Black fan evangelism and transactional fan participation space in the Hillman Bookstore
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2024.2577Keywords:
Black cast television, Black fans, Fan labor, Fan studies, Immersive retail, Media retail merchandiseAbstract
The Hillman College Bookstore, an online bookstore for a fictional college, operates as a fan transactional space created and supported by Black television fans in response to the scarcity of Black media retail merchandise that allows fans to have immersive experiences. Making a distinction between Black television audiences and Black television fans, a site analysis of the Hillman Bookstore website and Instagram account utilizing André Brock's method of Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) examines how Black fandom constructs a media retail space. The arrangement of this Black fan space reflects Black fandom's understanding of visibility, immersive merchandise, and the attempt to establish a Black media canon. The Hillman Bookstore as a fan site seeks not only to make Black cast television and its fans visible but also to create an immersive experience that curates fan objects for role modeling Black social mobility.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Allyson F. Smith
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