Kristen Strmel Blog Post #2 - Youtube and the Fandom Menace: How the Quest for Clicks Shaped Modern Star Wars Discourse
I'm a huge Star Wars fan. Have been since I was 10. If given a good hour, I'd love nothing more than to elucidate upon various lightsaber styles, Jedi vs Sith philosophies, and whether or not Han actually did shoot first.
Now, I happen to be in some luck, seeing as Star Wars happens to rank among the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. This means there's a ton of people who'd be more than happy to ramble on and on about it with me. Indeed, you'll find no shortage of social media profiles, forums, and YouTube channels dedicated almost entirely to talking about Star Wars. YouTube in particular is a nexus for all sorts of Star Wars content creators who post endless theories, character analyses, and more.
And sometimes--or should I say, quite often--you'll get something like the picture at the top of this article. Because, as it turns out, YouTube is something of the perfect weapon for a certain subset of Star Wars fans we like to call the Fandom Menace.
Let's rewind a bit. In April of 2014, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, Star Wars canon was split. Every single Star Wars movie, along with a few other shows, were considered part of the larger canon. Many other shows, books, games, and comic runs were relegated to Legends (also known as the Expanded Universe)--aka, they were no longer considered to have officially happened in the Star Wars universe. Every piece of Star Wars material created after April of 2014, in the meanwhile, is considered canon.
It's only to be expected that many fans would be upset about the decanonization of their favorite Star Wars materials. The maelstrom of fandom discourse, however, truly began following the creation of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The sequels are either fantastic or in fact the very worst thing to happen to Star Wars, depending on who you ask. The objective quality of these movies aside, they created a deep rift in the fandom, and fueled the rise of the aforementioned Fandom Menace.
What is the Fandom Menace, exactly? This article goes into a bit more depth about how it works, but it's a loose "movement" of fans who target certain large media franchises for purportedly "going woke." In a Star Wars context, these "fans" target what they see as the hated "Disney Star Wars." They position themselves as defenders of the old and "true" Star Wars, but in reality target modern Star Wars shows, regardless of their quality, for having the gall to--gasp!--include women, people of color, and LGBT+ people in prominent roles. This has, unfortunately, led to the targeted harassment of quite a few modern Star Wars actors.
While the Fandom Menace is rife in all corners of the Internet, it has a particularly prominent base on YouTube. There's no shortage of Star Wars content creators who post everything from clickbait about the sequel trilogy's supposed "decanonization" to bold proclamations that "NEW STAR WARS SHOW means that Disney has GONE WOKE -- Star Wars is DEAD!!" There's still a decent amount of level-headed Star Wars content creators out there, mind you--they're just oftentimes buried between rows and rows of videos clearly designed to attract and inflame.
And therein lies the problem. YouTube thrives off of clicks: if a content creator is big enough, they'll likely include at least an ad or two in their videos. The more views those ads get, the more money the creator makes. So, how do they get those clicks? Easy!: just create a video talking about THIS INSANE NEWS LUCASFILM JUST DROPPED.... or how THIS SHOW IS RUINING STAR WARS..., place a prominent character (often female) in the thumbnail, and wait. Regardless of your own opinion, make sure you stretch out the video long enough to ensure you'll squeeze a couple ads in.
Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this phenomenon is how possible YouTube's structure makes it. You see, so long as none of these content creators outright say something racist, sexist, or homophobic, they're technically adhering to YouTube's Community Guidelines. As such, they cloak their commentary in words like "woke", framing themselves as the "old guard" who just want the "true" Star Wars back. So the vicious cycle continues, driven by the desire for clicks.
I'm not looking to accuse YouTube of outright abetting such behavior--though, honestly, (warning for demeaning language in the linked article) its track record on the issue of targeted harassment isn't exactly the best. The fact remains, however, that its monetization structure is set-up all too perfectly for phenomena like this. It's not even limited to Star Wars--anyone looking to make money could, with a bit of luck, employ the same strategy that the Fandom Menace does with a target of their choosing. At some point, social media giants need to decide what matters more: profit or decency. Unfortunately, it's all too often the former.
(On a lighter note, I should say that I've met plenty of Star Wars fans who simply want to enjoy the franchise they love, and similarly see the Fandom Menace as something they don't have time for. While fandom discourse is somewhat pervading, there are online spaces dedicated to promoting positive discussion of Star Wars [such as the Star Wars Catina subreddit], which I'm unspeakably grateful for!)
Hi Kristen,
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about Star Wars, but I know a lot of people feel passionately about it, and it's clear you make an excellent point! As a librarian, a big part of our job is helping people find good information and think critically about what they're seeing online. The "Fandom Menace" is a perfect example, illustrating a larger problem everyone encounters daily, which is distinguishing reliable, quality content from sensational clickbait. YouTube is fulll of these videos, and it's in every community because that is what draws people in. I watch tarot readers on there, and even they will have a caption to get you immeditely interested and click on the video.
Absolutely! This phenomenon is far larger than Star Wars, unfortunately. It's all too easy to take advantage of YouTube's algorithm and pump out clickbaity video after clickbaity video. I honestly wonder if we as librarians might be able to address this issue. Perhaps programs aimed at social media literacy, helping patrons distinguish between quality content and clickbait, might be possible? It would be especially good to reach teen audiences, since these videos unfortunately often serve as a pipeline to indoctrinate teens into more extremist circles, but it would certainly be useful for adults as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Kristen, this is such an interesting post! My dad is a huge Star Wars fan, and he's always looking up content related to it on YouTube and sometimes I fear he could be tricked by stuff like this. Clickbait is such a cheap and gross way to get clicks, and luckily most of the thumbnails follow that same ugly, over-the-top format so I can mostly spot it from a mile away. I think instances like this are a great example of why people of all ages should receive media literacy training. Navigating social media and the online world is difficult enough, so it's always a good idea to be able to spot misinformation, clickbait, and other harmful tactics.
ReplyDeleteI completely get your fear! I do worry about people who aren't as well-versed in the tricks that these influencers use. What sounds the alarm bells for one person might mislead another into thinking they're about to view substantiative content (after all, who would lie about something George Lucas said???). I agree on the idea of media literacy training. Establishing information literacy classes for adults is actually a long-term goal of mine!
DeleteHi Kristen, thank you for such a profoundly important and equally creative processing of an important tale of canon and legal framework, and its thus translation to who gets to "speak" and in what ways. Similarly, if a platform like youtube has a monetization policy or foundation whereby "clicks" regardless of content governs all, then understanding the irrelevance of how information is offered by way of this model needs to be something that is taught to both information professionals as well as our patrons via professional development settings. Thanks for the most awesome of shares!
ReplyDeleteThe notion of who gets to "speak" on a subject like this truly is so damaging. It's a deceptive way for bad actors to position themselves as the truth-tellers on any given subject, thereby invalidating any other input. I completely agree on the importance of increasing understanding of monetization policies like YouTube's. Some users may not understand that a video isn't appearing at the top of their feed by coincidence!
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