Alison Fengqi Long
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A Map of Ships: Visualizing Fandom ‘Shipping’ Networks with Fanfiction Data
2024In this project, I created a network visualization of relationships between fictional characters using fanfiction data from Archive of Our Own (AO3) for HBO Max’s pirate-themed TV show “Our Flag Means Death”
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Data Source: Archive of Our Own
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Tools: Gephi, R, Figma, Browse AI
Research:
The World of Fanfiction
Archive of Our Own(AO3) operates as an open repository of fanfiction, maintained by a community of volunteers who ensure that it remains a free space for sharing creative works without commercial interference. For this visualization, I pulled data on the recent 1,363 fanfiction entries posted from February 22nd to April 17th, 2024, focusing exclusively on works created under the fictional world of “Our Flag Means Death.”
Fandom Research
Visualizing Fanfiction data is not a new practice. My project draws on some previous works done by fandom researchers in the past, including Tikli‘s data analysis on the popularity of relationship tags on AO3 published on OurFlagMeansResearch and Exploration: Ao3 Tag Analysis by Yvonne Gonzales.
Case Study: Our Flag Means Death
Our Flag Means Death is an American period romantic comedy television series created by David Jenkins. Set in the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy, the series follows the misadventures of gentleman-turned-pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and his crew aboard the Revenge as they try to make a name for themselves as pirates and cross paths with famed pirate captain Blackbeard (Taika Waititi).
For this particular project, my goal was to map out these relationships for characters from the HBO Max’s pirate-themed TV show “Our Flag Means Death,” a series that makes a rich subject for a network visualization because of its rich fanfiction content and the show being an ensemble show featuring an array of well-developed and well-loved characters that fandom writers like to ship together in many different ways.
Getting the Data
Using a combination of the Browse AI tool and manual logging, I was able to collect the information from all the fanfiction published on Archive of Our Own from Februrary 22nd to April 18th, 2024.
Ship Tags: Among these tags are bilateral relationship tags (indicating romantic pairings), multilateral relationship tags (showing relationships involving more than two characters), and friendship tags for platonic relationships.
Tags: one of the key data from this data set is the tag information on each fanfiction. To classify its content Archive Of Our Own uses a system called “tagging”. To cite the AO3 FAQ: “A tag is a keyword or phrase that you add to your works to make them easier to find.“ Tags also have the, at least as important purpose, of helping readers avoid content they don’t want to read.
Using the web scrapper, I was able to gather all the tags from each fanfiction published between the selected period and then selected the romantic relationship tags in Google Sheet.
Network Visualization
Each character pair that gets romatically shipped in a fanfiction creates a link or ‘edge’ in my network between the characters involved, while each character is represented as a ‘node’ within the network.
Using Gephi, an open-source network analysis tool, I created a visualization that maps out how characters from “Our Flag Means Death” are romantically linked or ‘shipped’ in the fanfictions I gathered.