9 Public Relations and Fandom
Last week’s content introduced us to the concepts of “hashtag publics” and “cancel culture”, both of which will be expanded upon in this week’s material addressing the role of corporate communication and the formation and power of participatory culture. Public relations plays a role in constituting (both proactively and reactively) fandoms.
Public relations has been defined as an organizational “management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends” (Broom & Sha, 2013, p. 5). This is a broad definition that emphasizes the role of communication as relationship-building, suturing audience-publics and organizations together because of shared interests.
First, let’s identify some key concepts for this week:
(1) hashtag publics; (2) counter publics; (3) fanagement and fantagonism
“In a world of increasing and cacophonous complexity, hashtags are singular moments that coalesce into something new: threads of meaning that work to weave new abstractions into the world” (Rambukkana, 2015, p. 32).
Counterpublics …
Fanagement refers to industry-led moves “responding to, and anticipating, fan criticisms, as well as catering for specific fractions of fandom who might otherwise be at odds with the unfolding brand” (Hills, 2012, 410).
References
Broom, G. M., & Sha, B. L. (2013). Cutlip & Center’s effective public relations (11th ed.). Pearson.
Hills, M. (2012). Torchwood’s trans-transmedia: Media tie-ins and brand ‘fanagement’. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 9(2): 409–428.
Rambukkana, N. (2015)