What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?
Hills (2004) suggests that cult TV’s phenomenon is created not by media producers, but fans themselves. He says that fans express their fandom and love of a show which is what makes the status grow, all due to the fans dedication to a TV show. Hall (2004) claims that cult TV cannot actually be promoted or even made by media industries, and that it is powered by audience. He questions these suggestions by asking, “what activities do fans of cult TV engage in?”, and “how do fan activities produce cult status?”. It may seem as though the media can easily persuade people through their well-worded texts on particular cult TV shows. However many people side with audience methods due to their simplistic and relatable approaches. Audiences love these cult genre TV shows as the narratives are set in worlds that viewers can’t actually encounter. Cult is often fantasy and science fiction. Cult TV’s inter-texts, have in a way combined the boundary between fiction and non-fiction by writing them together as if they are one. Joss Whedon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a strong example that fits these cult definitions as it is a reinvented teen vampire myth story that invites the audience into a different world, but that of what can look like the world we live in, minus the mythic creatures.“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has also influenced some modern mainstream films such as Stephenie Meyer’s novel “Twilight”, which was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, which is also a teen vampire movie. The types of media that helped cult as a label, were things such as news reports, like print and television, which watchers of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” would read and become influenced by. It is seen that, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has taken on the cult TV label due to these secondary texts that have been labelling it as part of the cult genre. This shows how much secondary texts influence a TV show and how it is seen by others. We can see how involved fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” are in creating the cult label for the show, through the events, conventions and fan-fiction they create. This also answering previous questions asked by Hill (2004).
References:
Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.
Buffy as Cult Television (2009). Retrieved 9 September, 2009 from:http://culttvbuffy.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/
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