ABSTRACT
Let’s start this section with a tweet and a tale. On 11 April 2013 at 4.45 pm Billy Bragg, a British singer-songwriter, was on tour in the United States and tweeted that he was sitting in a coffee shop in Madison listening in on two conversations: one on the Beatles, the other on Dr Who (https://twitter.com/). The previous week, my 15-year-old daughter had spent the whole day outside a restaurant in Cheltenham trying to catch a glimpse of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ (although she was more interested in ‘Watson’). With a number of friends she waited, facebooked, tweeted, chatted to lighting technicians and cameramen as the BBC filmed an episode for the 2013 series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. One glimpse of the actors and a fleeting appearance on the local BBC News that evening carried her and her friends on a cloud of excitement for days to come. Both of these examples illustrate the conversations that we might have about TV, films and music. It highlights the potential pleasures there might be in being a fan, and how engaging in media in this way might be part of many people’s lives.
