Governed on Their Own Terms: Fans’ Prosumption of Avengers Endgame Media Paratexts

Abstract

Based on the Foucauldian framework, this research aims to analyze how fans’ prosumption of media products’ paratext reveals consumers’ governmentality. The Netnographic Foucauldian Genealogy was adopted to analyze the fans’ interaction with media paratexts of the movie Avengers: Endgame. Results show that fans’ opinions ranged from acknowledging the quality of paratexts to feeling disappointed with them. Thus, it is possible to state that fans allow themselves to be governed by the entertainment industry to safeguard their fan condition.