Ins and outs of transmedia fandom: Motives for entering and exiting the SKAM fan community online

Abstract

This article investigates the motives for entering a digital fan community and becoming a fan for the first time—and, subsequently, leaving it again—by focusing on these fans’ main entry and exit points. It looks at the fan community following the Norwegian hit show SKAM (2015–17), which grew over its four seasons into a global cult phenomenon with viewers and fans of all ages from around the world. Empirically, the article draws on forty-seven interviews with Scandinavian SKAM fans between the ages of thirteen and seventy. Based on these interviews, the article presents a tripartite model through which fan motivations are located in the intersections among intrapersonal, social, and transmedial factors.