Pub Date : 2023-10-21DOI: 10.1177/13548565231206505
Judith Pintar
Immersive storytelling includes narrative experiences that take place in the public spaces of theaters, theme parks, museums, and historical reenactment sites; on tabletops, where role-playing games are collaboratively played; in fictional spaces superimposed on the real world during a live-action role-playing (larping) event; and in hybrid, asynchronous, and transmediated spaces that blend the digital, the virtual, and the real. Understood as a kind of boundary object, a player typology can incorporate multiple perspectives and heterogeneous sources of information, producing ‘ideal types’, which provide a framework for observation and discussion across immersive modalities. This paper offers a typology of situated immersive preference, in which narrative immersion and embodied immersion are understood to vary independently of one another. Along the vertical axis listener-players of immersive storytelling experiences are classified as narratively attached, narratively detached, or narratively opposed. Across the horizontal axis of embodied engagement, listener-players are classified as invisible, aesthetic, or enrolled. Nine ideal types emerge at the intersection of these narrative and embodied preferences. Why someone might fit into one category rather than another reflects comfort rather than personality. Situated immersive types are understood to be fluid and temporary configurations. The degree to which players are willing to engage and are comfortable with what they are being asked to do may differ dramatically from experience to experience and from day to day, and even during a single session, reflecting how they feel at a given moment, which is affected by who they are with and how they are perceived and treated by others. This framework for understanding immersive preferences calls for the design of more widely inclusive story worlds.
{"title":"Invisible, aesthetic, and enrolled listeners across storytelling modalities: Immersive preference as situated player type","authors":"Judith Pintar","doi":"10.1177/13548565231206505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231206505","url":null,"abstract":"Immersive storytelling includes narrative experiences that take place in the public spaces of theaters, theme parks, museums, and historical reenactment sites; on tabletops, where role-playing games are collaboratively played; in fictional spaces superimposed on the real world during a live-action role-playing (larping) event; and in hybrid, asynchronous, and transmediated spaces that blend the digital, the virtual, and the real. Understood as a kind of boundary object, a player typology can incorporate multiple perspectives and heterogeneous sources of information, producing ‘ideal types’, which provide a framework for observation and discussion across immersive modalities. This paper offers a typology of situated immersive preference, in which narrative immersion and embodied immersion are understood to vary independently of one another. Along the vertical axis listener-players of immersive storytelling experiences are classified as narratively attached, narratively detached, or narratively opposed. Across the horizontal axis of embodied engagement, listener-players are classified as invisible, aesthetic, or enrolled. Nine ideal types emerge at the intersection of these narrative and embodied preferences. Why someone might fit into one category rather than another reflects comfort rather than personality. Situated immersive types are understood to be fluid and temporary configurations. The degree to which players are willing to engage and are comfortable with what they are being asked to do may differ dramatically from experience to experience and from day to day, and even during a single session, reflecting how they feel at a given moment, which is affected by who they are with and how they are perceived and treated by others. This framework for understanding immersive preferences calls for the design of more widely inclusive story worlds.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"100 5","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135512936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-20DOI: 10.1177/13548565231208135
Guillermo Echauri
This essay argues that the contemporary media paradigm is defined by an infinite character and scale that emerge from the confluence of infinite-prone economic, technological, and cultural logics. Thus, it discusses the emergence, consolidation, and expansion of a state in which the media landscape and experience are assumed as practically infinite in its different dimensions, from the institutional to the cultural perspective. The argument of this article is based on the analysis of two cases: the deployment of an infinite production model in the media industry, particularly Hollywood; and the implementation of an infinite experience of approaching digital media, especially social media and streaming platforms. The essay maintains that the development of this clearly observable paradigm in media has granted the current possibility of having effectively infinite media and suggests that this propensity towards infinity in media could increase through the implementation of resources such as those offered by generative AI.
{"title":"Infinite media: The contemporary infinite paradigm in media","authors":"Guillermo Echauri","doi":"10.1177/13548565231208135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231208135","url":null,"abstract":"This essay argues that the contemporary media paradigm is defined by an infinite character and scale that emerge from the confluence of infinite-prone economic, technological, and cultural logics. Thus, it discusses the emergence, consolidation, and expansion of a state in which the media landscape and experience are assumed as practically infinite in its different dimensions, from the institutional to the cultural perspective. The argument of this article is based on the analysis of two cases: the deployment of an infinite production model in the media industry, particularly Hollywood; and the implementation of an infinite experience of approaching digital media, especially social media and streaming platforms. The essay maintains that the development of this clearly observable paradigm in media has granted the current possibility of having effectively infinite media and suggests that this propensity towards infinity in media could increase through the implementation of resources such as those offered by generative AI.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present study explored trends of compositional acceleration in top hit songs as a potential consequence of streaming platforms and digital habits of music consumption. Many media users have been shifting towards ‘Permanently online, permanently connected’ ( Vorderer et al., 2018 ) behaviors and are thus likely to face choice overload in many episodes of music consumption. In turn, the creative audio industries seem to adjust strategically to altered audience demands that platforms can identify in their mass data traces. Extending a study by Léveillé Gauvin (2018) , we investigate five compositorial features (main tempo, time before voice enters, time before title is mentioned, number of words in song title, and song duration) for Billboard top 10 songs (1986 to 2020) and ‘Spotify’ top 10 songs (2016 to 2020). Across features, long-term trends of accelerated composition have mostly continued in recent years, but only weak evidence was secured for a particular booster effect of the competitive ‘Spotify’ ecology on compositorial acceleration.
