Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The fan-media producer collaboration

2013; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3828/sfftv.2013.8

1754-3789

Bertha Chin,

Gender, Feminism, and Media

The media industry's embrace of social media has changed the relationship between fans and producers in general, and The X-Files is no exception. XFilesNews.com, a news fansite, was created shortly after filming for I Want To Believe (2008) commenced. The site forged a connection with producer Frank Spotnitz and was instrumental in the fan-targeted marketing campaign for the film. XFN's collaboration with Spotnitz and other X-Files crew and cast often result in conflict with other fans, and XFN contributors frequently discover that they have to balance an intricate relationship between being fans and protecting the integrity of their contact with the producers/celebrities. This article examines how XFN manages their relationship with other fans, and the boundaries they draw between themselves, ‘activists’ and those they classify as the ‘fangirls’.