An in-depth look at the influence of fans—society’s alpha consumers—on our lives and culture. As fandom sheds its longtime stigmas of geekiness and hysteria, fans are demanding more from the celebrities and brands they love. Digital tools have given organizations—from traditional businesses to tech startups—direct, real-time access to their most devoted consumers, and it’s easy to forget that this access flows both ways. This is the new “fandom-based economy”: a convergence of brand owner and brand consumer. Fan pressures hold more clout than ever before as audiences demand a say in shaping the future of the things they love. In Superfandom, Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer explain this new era of symbiosis. For producers, it can mean a golden opportunity: brands such as Polaroid and Surge, preserved by the passion of a handful of nostalgic fans, can now count on an articulate, creative, and, above all, loyal audience. Yet, the new economy has its own risks—it’s also easier than ever for companies to lose their audience’s trust, as Valve did when it tried to introduce a paid mod system for its Skyrim video game. Examining key cases that span a wide range of consumer markets, Fraade-Blanar and Glazer explain why some kinds of engagement with fans succeed and some backfire. Throughout, the authors probe fandom’s history, sociology, and psychology. From the nineteenth-century American Alice Drake, who bribed her way into the houses of her favorite European composers, to Hatsune Miku, the Japanese virtual celebrity whose songs are composed entirely by fans, the dynamics of fandom—the activities we perform to show we belong to a group of people with common interests—may be as old as culture itself. For groupies of financier Warren Buffet and enthusiasts of Cards Against Humanity alike, the consumer relationship has been transformed. Superfandom is an essential guide for those who care about, contribute to, and live in our rapidly expanding fan-driven economy.

An in-depth look at the influence of fans—society’s alpha consumers—on our lives and culture. As fandom sheds its longtime stigmas of geekiness and hysteria, fans are demanding more from the celebrities and brands they love. Digital tools have given organizations—from traditional businesses to tech startups—direct, real-time access to their most devoted consumers, and it’s easy to forget that this access flows both ways. This is the new “fandom-based economy”: a convergence of brand owner and brand consumer. Fan pressures hold more clout than ever before as audiences demand a say in shaping the future of the things they love. In Superfandom, Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer explain this new era of symbiosis. For producers, it can mean a golden opportunity: brands such as Polaroid and Surge, preserved by the passion of a handful of nostalgic fans, can now count on an articulate, creative, and, above all, loyal audience. Yet, the new economy has its own risks—it’s also easier than ever for companies to lose their audience’s trust, as Valve did when it tried to introduce a paid mod system for its Skyrim video game. Examining key cases that span a wide range of consumer markets, Fraade-Blanar and Glazer explain why some kinds of engagement with fans succeed and some backfire. Throughout, the authors probe fandom’s history, sociology, and psychology. From the nineteenth-century American Alice Drake, who bribed her way into the houses of her favorite European composers, to Hatsune Miku, the Japanese virtual celebrity whose songs are composed entirely by fans, the dynamics of fandom—the activities we perform to show we belong to a group of people with common interests—may be as old as culture itself. For groupies of financier Warren Buffet and enthusiasts of Cards Against Humanity alike, the consumer relationship has been transformed. Superfandom is an essential guide for those who care about, contribute to, and live in our rapidly expanding fan-driven economy.

Leisure time today is driven by fandom. Once viewed as a social pariah, the fan and associated fandom as a whole has transformed into a popularized social construct researchers are still attempting to understand. Popular culture in the modern era is defined and dominated by the fan, and the basis of fandom has established its own identity across several platforms of media. As some forms of fandom have remained constant, including sports and cinema, other structures of fandom are emerging as the mass following of video games and cosplay are becoming increasingly prominent. Fandom has been established as an important facet in today’s society, and necessary research is required for understanding how fandom is shaping society as a whole. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Media Fandom is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research that reviews some of the most exigent facets of today’s fandom and highlights understudied cultures of fandom as well as emerging intricacies of established fandom. While promoting topics such as esports, influencer culture, and marketing trends, this publication explores both qualitative and quantitative approaches as well as the methods of social science and critical perspectives. This book is ideally designed for marketers, media strategists, brand managers, consumer behavior analysts, researchers, academics, and students.

