Chapter 2: WhatsApp Warriors: Exploring South African Fan Engagement in Digital Communities

WhatsApp is, according to Statista, the most popular social media and communication tool in South Africa: ‘As of the third quarter of 2023, some 94 percent of internet users in the country used the messaging app’ (Cowling, 2024). It can be theorised that users of WhatsApp are members of groups, and that there are WhatsApp groups for fans of various fandoms. These groups ‘are conceptualized as private, mobile fan spaces, where mobile intimacy shapes individuals’ fan experience and therefore constitutes an important part of fan culture’ (Liew, 2020). WhatsApp fan groups allow fans to communicate with each other within a ‘safe’ space and share their love of their fandom through group chats. They can share images of their collections, updates on their cosplay outfits, excitement about new additions to their fandom objects, discuss their favourite and least favourite parts of their fandom, share excitement about the next upcoming fan convention, etc. This study will be focused on WhatsApp groups that are specifically for fans of collecting pop culture memorabilia, and the purpose of this chapter is to discover and explore South African fandom culture through WhatsApp fandom groups. This chapter will also endeavour to understand their practices relating to the group members’ fandom traditions, rituals, and behaviours: ‘the social practices and intimacies that arise in WhatsApp group chats constitute a crucial part of the fan experience that differ from that of other open social network platforms’ (Liew, 2020).