Discourses on Text Integrity: Information and Interpretation in the Contested Fallout Knowledge Community

Abstract

In an effort to further understand the nature of the productive consumption of media fans in an era of digital connectivity, this article expands on Lévy’s (1997) concept of the knowledge community as it applies to fans of the digital-game series Fallout. Lévy proposed that the age of digital-connectivity would usher in knowledge communities where participation was voluntary, aggregate, and democratic. I argue that Baym’s (2000) interpretive and informative practices, which serve as the lynchpins of fan discourse, may be understood as the lynchpins of the knowledge community as well. Further, here interpretive and informative practices are not only used to build community and negotiate values, but also to define status and position within the contested Fallout knowledge community. By testing the knowledge community against such an environment, and integrating it into previous research on the role of fan labor in an era where producers are increasingly interested in that labor, this article proposes an understanding of the concept that may well add nuance and context beyond the theory’s utopian roots.