The internet has grown to become one of the largest communication hubs in history. With its ability to share content and create community bonds, it has seen many fandoms and online social communities develop within the past decades. While there are some detriments to these communities, there are also many benefits and potential uses for the betterment of society. The Research Anthology on Fandoms, Online Social Communities, and Pop Culture explores the ways in which the internet has presented itself as a platform for communities to gather. This essential reference source discusses the engagement of these communities, social media use, and the uses of these communities for education. Covering topics such as digital communities, transmedia language learning, and digital humanities, this book is a vital tool for educators of K-12 and higher education, digital folklorists, sociologists, communications researchers, online administrators, community leaders, and academicians.

In Contested Kingdom: Fan Attachment and Corporate Control at Disneyland, William McCarthy presents a groundbreaking study centered on the history of Disneyland and Disney theme park enthusiasts. Focusing on two unexplored yet interconnected phenomena—the dynamic relationship between the Disney corporation and Southern Californian fans in both online and physical park settings over a span of more than three decades—this volume sheds new light on the meaning and purpose of Disneyland. Through a comprehensive analysis of the interwoven dimensions of individuals, place, and cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes, McCarthy explores the fervent sense of place attachment experienced by the approximately one million annual passholders who visit the park. McCarthy’s analysis extends beyond the physical world of Disneyland by delving into the evolution of Disney fandom, discourse, commerce, and social formations in online social platforms like Usenet, web discussion boards, and social media. By employing a mixed-methods approach incorporating interviews, participant observation, surveys, and data analysis, this study establishes a novel analytical framework for comprehending the interrelationships between the Disney corporation, its fan communities, and online social platforms. As the first in-depth longitudinal analysis of the ongoing struggle on successive social platforms between fan users and a corporate entity, Contested Kingdom provides valuable insights for scholars and future investigations.

Xie and Chao present a collection of research on mobile communication in Asian communities and countries such as Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. With chapters written by scholars from diverse cultural and institutional backgrounds, this book provides both localized and comparative perspectives on mobile communication research. Exploring the way mobile apps are used in daily life in Asian countries, Xie, Chao, and their contributors analyze how mobile apps improve lives, help people build relationships, sustain communities, and change society for the better. They look at areas including the role of mobile apps in public service delivery and access, family communication, cultural norms and identities, organizational communication, and intercultural communication. The investigation of these topics elevates the understanding of the cultural, familial, interpersonal, organizational, and intercultural consequences of mobile communication in a global context. Through examining mobile apps use in regard to scale, scope, depth, complexity, and distinctiveness within the Asian context, this book furthers the research agenda of mobile communication and enriches our understanding of current practice and future direction of mobile communication. This book serves as a useful reference for scholars and students interested to learn more of the development and application of mobile communication from a global and comparative perspective.

The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema offers an overview of the field of cult cinema – films at the margin of popular culture and art that have received exceptional cultural visibility and status mostly because they break rules, offend, and challenge understandings of achievement (some are so bad they’re good, others so good they remain inaccessible). Cult cinema is no longer only comprised of the midnight movie or the extreme genre film. Its range has widened and the issues it broaches have become battlegrounds in cultural debates that typify the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Sections are introduced with the major theoretical frameworks, philosophical inspirations, and methodologies for studying cult films, with individual chapters excavating the most salient criticism of how the field impacts cultural discourse at large. Case studies include the worst films ever; exploitation films; genre cinema; multiple media formats cult cinema is expressed through; issues of cultural, national, and gender representations; elements of the production culture of cult cinema; and, throughout, aspects of the aesthetics of cult cinema – its genre, style, look, impact, and ability to yank viewers out of their comfort zones. The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema goes beyond the traditional scope of Anglophone and North American cinema by including case studies of East and South Asia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, making it an innovative and important resource for researchers and students alike.