[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-133167-en":3,"doc-seo-133167-105":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},133167,549768064622,"Lucas Vance","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",8,"Research & Report","Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism - Fansumers as Cultural Transmitters","Digital media and hyperconnectivity are reshaping fandom, prompting renewed scholarly attention to how participation moves beyond simple consumption. Earlier work on the prosumer is extended here through the fansumer: emotionally invested fans who coordinate consumption and activities to increase cultural visibility, affect market outcomes, and practice fandom activism. Enabled by Homo Connectus, a continuously networked subject shaped by platforms and algorithms, fans function as interconnected nodes. Hallyu communities illustrate how fandom redefines digital-era participation, simultaneously producing empowerment, contradictions, hybrid cultures, feminist imaginations, and political solidarities.","Ahn & Roy / Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism 178  \nHOMO CONNECTUS AND FANDOM ACTIVISM  \nFansumers as Cultural Transmitters  \nSoongbeum Ahn  \nKyung Hee University  \n[instory@khu.ac.kr](instory@khu.ac.kr)  \nRatan Kumar Roy  \nSouth Asian University  \n[rkroy@sau.int](rkroy@sau.int)  \nAbstract  \nThe transformation of fandom in the age of digital media and hyperconnectivity calls for renewed scholarly attention. Earlier studies of participatory culture highlighted the role of the “prosumer,” who blurs the boundary between production and consumption. This special section shifts the focus to the concept of the “fansumer,” which captures a more specific mode of engagement in which emotionally invested fans mobilize coordinated consumption and activities to shape cultural visibility, influence market outcomes, and practice fandom activism. Fans also actively generate new cultural forms and position themselves as agents of communication, thereby amplifying the dynamism of the global popular culture scene. These practices are enabled by the condition of “Homo Connectus,” a persistently networked subject whose everyday communication, cognition, and cultural participation are deeply embedded within digital platforms and algorithmically structured environments. Within such ecosystems, fans operate both individually and collectively as interconnected nodes that circulate meanings, values, and cultural symbols. The global rise of Hallyu (Korean Wave) provides a particularly vivid illustration of this transformation, as K-fandom communities have redefined what it means to participate in fandom in the digital era. This special section of Kritika Kultura,“Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism: Fansumers as Cultural Transmitters,” brings together nine contributions that collectively demonstrate how fandom operates as a vital cultural force, capable of reshaping aesthetics, markets, politics, and social identities. Together, these contributions highlight how fandom is a site of both empowerment and contradiction, capable of generating hybrid cultures, feminist imaginations, and political solidarities, while also producing tensions such as market distortion and algorithmic co-optation.  \nKritika Kultura 49 (2026): 178–192 © Ateneo de Manila University  \n\u003C [https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk](https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk) >  \nAhn & Roy / Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism 179  \nKeywords  \ncultural transmitter, fandom activisim, fansumer, Hallyu, Homo Connectus  \nAbout the Authors  \nSoongbeum Ahn is a Professor of Korean Language and Literature and Dean of the Institute of International Education at Kyung Hee University, where he directs the Korean Cultural Contents major. His research interests include Hallyu as Korean Studies, the transnational reception of Hallyu through a comparative cultural studies lens, criticism of film and story contents, and digital storytelling within post-narratology. He also serves as the Director of the K-Culture and Story Contents Research Institute at Kyung Hee University. He is editor of Cultural Studies Keywords for Hallyu Researchers: A Dictionary for Korean Studies (2026, Palgrave Macmillan).  \nRatan Kumar Roy is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the South Asian University, a university established by the SAARC nations. He taught at the School of General Education, Brac University, Bangladesh. His research interests include anthropology of media and communication, transcultural flow, fandom and subcultures, digital cultures, South Asian mediascapes, ethnography, visual storytelling, and gender and inclusion. He also serves as the Director of the SIMEC Research Center, Singapore. His recent edited book is published by Springer Nature titled Korean Culture Fandoms: Affective Practices and Identity in a Global Context (2026).  \nKritika Kultura 49 (2026): 179–192 © Ateneo de Manila University  \n\u003C [https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk](https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk) >  \nAhn & Roy / Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism 180  \nThe ","cbCaitJXXpYchVw6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitJXXpYchVw6","pdf",191231,2,1,15,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Keywords\n# About the Authors\n# Fandom in the Digital Age\n# The Special Section’s Focus","[{\"question\":\"What does “fansumer” mean in this special section?\",\"answer\":\"Fansumer describes a specific mode of engagement in which emotionally invested fans mobilize coordinated consumption and activities to shape cultural visibility, influence markets, and practice fandom activism.\"},{\"question\":\"How does “Homo Connectus” enable fandom activism?\",\"answer\":\"Homo Connectus refers to a persistently networked subject whose everyday communication, cognition, and cultural participation are embedded in digital platforms and algorithmically structured environments.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the special section frame the relationship between fandom and the digital era?\",\"answer\":\"Fandom is portrayed as moving beyond passive reception toward active meaning-making, where fans recreate and recontextualize texts, generate new cultural forms, and act as communication agents.\"}]","Homo Connectus and Fandom Activism - 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