Fan communities are potential sites of political discussion when they use themes in their show to represent and explain their real life political beliefs. Fans and viewers can relate themes in Roswell common in everyday situations in real life. As Roswell and Professor Stein’s essay explain, fan communities discuss topics and themes and thus form a political perspective. This occurs on purpose or not. After watching a seemingly dated Roswell pilot episode, I noticed how consistent and applicable its episode themes were to real life. The Roswell Fans Respond to 11 September essay is a great example of how a fan community can be created by fans that have values that prevalent in the show they watch.
Values are used to create, support and form a cohesive fan community. The pilot episode of Roswell introduces the viewer to a town that is known for an extraterrestrial impact that occurred in the 1940’s. We are lead to sympathize with the alien teenagers and young girl that are forced with keeping her alien friends secret. From this episode we have themes of the other, Romeo and Juliet, persecution of being different, and many other themes that relate to everyday themes that young and old viewers can relate to. These connections that are made from characters to real life viewers are what make fan communities strong. When viewers share these experiences with each other they form a strong bond of understanding of each other through the values that appreciate in Roswell. Politics can be a part of these fan communities as well. Since values are a strong component of politics it was interesting to read how one fan site for Roswell dealt with the event and post-events of September 11th.
In the pilot episode, the alien once feeling like he was a part of normal society was forced to take a side. When September hit, viewers were forced to “take a side” on the issues at hand. Once being a part of a cohesive fan group, fans were forced to engage with real life values that were applicable to Roswellian values. On September 11th, each viewer’s values were challenged. Were all of their views going to align? As Professor Stein mentions in here article, many of the viewers shared a common perspective of being human and wishing the best for everyone in their environments. Thus, expressing a more democratic and peaceful outlook. At first glance this fan community may not seem political. However, real life events, subjects, or even values are referenced throughout their talks and political stances can be seen. There can even be a clear democratic or republican sentiment that is promoted based on discussions and the economic or social outlook on situations that occur on the show but have real life themes.
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