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Friday, November 11
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PS 040
The Role of Fans as Translators and Content Spreaders: Promoting Spanish TV Series Abroad
M.J. Establés
1
, M. Guerrero
1
1
Pompeu Fabra University, Communication, Barcelona, Spain
The fandom of Spanish television series is a growing phenomenon. In particular, some of the latest productions by the Spanish public service television
(Televisión Española – TVE) are causing a huge impact on audiences who are becoming more active on the Internet through social media platforms, blogs
and forums (Jenkins, Ford & Green, 2013; Chávez Ordóñez, 2014; Quintas Froufe & González-Neira, 2014). This is a brand new landscape in Spain because,
among other reasons, there is a stigma based on the alleged poor quality of most Spanish television shows. Furthermore, the audience (Busse & Gray, 2011)
of these shows is not only limited to Spain but spreads to other areas where Spanish is spoken, especially Latin American countries. Many of these television
series are not translated to other languages, prompting many fans to promote their episodes and ancillary content in non-Spanish speaking cultures. Thus,
these materials are translated into English and other languages, and posted on a variety of digital media such as Tumblr, YouTube or Twitter. A transnational
and transcultural perspective (Chin & Morimoto, 2013; Siuda, 2014) is at the centre of this kind of fan activism- a sense of pride pervades fan discourse as
Spanish fans openly support their national television products and, at the same time, they are increasingly aware of the Spanish language and culture as
a barrier to sell domestic series abroad In this sense, this research is focused on the fandom of ‘Isabel’and ‘El Ministerio del Tiempo’(‘The Ministry of Time’,
alternatively ‘The Department of Time’). Both shows are produced by Televisión Española, and also have in common some plotlines and motives about
Spanish history and culture. The methodology used in this research is based on discourse analysis (Van den Bulck, Claessens, Mast & Cuppens, 2015), virtual
ethnography (Boellstroff, Marcus, & Taylor, 2012), and interviews and surveys with fans (Evans & Stasi, 2014), with the aim of analysing the strategies and
motivations of fans when creating and spreading this kind of content on the Internet. The results revealed some preliminary conclusions for discussion: 1)
The fandoms of‘Isabel’and‘El Ministerio delTiempo’are genuinely worried about the content quality and the role of public service in the shows produced by
Televisión Española; 2) Fan communities are well organised when it comes to spreading their content online. In this sense, fans have two main motivations.
On one hand, sharing canonical content in other languages (subbing episodes, creating GIFs on Tumblr...) and, on the other hand, creating derivative works
(mainly fan art, fan fiction or fanvids).
PS 041
Conceptualizing the Uses and Effects of User Comments fromVarious Perspectives
P.B. Jost
1
, C. Peter
2
1
University of Mainz, Departement of Communication, Mainz, Germany
2
University of Munich, Department of Communication, Munich, Germany
In recent years, online media have become an important source of information. This did not only affect the routines of production and distribution of media
content: By offering a platform for users to immediately comment articles, mass media give room to readers’interpretation which have been largely forced
to be passive in the past. Besides, the increasing use of social network sites such as Facebook has enlarged the possibilities for users to interact or express
their opinions. Yet, only a small fraction of the readers uses the low threshold possibility to participate actively in online discussions related to articles
(Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2012). Additionally, the few active users often write rude comments offending other users or news media organizations (Coe
et al., 2014). Nevertheless, it has to be taken into account that journalistic content is embedded into a context of readers’opinions which might affect those
who decide to read it. On the one hand, user comments might have the potential to enlarge the interpretive framework of articles (Baden &Springer, 2014).
The writers seem to be independent and authentic (Diakopoulos & Naaman, 2011) and their comments have the potential to change attitudes or serve as
a cue for the assessment of public opinion (Lee & Jang, 2010). On the other hand, journalists read the comments and get feedback for their work; in this
context, comments can influence further reporting. Finally, journalist integrate user comments in their article to illustrate public opinion on an issue. In
order to advance our understanding of the various facets of user comments, the panel connects differentresearch activities in this field. All presentations in‑
vestigate the phenomenon of users’participation in digital public, but addressthe object from different perspectives and analyze it with the help of different
methods: The first presentation will outline theoretical perspectives and research approaches with a focus on the effects of user comments on journalists
and readers. Taking this as a starting point, the second presentation will show results of a content analysis of factors stimulating the number and interac‑
tivity of user comments on Facebook news sites. Referring to the ideal that comment sections might be the “marketplace”where deliberative ideals come
true, the third presentation will include a two-study-design on the influence of argument quality on the persuasiveness of online user comments. Besides,
user comments might not only influence the opinions toward an issue: The fourth presentation will present a 2-study-design and investigate the effect
of the valence of user comments on perceived news quality. The last presentation will complete the panel with two studies on the effects of user comments
on the evaluation of scandalized individuals and on the attribution of responsibility.
PS 042
The Effects of Argument Quality in Online User Comments on News MediaWebsites
M. Maurer
1
, P.B. Jost
1
1
University of Mainz, Departement of Communication, Mainz, Germany
Along with the digitalization of communication, there has grown a hope that comment sections in the internet might be the“marketplace”where deliber‑
ative ideals come true because only the best arguments count (e.g. Dahlgren 2005). Regarding the deliberative demand, it is important whether the per‑
suasive effects of user comments can be enhanced by the quality of the arguments used. For instance, incivil and rough user comments polarize readers’
attitudes (Anderson et al. 2014). By contrast, persuasion research indicates that arguments are especially effective, when they meet the criteria of logic and
are supported by evidence (e.g. Reinard 1988). In our study, we ask whether this holds also true for online user comments: Does argument quality enhance
the effect of user comments on readers’ attitudes toward an issue? In order to answer this question we conducted two 2x2 web-based-experiments. We