The Filipino “Stan” Phenomenon and Henry Jenkins‟ Participatory Culture: The Case of Generations X and Z

In recent years, the online world is soaked in „stan culture‟, wherein fandoms collaboratively express their idolization for a certain artist, group, other famous personalities or crafted content. The study focuses on the stan phenomenon as a Participatory Culture, a concept created by Henry Jenkins and his colleagues, within Generation X and Generation Z of Filipino stans only. Participatory Culture is a concept wherein various people share ideas, creations, expressions and information within a community through means of socialization in various mediums available. Participatory Culture is also used as the conceptual framework of this study and is comprised of four functions, namely fan affiliations, expressions of fandom, collaborative problem solving, and network circulations. The data gathering was conducted through one-on-one interviews with 10 Generation X participants and another 10 for Generation Z and the study utilized Braun and Clarke‟s Thematic Analysis [14] in order to examine and dissect the recurring patterns from the data gathered. In conclusion, though the term „stan culture‟ is relatively new, it has been steadily occurring with the aid of technology and its advancements throughout the years (i.e. social networking sites). Stan culture has been manifested differently per generation, specifically in Generation X and Generation Z in accordance to the scope of this study, a big factor of which being the availability of mediums and the personal preferences of who or what they idolized, their expression in idolization, and the collaboration within their own communities, which settles the difference in manifestations of this phenomenon.

Keywords – fandoms, generation x, generation z, participatory culture, stan culture