Fans and politics in an illiberal state

Abstract

Certain extremely successful popular culture contents may convey democratic values that can have an impact on the political views of readers and fans. The differences in the values of Harry Potter fans and average Facebook users using social data about public Facebook activity are examined. Even though currently only a minority share the values that the Harry Potter stories embody, they are still an important segment of society that one might not even be aware of if one only follows the state-controlled media and make up a significant majority of the Hungarian media market. Understanding this culturally constructed fan network is thus academically and socially relevant.

Non-digital fan networking: How Japanese animation and comics disseminated in China despite authoritarian deterrence

“…There are some recent exceptions. Dessewffy and Mezei (2020) find that fan networks in illiberal societies can help promulgate democratic values. Li and Jung (2018: 1) argue that fan ‘networks enable individuals to have some, but limited, agency and power to resist corporate and elite controls’.…”