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This chapter is termed “political fandom” – a concept in circulation to mean “’the regular, emotionally involved consumption of a given popular narrative or text’ in a political context” (Sandvoss, cited by Rodriguez and Goretti, 2022, p. 66). The ‘text’ to which people cultivate an affective attachment can be wide-ranging, given that “political fandom can be defined as the emotional investment in and active support for political figures, parties, or ideologies” (le Clue, 2023, p. 3). But this chapter should perhaps be more accurately called “Fandom is political” rather than “political fandom” because while sometimes political fandom can mean a focus on fans of politics or politicians, this is not the end of the story. It is, however, a good beginning of the story, since so much of this affect-fuelled audience activity focuses on specific politicians. So, let us start by considering the example of Donald Trump. Not a traditional politician, he was a celebrity who, upon deciding to run for office, automatically became a celebrity politician. He had pre-existing fans when he hosted The Apprentice who helped bolster his cult of personality on reality TV.
But when Trump ran for President of the United States he certainly generated a lot more ‘fan’ activity.
Trump was a celebrity brand who became a celebrity politician. Similarly, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez turned her social media savviness and outsider moxy into a political brand, leveraging fans’ user generated content and spreadable media to great effect in a Web 2.0 environment.
This makes sense considering that “the fan object, in political fandom … resembles the vague textual formation we also describe as ‘brand’” (Sandvoss, 2013, p. 278), and “media fragmentation also authorizes brand membership as a form of civic participation” (Ouellette, 2012, p. 188). Thus, following and engaging with Trump or AOC on platforms like Twitter counts as an act of citizenship, a form of political fandom. With the right fans prepared to show their support and share their love, political branding burnished by participatory culture can be more valuable than public service (Ouellette, 2012, p. 191). And even though Dean goes so far as to declare the equation of politicised fandom with ‘fans of (specific) politicians’ as ” rather banal” (2017, p. 411), the more generic suggestion that, “political participation can be seen as a form of (political) fandom” (Sandvoss, 2019, p. 125) can be equally frustrating. After all, is all political participation fan-like?
Certainly, if the extent of one’s participation in politics is voting once every four years (or even occasionally discussing political events or figures), I’d wager the answer is no. This level of commitment and engagement is so insignificant that it does not rise to the level of participatory culture. But if one’s engagement with the world of politics demonstrates “political enthusiasm,” then one’s passion for politics (and political debate, not just delivered to