Digital maps and fan discourse: Moving between heuristics and interpretation

When considering media from the point of view of their ‘impulse’ to map the world, cartography emerges as a dynamic concept. Often compared to the moving image, it is a flexible and ever-evolving gesture. Maps are therefore forms of knowledge, linked to connections between the body, emotions, and space. Apparently opposite to this impulse are GIS tools that can be used to map the mass of a media world, in a landscape of media spreadability, also highlighting the relevance of affects and fragile components of media. Focusing on a map’s capacity to make nodes visible, and paying particular attention to the digital space and world building practices, in this article I will consider the case of geolocalising fan discourses, in order to study the specificities of cartography as a tool for film and television studies in the digital era.