Online Fan Communities
Streaming and Social Media Invites Increased Fan Engagement
We are living in an age of inter-connectivity through frequent social media use and people are utilizing the popular channels of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to contribute to discussion online about their favorite television content. Television has the capability of being a monumental cultural event that millions of people tune into and talk about.
This has been evidenced by the high popularity of shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Bachelor, The Walking Dead and more. People might be looking to engage in their favorite shows and talk about them further, and Reddit is a great place for people to go to become a part of a community surrounding their shows.There are significant followings for the high profile shows like the ones listed above, but there's likely a community, or sub-reddit as it is called, for even the most niche programs.
Fandom is another area for online engagement and it is an extremely useful space for people to learn more about a show through their endless encyclopedias in the form of "Wikis". This also doubles as an area to explore what is going on in the entertainment world by checking out their news feed, or reading articles about topics you might be interested in.
These online communities are relevant to the research because they extend upon the idea that television has become such a significant part of our culture. It connects to Steiner & Xu's (2018) research study where they determined that people watch and binge-watch television to fulfill societal needs. They found found that audiences primary motivations for binge-watching are cultural inclusion, sense of completion, relaxation, catching up, and an improved viewing experience (2018). Steiner & Xu (2018) also found that a significant external motivation for binge-watching was to participate in fan communities, and this page details examples of online communities to engage in.
How television viewers use Reddit
Community Structure
Reddit allows you to form an account that can be totally anonymous, should you choose. The nature of the website is geared more toward discussion and content sharing rather than forming a profile based on oneself. People can share their own theories about how a story of a show might progress and prompt discussion from other people that want to chime in. Sub-reddits are organized places that have rules of how to engage with the community in order to keep things civil, on topic, and organized. For example, the image to the right shows the community rules for the Game of Thrones sub-reddit, r/gameofthrones.
User Generated Content
Reddit is a great blend of a lot of popular social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even Pintrest where users can submit things they create in association with their favorite television shows. Reddit is popular for sharing memes, projects, ideas, and potentially merchandise they have either bought or would like to sell. It is a way for people to engage further in the shows that they love and it might encourage increased fannish behavior.
El Camino Discussion Post
Found on the Breaking Bad sub-reddit (r/breakingbad), a discussion thread was created for people to discuss El Camino, a Breaking Bad sequel film released on Netflix.
User Generated Memes
This is an example of a meme created on the Brooklyn Nine Nine sub-reddit (r/brooklynninenine). u/Ak_Ibrahim jokes about staying inside and practicing social distancing during the Covid-19 quarantine in 2020.
What is Fandom.com?
"FANDOM is a global entertainment media brand powered by fan passion. The fan-trusted source in entertainment, we provide a home to explore, contribute to, and celebrate the world of pop culture. Whether looking for in-depth information on favorite fandoms or what’s buzzing in entertainment, FANDOM has your pop culture curiosities covered through fan-expert knowledge and carefully curated and fun, original multi-platform content."
Wikis (The Wire)
The image to the right is a terrific example of what Fandom and Wiki's can offer for television viewers. At the top you can see that there are drop-down bars that link to pages of particular episodes of the HBO drama The Wire. In this section you will find in-depth analysis of the plots of each and every episode of the five seasons of The Wire. You can also follow links to particular seasons, which in the case of The Wire, follow different factions and organizations of the city of Baltimore. The Wiki also highlights the main characters throughout the different factions of The Wire. This might be an incredibly useful tool for people that are just getting started with a new show and want to learn as much as they can. The wiki also offers a blog section to really create a sense of community where people provide their thoughts and commentary on the shows and content they love.
