Viewing Party
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | online convention, Binge watching |
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A Viewing Party is a gathering of people with similar interests (a fandom or a specific pairing), watching various fannish sources (films, episodes) or fannish creations (fanvids) together and interacting with each other and discussing the source while doing so. Both watching and interacting can take place in a direct, face-to-face setting (for example, at a convention, a fanclub's meeting or a fannish houseparty) or by means of synchronised watching and chatting. The synchronisation can be achieved by members' starting their individual DVD players at the same time or - more easily - by one member's assuming the role of the party host and broadcasting the source via a streaming device or service, e.g. Livestream. The interaction at such a virtual viewing party takes place by written communication via chat or social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal).
A viewing party, especially in its virtual and thus very accessible form, is a fanac with strong focus on the community experience, uniting fans from around the world and from various timezones in one fannish online event. Its success depends not only on a well-functioning technical infrastructure both on the side of the host and the individual participants (e.g. bandwidth is a vital factor), but also on the quality of the interaction. The chat offers both a running commentary on the source, in the style of a light-hearted real-time meta discussion, and immediate sharing of emotional reactions, e.g. squee. The conversation is often accompanied by drinking games with more or less flexible rules; it often spawns plotbunnies which inspire participants to create fanworks in reply to a certain interpretation or a plothole.
Appearances in Canon
World Championship Wrestling's WCW Monday Nitro would show interviewer/commentator Lee Marshall at "Nitro parties".
Examples for online viewing parties
Star Trek: The Original Series, with focus on Kirk/Spock: Viewing Parties of the Kirk/Spock Slash Community on LJ; Space Husbands; Shipper's Shack; T'Lara's Cinema of Squee
The Master and Commander part of the Age of Sail fandom has mirror communities MandC_Watch on LJ and on DW
In The X-Files fandom, the SkypePhiles gathered between 2008 - 2013 in a skype group chat to watch scheduled episodes together.
There are several viewing parties in the Hannibal fandom, in the form of scheduled rewatches with live-tweeting; these rewatches are usually organised per region (Europe, Westcoast, Eastcoast) to help with time zone differences.
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. Are there other fandoms where viewing parties were/are held? |