Addressing fans’ digital practices, this book places fans’ play at the centre of a networked mainstream culture that seems to increasingly cater to, amalgamate with and adapt to fans’ mediatized play. Through case studies of the fan communities of the Hamilton musical, and Norwegian streaming hit SKAM, along with examples from many other online fan communities, the book dives into how fans navigate and create play rules as part of their community-building in a networked digital landscape and how they use the digital affordances of social media to engage in language play. It analyses the role of mediatized fan play in the context of political culture and identifies processes of fanization as fans’ play moods and modes are integrated into politics. Finally, the book discusses the role of fan play in the context of the global conspiracy theory, QAnon, as those instigating the conspiracy and those who are fans of the movement engage in dark play and deep play, respectively. The book suggests that we might understand fan communities as pioneer communities in the sense that there is increased value placed on fans’ mood work and fan play is integrated into other societal domains. This is an engaging book for scholars and students studying media studies and cultural studies, particularly courses on fan studies, film studies, television studies and mediatization.

Addressing fans' digital practices, this book places fans' play at the centre of a networked mainstream culture that seems to increasingly cater to, amalgamate with, and adapt to fans' mediatized play. Through case studies of the fan communities of the Hamilton Musical, and Norwegian streaming hit SKAM, along with examples from many other online fan communities, the book dives into how fans navigate and create play rules as part of their community building in a networked digital landscape and how they use the digital affordances of social media to engage in language play. It analyses the role of mediatized fan play in the context of political culture and identifies processes of fanization as fans' play moods and modes are integrated into politics. Finally, the book discusses the role of fan play in the context of the global conspiracy theory, Q-Anon, as those instigating the conspiracy and those who are fans of the movement engage in dark play and deep play, respectively. The book suggests that we might understand fan communities as pioneer communities in the sense that there is increased value placed on fans' mood work and fan play is integrated into other societal domains. This is an engaging book for scholars and students studying media studies and cultural studies, particularly courses on fan studies, film studies, television studies, and mediatization.

Starting from the observation of the ubiquity of fan podcasts engaging in media commentary, this book explores three fan podcast genres in which commentary manifests as a structuring form: rewatch and reread podcasts, recap podcasts, and review podcasts. The author conducts a formalist genre analysis of these podcasts, close reading nine case studies to describe how the three genres function and how different fan labour manifests in podcasting. Each case study teases out the themes, style, and formal constellations of the three podcast genres, shows how different fans activate the affordances of podcasting and commentary, and reveals the distinct generic functions of the three podcast genres. This book will be of significant interest to scholars and students in podcast studies, fan studies, cultural studies and literary studies who are interested in fan podcasts, podcast genre analysis, and ways of close reading podcasts as texts.

This book focuses on key challenges related to conducting research on mediatisation, presenting the most current theoretical, empirical, and methodological challenges and problems, addressing ignored and less frequently discussed topics, critical and controversial themes, and defining niches and directions of development in mediatisation. With a focus on the under-representation of certain topics and aspects, as well as methodological, technological, and ethical dilemmas, the chapters consider the main critical objections formulated against mediatisation studies and exchange critical positions. Moving beyond areas of common focus – culture, sport, and religion – to emerging areas of study such as fashion, the military, business, and the environment, the book then offers a critical assessment of the transformation of fields and the relevance of new and dynamic (meta)processes including datafication, counter-mediatisation, and platformisation. Charting new paths of development in mediatisation, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of mediatisation, media studies, media literacy, communication studies, and research methods.

Audience Interactions in Contemporary Celebrity Culture: Approaches from across Disciplines explores current understandings of celebrity-audience relationships in the context of digitalization and the ongoing celebritization of all aspects of culture and society. Focusing on the themes of celebrity and health, celebrity and identity, and celebrity and scandal, this volume presents chapters authored by experts from across the globe that deal with celebrity-audience relationships in different historical, cultural, and social settings, tackling the topics from social-psychological, critical/cultural, and persuasive perspectives. In doing so, this book highlights the broadening of disciplinary, paradigmatic, theoretical, and methodological approaches to celebrity studies research. By bringing these different approaches together in one book and drawing overall conclusions across chapters, the editors and contributors of this volume promote and facilitate cross-fertilization in ongoing efforts to grasp the fascinating complexity of celebrity-audiences relationships. Scholars of media, pop culture, and celebrity studies will find this collection particularly useful.

How does the media influence our everyday lives? In which ways do our social worlds change when they interact with media? And what are the consequences for theorizing media and communication? Starting with questions like these, Mediatized Worlds discusses the transformation of our lives by their increasing mediatization. The chapters cover topics such as rethinking mediatization, mediatized communities, the mediatization of private lives and of organizational contexts, and the future perspective for mediatization research. The empirical studies offer new access to questions of mediatization an access that grounds mediatization in life-world and social-world perspectives.

This book argues that the digital revolution has fundamentally altered the way musicals are produced, followed, admired, marketed, reviewed, researched, taught, and even cast. In the first hundred years of its existence, commercial musical theatre functioned on one basic model. However, with the advent of digital and network technologies, every musical theatre artist and professional has had to adjust to swift and unanticipated change. Due to the historically commercial nature of the musical theatre form, it offers a more potent test case to reveal the implications of this digital shift than other theatrical art forms. Rather than merely reflecting technological change, musical theatre scholarship and practice is at the forefront of the conversation about art in the digital age. This book is essential reading for musical theatre fans and scholars alike.