Politicians can harness fandom - but beware Pandora's Box: Interview with Phoenix Andrews

Catherine Neilan

15:38 7th March 2021

Like any interest, politics attracts fans, sometimes weird and wonderful, sometimes just inexplicable. In many ways, fandom is the driving force of modern politics: it galvanises people to leaflet half their neighbourhood for free, spend evenings phone banking and generally rally more people to the cause.

Speaking with Making Common Ground this week, fandom expert Phoenix Andrews argues that fandom actually defines more of us than we might initially think. Just because you're not wearing a MAGA hat or fondly remember your Milifandom flower garland doesn't mean you're not a member of a fandom - and an active one at that. You don't need merch to be in a gang.

Fandoms can crop up around single policy issues like Brexit and climate change, take negative positions on issues such as trans rights, or even just manifest as "not being in a fandom" fandom, where centrists pat themselves on the back for being above that sort of thing, while amplifying others who think exactly the same.

Phoenix also argues that far from creating echo chambers, those caught up in a fandom are often actively engaged with people they violently disagree. Unfortunately, the nature of blinkered belief in one's own tribe invariably means that engagement is less about persuading people to change their views and more about aggression and pile-ons.

Can a fandom be created? Not out of thin air. But they can be harnessed and used more effectively than is the norm right now.

Listen to the interview below for more.