Fandom and The Archers audio book Chapter 3, Elizabeth Anne Bailey

Archers Fandom and the Online Public Sphere 

Elizabeth Anne Bailey

This chapter considers some of the confluent factors which shape debate in the online public sphere the intersections between this and the practice of fandom generally and Archers fandom in particular. Situating fandom as a part of the wider online public sphere it considers its performative aspects, characteristics of online behaviour, the role of emotion and some of the hard-wired factors which underpin this. It concludes by identifying fandom as a learning experience, both in terms of changing attitudes towards storylines and the way we interact with each other when discussing them.

Elizabeth has been an Archers listener for more than half a century. By day, she has held down a long and varied cross-portfolio career in national and local government policy and communications. Drawing on many of her experiences, she has recently published a book from a mid-life doctorate. In her chapter in this book, Elizabeth, who in real life is married to an actual Nigel, who spent a lot of the pandemic lockdown entirely safely on the roof of their home building a dormer window, explores some overlaps between an abiding academic interest in how people talk about politics and her Archers fandom.