On the perils of Too Much TV, Fandom and Competition
Mary McNamara’s Age of Television Anxiety in the LA Times neatly outlines the current epidemic that we find ourselves plunged within. The title points to, if not spells out, the thesis of the article - there is far too much television and too little time. Whilst obviously there is no possible way to consume all of “what’s on the air” at the moment, there is a urgency to at least attempt to do the same.
It also feeds into the uglier side of fandom - a sense of competitiveness in positing fans against one another to essentially come out on top as the model stan, or <Insert Celebrity Name Here>’s Biggest Supporter. Issues of access and socio-economic status hardly come to the forefront of discourse within these fan communities, and are most often referred from outside the bubble or in retrospect. While those from the outside perhaps can identify behavior that may skew more questionable, it is hard to explain the compulsion that may lead a fan towards more hyper performative/jealousy based one-upping.
With the livelihoods of a lot of creators seemingly in the hands of people - and more specifically, the enthused few that constitute the fandom - with power equating to campaigns that save or perish the fates of these programs. Additionally, learning from fan behavior seems to be the next obvious step in attempting to achieve quantifiable results from such a compelling and important group. Indeed, to turn those tweets into KPIs require understanding and analyzing their practices, which places such as Fanthropology (a Research, Strategy and Creative Agency) not only highlighting but catalyzing fan potential.
Read more: https://variety.com/2016/tv/columns/understanding-fans-superpower-troika-1201743513/
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