E-Books →Exploiting Fandom How the Media Industry Seeks to Manipulate Fans

Mel Stanfill, "Exploiting Fandom: How the Media Industry Seeks to Manipulate Fans"
English | 2019 | ISBN: 160938623X | PDF | pages: 268 | 1.1 mb
As more and more fans rush online to share their thoughts on their favorite shows or video games, they might feel like the process of providing feedback is empowering. However, as fan studies scholar Mel Stanfill argues, these industry invitations for fan participation indicate not greater fan power but rather greater fan usefulness. Stanfill's argument, controversial to some in the field, compares the "domestication of fandom" to the domestication of livestock, contending that, just as livestock are bred bigger and more docile as they are domesticated, so, too, are fans as the entertainment industry seeks to cultivate a fan base that is both more useful and more controllable.