Participatory culture is a phenomenon that has only grown with advances in technology. The involvement of fans in shows can prolong the enjoyment of an episode and builds a sense of community surrounding the show. There are genres that support participatory culture to a larger degree, but has become more and more included in genres that previously had a more critically distant audience. As participatory culture has grown shows have started encouraging interaction within the show as a means to maintain and grow audience engagement.

Fan bases surrounding shows provide a sense of community and allow extra layers of engagement for the fans. Participation can be acquisitional, gaining trivia or collectibles, or creative, creating fan art, fiction or cosplay, or interactional, blogging or engaging with the text or actors through online platforms. In the sharing of these experiences a sense of community is created surrounding the show, and as fans levels of engagement in the show increases, so does their passion for it. With modern media platforms participation in the show is now even more prevalent, as fans are able to share their thoughts and reactions to the show as it airs through ‘live-tweeting’, or connect with the actors or writers of the show through Twitter.

The most well known fandoms for tv shows are centered around sci-fi shows, but participatory culture can be witnessed within many genres. The shear numbers of Trekkians, the passion of the Whedonites, the fierce debates that rage within the Star Wars fandom, all these are well known examples of fan bases that have been built with participatory culture. When considering fandoms and participatory culture we tend to think of hordes of cosplayers, generating fan art and meta posts about their favourite sci-fi or fantasy show, but when you look at the meaning it extends to fans of other genres, and even outside fiction. A person tuning into their favourite news program and writing emails or letters to it for segments is participating in the show, and their engagement is on the same level as someone live tweeting ‘Teen Wolf’ (2011-present). Their are many similarities that can be drawn between these two instances, as both shows facilitate fan interaction through recent technological developments.

With the emergence of internet in our pocket, fan engagement has become instantaneous, and shows encourage this in their marketing and viewing arrangements. News programs can have a ticker line down the bottom of the screen that displays audiences tweets as they air, and ‘Teen Wolf’ in recent seasons displays a hashtag describing key moments in the show as they happen, in order for fans reactions to be properly labelled so that they all appear in one place and can be catalogued and grouped. Twitter and hashtags have become a crucial part of the immediate fan engagement, the short format and grouping via hashtags lends itself to fan discussions and reactions.

A good meter for measuring the level of participatory culture of a particular show is to check how many fan fictions are available of it. Lesser known shows or shows that dont encourage participatory culture may only have a few, whereas shows that generate a lot of fan activity can generate thousands, i.e ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’(1996-2001), an older, less popular show, has 9, whereas ‘Supernatural’ (2005-present), a recent highly popular program with a large female fanbase, has 116,030 (figures taken from http://archiveofourown.org). While these figures provide a good baseline to work from when measuring participatory culture, they don’t represent the total sum of fans interactions with a show, as fan art, cosplay, roleplaying, blogging, and even getting together with a group of friends to discuss the show all fall under this term.

Participatory culture has only grown with technological advancements, and its place in many genres of fiction and non-fiction shows facilitates fans engagement and enjoyment of a text.