Open AccessFans and politics in an illiberal state
Author(s) -
Tibor Dessewffy,
Mikes Mezei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
transformative works and cultures
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1941-2258
DOI - 10.3983/twc.2020.1757
Subject(s) - politics , state (computer science) , democracy , popular culture , media studies , sociology , social media , fandom , popular media , advertising , political science , law , business , computer science , algorithm
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.