It's a fan's world: how devotees blur the boundries

Meta
Title:	It's a fan's world: how devotees blur the boundries
Creator:	Mary Borsellino
Date(s):	2001
Medium:
Fandom:
Topic:
External Links:	"It's a fan's world: how devotees blur the boundries". Archived from the original on 2018-01-30.
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

It's a fan's world: how devotees blur the boundries by Mary Borsellino is an fan written essay that examines how fans have adapted to the Internet age without giving up their essential fannishness.

"A look at how fanaticism shapes viewer experience."

Excerpt

Devotees are not creatures of the dot.com age any more than television itself is. They have, however, adapted to the medium and realised the potential of it much earlier than the Corporate giants that so often seek to oppose them. Fan communities have shown time and time again, from Star Trek to Roswell, that they can keep a show on air through sheer strength of fraternity and devotion. Fan groups flourish under the care of a kind industry, but when faced with opposition from that same industry, fans will not alter their behaviour but rather defy any group that stands in their way. The fans have inherited the earth, and when the industry eventually realises this there will finally be a chance for these close-knit and devoted communities to operate in a space free from the lines that they already ignore but that the studios and industry constantly seek to reinforce.

Comments

One reviwer notes that: "Borsellino breaks down the nature and functionality of the obsessive (er, "devoted") fan, in light of the relationship and interaction between audience and industry. Ultimately, this is a defense of fandom from a unique perspective, and an intriguing one at that."