Fandom and Mainstream Press and Media Attention

Fandom has often had the eye and attention of mainstream press and reporters. 
These attentions include the press promoting fannish things in a basic mostly non-biased way, giving factual information about clubs and conventions. a fairly factual and benign blurb for a fan club: "The Daily News recently received a letter from Mrs. S. Cornelie Cole, president of the Spock's Scribes Chapter of the Leonard Nimoy National Association of Fans. (You remember Mr. Spock -- he's the handsome Vulcan on "Star Trek") Anyhow, the club has already sponsored one letter-writing contest on behalf of Nimoy and is now engaged in a Unicef drive.... Anyone interested in becoming a Spock's Scribe is urged to contact Mrs. Cole at 314 S.E. 14th. She also has information and applications for the Leonard Nimoy National Association of Fans. -- Grand Prairie Daily News, August 14, 1967 
The press explains fans and fandom in often clumsy and not very knowledgeable articles. This includes ignorance while explaining fandom and fanworks to a mainstream audience. All of the attention given to Fifty Shades of Grey. There are many examples of these fansplained articles at :Category:News Media. Some academic articles also fall into this category. See :Category:Academic Commentaries. This type of reporting also includes attempts to portray fans and fandom in an aggressively hostile fashion; reporters who utilize the "look at the freak show, at these oddities" as a hook. One classic example is to attend a con and focus on the fans wearing Spock ears or adults playing with action figures. Or to point out some of the more "far-out" examples of fanfiction as an example of weirdness or danger fans dissing fanfic mentioning the usual straw men slash examples of what they consider to be weird and/or obscure slash pairings to demonstrate the ridiculousness of slash: pairings from Manimal, The Patty Duke Show, Flipper the Dolphin/Darwin the Dolphin, John Adams/Thomas Jefferson (historical figure slash), Bugs Bunny/Energizer Bunny, Frankenstein/Dracula, Moses/Ramses, Biblefic, all mentioned in the comments at David Gerrold's 2013 post Somebody asked me again what I thought about K/S fans , or fans in public acting in unexpected ways. The Fan Who Wore a Star Trek Uniform for Jury Duty (1996) Another example is the public reading of fanfic and meant to embarrass everyone, see Caitlin Moran's Fic Stunt (2013).
In a 2007 discussion about the proposals to create Organization for Transformative Works and Archive of Our Own, a fan posted: 
In 2015, a fan asked: 
==Heightening Visibility==
Many fans were supportive of high visibility for their fan works and activities, but only to other fans and only to the "right" fans. The internet complicated visibility and audience and made perceived control more tricky. 
From Stinky Links, a 2009 blog post on the highly visible site, Firefox News: 
==Slash and Same-Sex Fanworks Intensified Attentions==
The 1996 article The Boob Tube, and Then Some is an example of the usual explainers by mainstream press of the subculture of slash writing and "look at the weirdos." 
An exasperating situation occurred at OktoberTrek in 1992 where reporters and a planted shill attendee caused a lot of confrontation.
The The Great Australian 1985 Radio Show Fiasco.
Shelley Butler (a K/S fan artist) was interviewed for Trekkies #2 (2004), but her interview was cut: 
==The Go-To Sources==
Reporters tend to tap into the same sources for their articles and presentations. 
Some of these spokespeople are BNFs and readily available for quotes. 
One of the most prolific was Bjo Trimble, a mainstream press go-to person for Star Trek.
In the late 1970s, Roberta Rogow's TrexIndex had a lot of mainstream press attention. Some of this attention later caused Rogow to become somewhat of a Trek fan spokesperson, see Editor (1988 New Yorker article). 
In the mid-1990s/early 2000s, it was acafans Henry Jenkins and Camille Bacon-Smith. Other fans quoted in the news were Heidi Tandy and other fans associated with Harry Potter. 
Another fan was Stephanie A. Wiltse who in the late 1980s, promoted herself as the Beauty and the Beast (TV) fandom spokesperson. [need more examples].
==Henry Jenkins: An Early Go-To Guy for Reporters==
Henry Jenkins, an early acafan became the mainstream press go-to guy. 
 
In 1993, Jenkins commented on frustrations he had with how mainstream press and industry voices tended to go for the easy, the shrill, the simplistic quotes, interviews, and descriptions of fans and that topics were simplified and pushed through a very small, biased filter). He was optimistic that his work and that of UCSB film studies professor Constance Penley were, hopefully, broadening some horizons. At a panel in 1993 at the Escapade convention, Jenkins said: 
His cunning plan may have worked a little too well. A fan commented wryly about a Jenkins quote in an article: 
In 2002, another fan referred to the professor's ubiquitous presence as a quotable commentator: 
==Changing Attitudes, Visibility and Reporting==
fans becoming more entwined with journalism
the lines between "mainstream reporting," blogs, and fannish platforms blurring and sometimes becoming eradicated all together
changing attitudes about fans and fandom, more visibility, more respect - See Fannish Activities More Visible to Mainstream.
the OTW effect
From a fan in 2007: 
==Further Reading and Meta==
* Oh, for the days when Star Trek was smaller... is a 1984 newspaper article by Jonathan Karp for "The Birmingham News."
* Ficcer pride by kattahj (2003)
* The Carpet Book, a 2007 Harry Potter controversy
==References==
Category:Perspectives on Fans