Exploiting Fandom: How the Media Industry Seeks to Manipulate Fans

by Mel Stanfill

As more and more fans rush online to share their thoughts on their favorite shows or video games, they might feel like the process of providing feedback is empowering. However, as fan studies scholar Mel Stanfill argues, these industry invitations for fan participation indicate not greater fan power but rather greater fan usefulness. Stanfill’s argument, controversial to some in the field, compares the “domestication of fandom” to the domestication of livestock, contending that, just as livestock are bred bigger and more docile as they are domesticated, so, too, are fans as the entertainment industry seeks to cultivate a fan base that is both more useful and more controllable.

By bringing industry studies and fan studies into the conversation, Stanfill looks closely at just who exactly the industry considers “proper fans” in terms of race, gender, age, and sexuality, and interrogates how digital media have influenced consumption, ultimately finding that the invitation to participate is really an incitement to consume in circumscribed, industry-useful ways.

Genres: Nonfiction

262 pages, Paperback

Published February 15, 2019

Reviews

[Anika · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a clear case of it's not you (book), it's me. For this is a well written academic approach on how, as the title suggests, media industry exploits fans on various levels. The author focuses (not only, but mainly) on sports and speculative fiction.

The theme, tone and structure is purely academic. The first chapters deal, in great detail, with the author's approach, work and general line of argumentation. Fandom itself is described in detail, or rather: what the media industry wants/regards as fans (male, white, hetereosexual being mostly in favour). Marginalisation of groups that don't fit in this scheme is a huge and important theme.

The middle part describes of how fans are exploited. Be it their lack of rights vs. the everchanging and all consuming TOS of the media industry or the industry's expectation of fans working, paying, living and whatnot for their show/film/team without getting any serious recognition (only more and stricter TOS). It's an unfair, unbalanced system, and it was these parts that got me thinking. The final chapter draws a conclusion, as to be expected.

The writing is okay-ish. I had difficulties approaching it in a way that kept me focussed, and sadly, the text itself threw me out again and again, for the author barely uses any footnotes but credits her sources within the text, giving names and publication dates in brackets right after every quote, direct or indirect, mid-sentence or not. Which interrupted my flow again and again and didn't help matters at all.

Tl;dr: This just wasn't the kind of book I thought it would be. I thought it would be more accessible, with more down to earth examples especially from fans'/fandoms' perspective. This book is probably a very valuable source for media students and the like, it just wasn't for me.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful book that lays out clearly and precisely how the mainstreaming of fandom has fueled the growing exploitation of fan labor in a variety of ways, while simultaneously producing norms that are strongly gendered and racialized. My only quibble with it is that Stanfill’s impeccable research has also resulted in a deluge of citations: her strong, clear and forceful writing would have more room to breathe without the constant, often redundant callbacks to other authors.

[Katrina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far more academic in nature than I was expecting, which was definitely a good thing in this instance. Certainly insightful in a number of places. Think it would make a decent further reading suggestion for students enrolled in a media student courses.

Found the chapter covering media giants tasking fans of television shows and films with doing the work of marketing companies for free rather illuminating.

With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please ignore the fact that it took me basically four years to read this book (picked it up for fun, got busy with life and the global pandemic etc, came back to it and reread/finished it for my exams). This book is really helpful for articulating and fleshing out some of the observations that got me interested in fan studies in the first place. On top of that, the prose is extremely readable and Stanfill’s extensive bibliography is going to be an invaluable resource.

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was too academic in its approach for my tastes and I ended up not finishing this one. I wouldn't say that the book was bad, as the subject matter was interesting enough for me to pick it up, but I ultimately couldn't get into it. Exploiting Fandom does appear to be well-researched and I think that it could be appealing to the right audience.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher University of Iowa Press in exchange for an honest review.

This was such an interesting read to me! When I requested it, I wasn't sure what to expect. I have minor academic experience of media studies and essentially no background in business, sports or any of the topics this book could come under (apart from a personal interest in demographics). The introduction was very dull for me as it is essentially just a list of the methodology. This was probably necessary as this seems to have been adapted from a dissertation or some other academic paper, but it wasn't really a great start to the book. Thankfully it was uphill from there.

By far my favourite sections were the first two chapters which focus on how sports and the media identify and view their fans in terms of demographics. Some fascinating points were made about how the industries assume default fan is a white male and how this influences both their marketing and reaction to fan behaviour. The author uses a wide range of sources and examples which creates a very in-depth and insightful look at fandom as a whole. I loved this section and thought it was excellently written.

The next bit was about the legality and fan's knowledge of the law. I must admit, I did skip most of this section. Law has never been interesting to me and while I was curious about fanfiction and the laws surrounding that, most of the focus was on fan's perception of the law without clarifying what the actual law was. I can see this being interesting to some but sadly it was not for me.

The final chapters are what I suppose the book is mainly about-that is, how fans engage in free labour due to their love of a work/sports team and how industries exploit this. These parts were fairly interesting and again, made some very good points. I would have liked to see this section expanded more with specific examples though. Every other section has lots of examples which illustrate the arguments well but there weren't many to be found in this bit. I know fandom's mere existence is a form of free labour in itself (promoting etc) but it still could have been interesting to find anecdotes of fans' work being used professionally or something similar.

Overall, I think this book's topic wasn't actually as for me as I thought it would be but I still enjoyed it immensely. It has well-written, thoroughly researched content and a cohesive narrative that brings everything together beautifully. There are some well-argued points to be made here and I think it raises some interesting questions. I would definitely recommend this book if you have any interest in fandom and how the industries treat their fans. Just be aware that it is an academic work and so some parts might be a bit dry or less compelling than others.

Overall Rating: 4/5

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The material presented here is incredibly dense but eye-opening. As someone who has been involved in fandom to various degrees my entire life, the idea of being exploited (even without my awareness) is one that sat very uncomfortably with me. Stanfill's arguments very much fit my personal experience of fandom but gave them a twist that made me see them in a new light. The shifting view of copyright from "monopoly" to "ownership" explained so much about the way IP content is approached from a transformative perspective but left me feeling a little icky. In the end, the question was not one of whether the exploitation of fandom is morally right, but more one focused on the fact that without knowing how (and that) we are being exploited, we don't even have a voice at the table.