Understanding Thai fansubbing: collaboration in fan Communities translating a Korean TV show

The present research seeks to shed light on collaboration in the largely unexplored area of Thai fansubbing practices with the main focus placed on fansubbers. The interrelationships within the fansubbing community, which develop in particular between fansubbers and non-translating fans, have generally been overlooked by scholars. Furthermore, the significant roles played by digital technologies in facilitating such interdependencies have not been fully discussed in the literature. In an attempt to fill these gaps, this thesis explores how Thai fansubbers exploit technology and collaborate with community members to demonstrate the mechanism in which fan community collaboration is sustained, despite ever present legal threats. The current study takes a socio-technical approach to focus on the interactions of humans, i.e. fansubbers and non-translating fans, with particular attention placed on the role of technologies. In order to gain insights into such interactions, research data were collected through a virtual ethnography method via online fan surveys and interviews with fansubbers. The data were analysed on the basis of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour 2005, 1987), combined with concepts which bring into focus the interrelationships formed in digital network environments: affinity spaces (Gee and Hayes 2011), networked affect (Hillis, Paasonen and Petit 2015), and epistemic trust (e.g. Origgi 2013, 2012). The study presents empirical evidence to show that affects, such as attachment to favourite programmes and engagement in fansubbing in particular, which underlie fansubbing communities, are the driving force behind collaborative effort so that the community can produce and circulate fansubs. The findings further suggest that these shared affects between fansubbers and non-translating fans develop into common ethical values, which are in turn influenced by specific cultural contexts of the practice. Such values develop into mutual trust among the fan community members, strengthening their interrelationships which can sustain collaboration in fansubbing