{"title":"Catering to the impatient digital listener: Accelerated composition patterns in popular music, 1986–2020","authors":"Christoph Klimmt, Mareike Sperzel, Jasmin Straßburger, Viviane Winkler, Yannick Schneeweiß, Hubert Léveillé Gauvin","doi":"10.1177/13548565231208918","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231208918","url":null,"abstract":"The present study explored trends of compositional acceleration in top hit songs as a potential consequence of streaming platforms and digital habits of music consumption. Many media users have been shifting towards ‘Permanently online, permanently connected’ ( Vorderer et al., 2018 ) behaviors and are thus likely to face choice overload in many episodes of music consumption. In turn, the creative audio industries seem to adjust strategically to altered audience demands that platforms can identify in their mass data traces. Extending a study by Léveillé Gauvin (2018) , we investigate five compositorial features (main tempo, time before voice enters, time before title is mentioned, number of words in song title, and song duration) for Billboard top 10 songs (1986 to 2020) and ‘Spotify’ top 10 songs (2016 to 2020). Across features, long-term trends of accelerated composition have mostly continued in recent years, but only weak evidence was secured for a particular booster effect of the competitive ‘Spotify’ ecology on compositorial acceleration.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.1177/13548565231208925
Yuhua Hanna Wu, Paul Martin
Existing scholarship on videogame fanfiction focuses on how these fictions transform game characters and narrative settings. However, this misses out on an important trope in videogame fanfictions, where authors transplant game procedures, systems, mechanics, and play styles into their stories. We term this trope the narrativization of ludic elements. This article examines how three popular fanfictions based on the Chinese MMO Jian 3 narrativize ludic elements in a way that reinforces hegemonic masculinity. The article contributes to a fuller understanding of the rhetorical strategies of fanfiction writers and explores the ideological implications of the intermedial relation between fanfictions and their source texts.
{"title":"The narrativization of ludic elements in videogame fanfiction","authors":"Yuhua Hanna Wu, Paul Martin","doi":"10.1177/13548565231208925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231208925","url":null,"abstract":"Existing scholarship on videogame fanfiction focuses on how these fictions transform game characters and narrative settings. However, this misses out on an important trope in videogame fanfictions, where authors transplant game procedures, systems, mechanics, and play styles into their stories. We term this trope the narrativization of ludic elements. This article examines how three popular fanfictions based on the Chinese MMO Jian 3 narrativize ludic elements in a way that reinforces hegemonic masculinity. The article contributes to a fuller understanding of the rhetorical strategies of fanfiction writers and explores the ideological implications of the intermedial relation between fanfictions and their source texts.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135730874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-18DOI: 10.1177/13548565231208150
Blake Hallinan
{"title":"Book Review: To Know is to Compare: Studying Social Media across Nations, Media and Platform","authors":"Blake Hallinan","doi":"10.1177/13548565231208150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231208150","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135888815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1177/13548565231205868
Anthony Dannar
This article examines the Black Rifle Coffee Company brand, its fans, and its connection to right-wing violence. By incorporating the literature on brand culture and the concepts and tools from fan studies, I show how Black Rifle merchandise develops into wearable symbols of white supremacy and reactionary politics celebrated by a fan culture and integrated into a tactical ensemble. While both Black Rifle’s promotional content and fans’ actions point to how capitalism provides a permission structure for white masculine supremacy, only by combining these approaches do we reveal the tactical body. I argue that the tactical body is a fannish embodiment of white supremacist conspiracy theories and a playful form of political engagement designed to actualize a revenge fantasy of insurrection. While I focus primarily on how Black Rifle fans play out their tactical canon in online and physical spaces, this case study points to a larger trend of tactical brands profiting from white male grievances and political tribalism.
