The Calculated Passion: The Digital Commodification of Fans and the Paradoxes Embedded in This Phenomenon from the Perspective of the Political Economy of the Communication

Adopting the lens of the political economy of communication, this study utilizes participant observation and in-depth interviews to investigate how digital media convert fans into valorized commodities and the corresponding counter-strategies enacted by fans. The findings reveal that digital media operationalize fandom through a triad of mechanisms: visible rendering, catalyzation, and shaping. These processes effectively transform fans’ affection, social ties, and unpaid labor into digital commodities valued by platforms, advertisers, and talent agencies. Meanwhile, the study further reveals that although fans develop counter-strategies such as algorithmic gaming, attention appropriation, and meaning contestation, these acts of resistance ultimately generate new data and traffic. This thereby reinforces the irreversible process of commodification of fans in a more concealed manner.