This module demonstrates the diversity of television culture from the fan perspective, with particular focus on a problematising of the notion of the passive spectator. Traditional television scholarship presupposes that television viewing is a passive activity, where spectators are seen as non-critical receivers of the broadcast texts; ethnography, on the other hand, sees television fandom as a much more active pastime, wherein television audiences critically engage with the texts, and recreate their own textual meanings. As a consideration of fandom and the literature associated with this popular culture phenomenon, this module will also introduce students to ethnographic research methodologies.

Seminar topics include the television audience, ethnographic methodologies, active and passive spectatorship, official fan culture, internet fan resources, fan creativity, and the role of fan-based studies within cultural studies.