Case study of French and Spanish fan reception of "Game of Thrones"

Abstract

The reception of the American TV show Game of Thrones (2011–) by French and Spanish fans and nonfans is addressed via a qualitative methodology, the goal of which is to understand how European viewers perceive themselves as fans and what it means for them to be fans. Analysis of characteristics of a specifically European reception helps us learn what fan studies tell us about fans and what fans really think about fandoms.

The Fourth Wall and “The Wall”: GoT’s Reception in Argentina, Spain, and Germany

“…A few Argentinian audience members, participated or had participated in the past in online forums and exchanged views with other fans on Facebook or in the case of a female fan, Twitter. These practices were also shared by French and Italian fans of the series, as explained by Bourdaa and Delmar (2015), and Spano (2016) in their respective studies. Only a minority reported engaging in public online discussions around the series, while they did follow posts and comments.…”

“…Some members of the audience do not define themselves as fans, but it is still worth to consider their practices and voices. What is more, even those interviewed who self-ascribed as "fans" do not engage in the main activities analyzed in fan studies literature such as fan artworks, as Bourdaa and Delmar's (2015) survey to 175 Spanish and French fans of the series also confirmed. Another example of the importance of cultural trends even within the same fandom is that, in this case, there was no fan engagement with platforms as Tumblr and Reddit, often relevant within Anglophone fan studies scholarship.…”

An Approach to Defining the Identity of a Media Fan

“…To design the instrument, the literature on the subject and the previous research of the authors of this study were considered. In this first phase, a scale was constructed based on a previous qualitative study on fans of the Game of Thrones series (HBO, 2011) in France and Spain (Bourdaa & Lozano-Delmar, 2015). From that study, we obtained a set of five reasons why the respondents considered themselves fans of the series (Bourdaa & Lozano-Delmar, 2015): 1) Their devotion to the show; 2) their experience of the show as something that goes beyond the simple act of reception; 3) the urgency in watching every episode; 4) the fact that they collect memorabilia from the show; and 5) the fact they are already a fan of the universe via the books.…”

Les fans, ces publics si spécifiques. Définition et méthodologie pour le chercheur

“…Seule la facette négative est montrée, pour le sensationnalisme et la dramatisation, au détriment des activités que les fans mettent en place dans leur communauté et en occultant la réflexivité sur une passion qu'ils transforment en action et en création. 5 Pour aller au-delà de ces stéréotypes et bien comprendre ce que sont les fans aujourd'hui, il est important ici de clarifier notre définition du fan. Pour nous, le fan n'est pas seulement un « suiveur », un collectionneur ou un enthousiaste, pour reprendre les catégories de Longhurst et Abercrombie 8 , il ne placarde pas seulement ses murs de posters comme l'avait souligné Fiske 9 , mais il est aussi un producteur de contenus et de signification.…”