Fandom and politics

Abstract

Editorial, "Fandom and Politics," edited by Ashley Hinck and Amber Davisson, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 32 (March 2020).

From Play to Political Action: Prosumerism on Fanvideo Meme Production

“…This knowledge and closeness enable fans to make connections between popular culture and social life (Huntington, 2015;Milner, 2013), as evidenced by our findings when franchises are used as mediation to address social, cultural, and political issues on the fanvideos. Through their humorous appeal, memes address complex issues (Bellar et al, 2013;Milner, 2013) so that fans can express political opinions about contemporary events (Hinck & Davisson, 2020). The use of humor to express opinions is a strategy of inserting them in discourses typically dominated by traditional media agenda (Hinck & Davisson, 2020).…”

“…Through their humorous appeal, memes address complex issues (Bellar et al, 2013;Milner, 2013) so that fans can express political opinions about contemporary events (Hinck & Davisson, 2020). The use of humor to express opinions is a strategy of inserting them in discourses typically dominated by traditional media agenda (Hinck & Davisson, 2020). More than this, meme genre provides something that marketers' strategies cannot do: spontaneous participation, speed, dialogue between consumers (see Shifman, 2012).…”

“…Fans typically seek to resonate their productions to the fullest and find in this language a strong appeal; their intention is to provoke laughter through messages ranging from kidding to picardy, to achieve great popularity (Hinck & Davisson, 2020;Zannete et al, 2019). In our findings we found out how such a posture reveals a wide threshold that include everything from childish jokes to veiled prejudices that hide within the humor.…”

Memes, scenes and #ELXN2019s: How partisans make memes during elections

“…In tandem with these new forms of professional campaigning, political fandom is seen as another popular force of contemporary online political campaigning (Hinck and Davisson, 2020; Lalancette and Raynauld, 2019; Street, 2004; Wilson, 2014). If politicians are either celebrities like Trump or behave like celebrities like Trudeau, then supporters can be understood as fans.…”

“…McMillin (2020) argues that modern politicians have curated supporters who run large online fandoms around them. These fandoms typically exist online where they share an array of content, including memes about politicians (Hinck and Davisson, 2020; Hunting, 2020; Kosnik, 2008). Fan communities personalize politics and become the ‘unofficial parties who shape the flow of messages through their community’ (Jenkins et al, 2013: 7).…”