- In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Jeff Eastin discussed fanfiction ships and their influence on his work. “White Collar still wins in terms of fan fiction, but I’ve seen quite a bit of fan fiction directed at Graceland. The Mike-Charlie ‘ship seems to be very popular and after that it shifted pretty quickly to Mike and Paige, which was nice to see…I had heard of fan fiction but I never saw the extent that people went to. (Laughs.) Somebody on Twitter sent me a link to some of the better White Collar fan fiction, and once in a while, I’ll check it out and see what people are saying. It’s really fascinating to me and it’s an interesting subculture that arises on a lot of these shows. In my opinion, if you have people who are [taking part], you’ve made it.”
- Britt Julious of WBEZ wrote about engaging in Scandal fandom through Twitter. “According to a 2009 study from the Pew Research Center’s Pew Internet and American Life Project, Twitter users are more likely to be African-American women. As well, according to a report from the New York Times of Nielsen ratings, ‘Scandal is the highest rated scripted drama among African-Americans, with 10.1 percent of black households, or an average of 1.8 million viewers, tuning in during the first half of the season.'” Thus while the fandom can be seen among different generations in a household “My timeline explodes with chatter about the show, its characters, the clothing, and the music as it airs.”
- Julious also mentions Sleepy Hollow, whose fandom is growing quickly. “For a show that has only been on the air for four weeks—the fifth episode airs tonight—Sleepy Hollow’s fan base is loud. That’s, at least, what you would assume from the decibel level during the show’s New York Comic Con panel.” Actor Orlando Jones has been particularly engaged with the fandom, saying during the panel “‘Fan art rocks! Who ships Ichabbie?’ to rich crowd approval…The importance of shipping to the fan base was confirmed further when the next question came from someone who began, ‘So if you’ve been paying attention at all to the Tumblr phenomenon of Sleepy Hollow, Icabbie is a huge deal.'”
- Meanwhile the Harry Potter fandom continues to make news with its lobbying of Warner Brothers. Bustle wrote about the chocolate campaign. “There’s always been an oft-spoken of symbiotic relationship between fans and the studios responsible for creating the work those fans love. There’s also been an underlying tension. They create the work (or at least bring it to us), yes; but they’re also the ones responsible for messing them up. And there are many scenarios that can carry the weight of this tension: The blundering of a book’s canon, the mistreatment of a character, the failure of a studio to fully grasp the thematic elements that first made the source material so special, the list goes on and on. Each error can isolate the fan communities huddled around these works, particularly when that bungling of philosophy extends past the films themselves and into the marketing products sold and used in the real world.”
What examples have you seen of fandoms making themselves heard? Write about it on Fanlore! Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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