The TV market and how they use Fandoms

blackgirlnerds.com

Institutions are the “rules of the game” that influence choices. 

What are the Cons of the TV market using social media to create a fandom? 

           The articles I used are dailydot.com(how the corporate world targets fandoms) by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, and qualitylogoproducts.com(the pitfalls on relying on brand fandoms) by Bubba, which both lay out the cons of the fandom/market relationship. The Cons are the TV markets manipulation of the fans, the fan's manipulation of the market, and the finickiness of a fandom base.

            Let’s start with how the TV market, sometimes- because fandom’s are not very reliably created- create fandoms for their shows. Teen wolf and Hannibal are both very successful shows despite some bad ratings because of the fandoms behind them. How did they do it? Well, as Ms. Baker-Whitelaw states, “Both of these shows began with that rarest of animals: an official Tumblr account that actually spoke to fans like a regular Tumblr user, rather than seeming like someone’s embarrassing uncle using the Internet for the first time.” She believes, as do many others, that the key to their success was their social media presence that catered to the fandoms, before and after the show. This causes some problems. Problems, for instance, like queerbaiting, which is a term that means that a tv show, book, or movie says there is LGBT+ representation, when in fact there is either less than what they say there is, or none at all. This quite obviously shuts down a great portion of the fandom against the show. Shows like Teen wolf, or Voltron, or Supernatural; all shows I watched but couldn't handle how badly they handled non-canonical LGBT+ relationships.

           Which brings me to the next topic. If the show makes a particular brand for themselves, and then later decides it wants to change that brand, a lot of the times fandom’s refuse the change outright. Brands are a ;large [part of a fandom, it’s how they connect with the show and with their fellow fans. Imagine if the Cubs decided they wanted to stop being a baseball team, instead they wanted to be a swimming team. So many people would be very upset. But of course, can you even imagine a sports team changing sport. Like, that would never happen. That’s how a lot of the fans feel when they enter a fandom, and when that change happens, they get very upset.

 “And, so, if you intend cultivate a fandom, be careful not to just assume they’ll be willing to accept anything you do, and be wary of too drastic a change in your product, company, or image.” (Bubba) 

The fandom came to be for a reason, changing that reason almost always has negative effects. The fandoms manipulate the market to get what they want.

           Of course, the fans aren’t the only ones that are manipulating people. TV shows tend to use their fandoms for publicity, to gain more people, to get more money, so they can make more stuff, and gain more people to gain more publicity, to make more money. It’s a circle that shows the manipulation of the market.

“You may love the cutesy Twitter feed for your favorite TV show, but they only love you for your money. Or your Likes.”(Baker-Whitelaw)

 Next up: What the relationship of mainstream fandoms and the market looks like?