources are used to compare character representations across communities?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"The analysis uses text from the Harry Potter novels, the r/HarryPotter subreddit, and fanfiction on Archive of Our Own.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How are character changes measured in the paper?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"It examines changes in character mentions, centrality from co-occurrence networks, and semantic associations, including gendered concept associations.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,111,116,121,124,129,132,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":134},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]