Media Theory Revision Guide
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Essential Film!
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Humans
Fan baiting in Humans
Jenkins
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Fan baiting was also constructed via fan theory Youtube uploads by Channel 4 that asked audiences to comment on the Mattie/Leo storyline in the series finale.
More conventional fan-based engagement too was nurtured using traditional social media platforms like Facebook, with just under 200k followers of the Humans fan page still active in 2022, while fake Twitter profiles for lead characters helped nurture the Humans' fictional universe as a place that fans could interact with.
These activities, of course, provided multiple opportunities for fans to share and like producer-constructed material, with producers benefiting most from the digital labour expended by fans.
Fan engagement here reproduces rather than adapts producer messaging with scant use of fan-based appropriation present.
As such, to argue that Humans fans were using their fandoms for the purposes of identity exploration would be hugely misleading.
Audience/producer convergence
Refers to audience/producer interconnectivity in the digital era. Fan activity, for example, can force makers to adapt content. Producers, conversely, use fan networks to distribute/market their output.
Media terminology used
Hashtag marketing
The use of social media hashtags by producers to channel audience engagement. Appropriation allows audiences to interact with mass media content.
Fan labour
The work (often free of charge) executed by fans and audiences that helps media makers to distribute and/or market their output.