{"title":"‘Every adventure begins with a cup of coffee’: Black rifle coffee company, reactionary fandom, and the tactical body","authors":"Anthony Dannar","doi":"10.1177/13548565231205868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231205868","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the Black Rifle Coffee Company brand, its fans, and its connection to right-wing violence. By incorporating the literature on brand culture and the concepts and tools from fan studies, I show how Black Rifle merchandise develops into wearable symbols of white supremacy and reactionary politics celebrated by a fan culture and integrated into a tactical ensemble. While both Black Rifle’s promotional content and fans’ actions point to how capitalism provides a permission structure for white masculine supremacy, only by combining these approaches do we reveal the tactical body. I argue that the tactical body is a fannish embodiment of white supremacist conspiracy theories and a playful form of political engagement designed to actualize a revenge fantasy of insurrection. While I focus primarily on how Black Rifle fans play out their tactical canon in online and physical spaces, this case study points to a larger trend of tactical brands profiting from white male grievances and political tribalism.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135854076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-11DOI: 10.1177/13548565231205869
Peter Gentzel, Jeffrey Wimmer
The study grasps the transformation of agency in the context of mundane production and use of mapping apps. It is asked theoretically and empirically, who produces and maintains Google Maps as cartographic infrastructure and how is this kind of agency being reflected and acted upon from a lifeworld perspective. Firstly, findings are compiled from various interdisciplinary studies on digital cartography, platform capitalism and digital infrastructures. Since these studies focus on agency almost exclusively from a structural perspective, a qualitative study is conducted to explore the use of Google Maps in everyday life. 20 interviews with German users show that digitalization and datafication profoundly change the dynamics of how agency is perceived and reflected. It can be understood as a form of extension of agency because it is deeply rooted in the entanglement of Google Maps’ infrastructure and city dwellers everyday practices.
{"title":"Restricted but satisfied: Google Maps and agency in the mundane life","authors":"Peter Gentzel, Jeffrey Wimmer","doi":"10.1177/13548565231205869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231205869","url":null,"abstract":"The study grasps the transformation of agency in the context of mundane production and use of mapping apps. It is asked theoretically and empirically, who produces and maintains Google Maps as cartographic infrastructure and how is this kind of agency being reflected and acted upon from a lifeworld perspective. Firstly, findings are compiled from various interdisciplinary studies on digital cartography, platform capitalism and digital infrastructures. Since these studies focus on agency almost exclusively from a structural perspective, a qualitative study is conducted to explore the use of Google Maps in everyday life. 20 interviews with German users show that digitalization and datafication profoundly change the dynamics of how agency is perceived and reflected. It can be understood as a form of extension of agency because it is deeply rooted in the entanglement of Google Maps’ infrastructure and city dwellers everyday practices.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136210740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-09DOI: 10.1177/13548565231200337
Elizabeth Fetterolf, Ekaterina Hertog
Voice assistants (VAs) like Alexa have been integrated into hundreds of millions of homes, despite persistent public distrust of Amazon. The current literature explains this trend by examining users’ limited knowledge of, concern about, or even resignation to surveillance. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews ( n = 16), we explore how young adult Alexa users make sense of continuing to use the VA while generally distrusting Amazon. We identify three strategies that participants use to manage distrust: separating the VA from the company through anthropomorphism, expressing digital resignation, and occasionally taking action, like moving Alexa or even unplugging it. We argue that these individual-level strategies allow users to manage their concerns about Alexa and integrate the VA into domestic life. We conclude by discussing the implications these individual choices have for personal privacy and the rapid expansion of surveillance technologies into intimate life.
{"title":"It’s not her fault: Trust through anthropomorphism among young adult Amazon Alexa users","authors":"Elizabeth Fetterolf, Ekaterina Hertog","doi":"10.1177/13548565231200337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231200337","url":null,"abstract":"Voice assistants (VAs) like Alexa have been integrated into hundreds of millions of homes, despite persistent public distrust of Amazon. The current literature explains this trend by examining users’ limited knowledge of, concern about, or even resignation to surveillance. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews ( n = 16), we explore how young adult Alexa users make sense of continuing to use the VA while generally distrusting Amazon. We identify three strategies that participants use to manage distrust: separating the VA from the company through anthropomorphism, expressing digital resignation, and occasionally taking action, like moving Alexa or even unplugging it. We argue that these individual-level strategies allow users to manage their concerns about Alexa and integrate the VA into domestic life. We conclude by discussing the implications these individual choices have for personal privacy and the rapid expansion of surveillance technologies into intimate life.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135045787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-05DOI: 10.1177/13548565231205976
Yanjun Cai, JieLan Xu, Scott Drinkall
This research reveals how social media advances gender responsiveness in the context of China’s digital transformation by exploring ride-hailing services, a fast-growing though often under-regulated sector. Specifically, the rise of ride-hailing has been accompanied by incidents of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, leading to social media outrage. Building on Habermas’s concept of the public sphere, this study – perhaps the first to explore the gender dynamics of ride-hailing policymaking in China – centers on the notion of digital public sphere. This study investigates how citizens, corporations, and government agencies have markedly differed in their discourses on gender and safety. Results exhibit that as corporations and government agencies seek technological and legislative solutions to improve safety, Chinese citizen-based activism efforts have amplified gendered perspectives, addressing gender-responsive policymaking. These actors generate discourses that echo various strands of feminism and further cultivate the policy trajectory, including pressuring government agencies to enforce the social accountability of private corporations. This research addresses a pragmatic perspective to demonstrate how liberal, socialist, and cultural feminisms coexist and negotiate in China’s digital public sphere. It aims to enhance one’s understanding of online civic engagement and resulting policy change in contemporary China, enriching the public sphere theory with emerging technology under a contentious political context.
