Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Communication
Major Professor
Mariaelena Bartesaghi, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Patrice Buzzanell, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Aubrey Huber, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Judith Bridges, Ph.D.
Keywords
celebrity studies, digital ethnography, fan studies, queerness
Abstract
This dissertation examines the communicative constitution of authenticity and queerness. Because queerness has been policed and censored, notions of authenticity, in particular authentic queer representations, are fraught and sustaining to many LGBTQ+ and allied media consumers. The project focuses on the television series Supernatural—specifically, the unfolding of interactions in fan conventions, Twitter/X, and Tumblr involving celebrities and viewers of the series following a social breach, or rupture in the narrative. The last three episodes of Supernatural brought issues of queerness and authenticity to the fore for many viewers, making discussions about these themes compelling sites for multimodal data in the Communication discipline. By building a bridge between discourse studies, fan studies, and queerness, this dissertation illuminates the ways people articulate themselves in relation to others as creators, fans, consumers, and members of a community. The data consist of three collections that address authenticity. The first is composed of videos featuring actors and their discourse on a queer love confession scene from the series. The second set is user tweets posted in response to one of these videos. These posts showed support for the queer story and/or consternation and even grief over what some viewers deemed a harmful ending. The final data set consists of memes about the series posted to Tumblr that primarily critique Supernatural’s network, The CW, and its narrative choices. Through discursive approaches and digital ethnographic practices, this project presents analysis to conclude that both actors and viewers employ moral accounts to justify their assertions about queerness in Supernatural.
Scholar Commons Citation
Lay, Hannah, "“Destiel is Forever”: Negotiating Authenticity in The CW’s Supernatural Family and Beyond" (2024). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10525
