the habits of Sherlock Holmes fans in digital age: A contribution to fan research Austria

Fans are passionate, productive and creative. Their social and cultural practices have taken on new forms in the digital age. They organise events via Facebook, exchange information online and communicate with their community in real time. This book explains the role that digital media play in these practices, using the Sherlock Holmes fan community in Austria as a case study. To this end, the book adopts the perspective of cultural studies, which attributes an active role to fans in their engagement with media texts. The research findings show that digital media do not determine the social sphere, but rather embody it through structures of meaning and opportunities for communicative exchange. Virtual space serves as an additional venue for fans to engage in their practices, but does not replace the physical world.