{"title":"Ride-hailing while female: Negotiating China’s digital public sphere","authors":"Yanjun Cai, JieLan Xu, Scott Drinkall","doi":"10.1177/13548565231205976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231205976","url":null,"abstract":"This research reveals how social media advances gender responsiveness in the context of China’s digital transformation by exploring ride-hailing services, a fast-growing though often under-regulated sector. Specifically, the rise of ride-hailing has been accompanied by incidents of sexual harassment and gender-based violence, leading to social media outrage. Building on Habermas’s concept of the public sphere, this study – perhaps the first to explore the gender dynamics of ride-hailing policymaking in China – centers on the notion of digital public sphere. This study investigates how citizens, corporations, and government agencies have markedly differed in their discourses on gender and safety. Results exhibit that as corporations and government agencies seek technological and legislative solutions to improve safety, Chinese citizen-based activism efforts have amplified gendered perspectives, addressing gender-responsive policymaking. These actors generate discourses that echo various strands of feminism and further cultivate the policy trajectory, including pressuring government agencies to enforce the social accountability of private corporations. This research addresses a pragmatic perspective to demonstrate how liberal, socialist, and cultural feminisms coexist and negotiate in China’s digital public sphere. It aims to enhance one’s understanding of online civic engagement and resulting policy change in contemporary China, enriching the public sphere theory with emerging technology under a contentious political context.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"75 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134974871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-27DOI: 10.1177/13548565231203979
Peter Allen, David S Moon
On June 12 th 2019, in the middle of the UK Conservative party’s leadership contest, journalist Marie le Conte tweeted ‘so this is my first proper leadership contest as an actual Westminster person and honestly it’s such a hoot…huge fan of the drama’. This tweet is exemplary of a wider phenomenon. Politics is the activity through which power and resources are allocated across society – who gets what, when and how. Politics, and what it does to all of our lives, is consequential. Yet, despite this, many of those who pay the most attention to politics do so from the position of a fan, engaging with it in the way that others engage with entertainment forms like sport and television shows. Previous studies have paid attention to the fandoms and anti-fandoms that develop around individual politicians and movements – in other words, they maintain a focus on the behaviours and actions of these fans of politics. By contrast, in this paper we explore the construction of politics itself as an object of fandom, asking what happens to politics when it is treated in this way. The activity of politics can be socially constructed by humans to serve some purpose. Thus, who does the constructing and how they do this, affects what it becomes. Our claim is that constructing politics as an object of fandom (i.e. constructing it as ‘the drama’) affects politics itself.
{"title":"‘Huge fan of the drama’: Politics as an object of fandom","authors":"Peter Allen, David S Moon","doi":"10.1177/13548565231203979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565231203979","url":null,"abstract":"On June 12 th 2019, in the middle of the UK Conservative party’s leadership contest, journalist Marie le Conte tweeted ‘so this is my first proper leadership contest as an actual Westminster person and honestly it’s such a hoot…huge fan of the drama’. This tweet is exemplary of a wider phenomenon. Politics is the activity through which power and resources are allocated across society – who gets what, when and how. Politics, and what it does to all of our lives, is consequential. Yet, despite this, many of those who pay the most attention to politics do so from the position of a fan, engaging with it in the way that others engage with entertainment forms like sport and television shows. Previous studies have paid attention to the fandoms and anti-fandoms that develop around individual politicians and movements – in other words, they maintain a focus on the behaviours and actions of these fans of politics. By contrast, in this paper we explore the construction of politics itself as an object of fandom, asking what happens to politics when it is treated in this way. The activity of politics can be socially constructed by humans to serve some purpose. Thus, who does the constructing and how they do this, affects what it becomes. Our claim is that constructing politics as an object of fandom (i.e. constructing it as ‘the drama’) affects politics itself.","PeriodicalId":47242,"journal":{"name":"Convergence-The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135538257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}