Sherlock and Digital Fandom

When the BBC’s Sherlock debuted in summer 2010—and appeared in the U.S. on PBS a few months later—no one knew it would become an international phenomenon. The series has since gathered a diverse and enthusiastic fandom.
Like their hero, Sherlock fans scrutinize clues about the show’s deeper meaning, as well as happenings off screen. They postulate theories and readings of the characters and their relationships. They have tweeted with “The Powers That Be,” mobilized to filming locations via #Setlock, and become advocates for LGBTQIA communities.
Sherlock’s digital communities have changed the way that fans and series creators interact in person and online, as each publicly takes “ownership” of beloved television characters who represent far more than entertainment to fans.

Jennifer Wojton is an assistant professor in the Humanities and Communication Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has published several works about popular culture and pedagogy.
Lynnette Porter is a professor in the Humanities and Communication Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and has written extensively on television and film.

Jennifer Wojton and Lynnette Porter
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 200
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7020-1
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3286-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments v
Introduction 1
1. Fans and The Powers That Be: Interaction and Common Awareness 9
2. “Traditional” Fan Works in a Digital Community 31
3. Beauty and the Beastly: Navigating Fan Websites 46
4. #Setlock 71
5. Marketing Products and Events to Digital Communities 83
6. Sexuality in the World of Sherlock 101
7. Toward an Ethos of Advocacy for Asexuality 124
8. New Directions for Sherlock Fandom and TPTB 154
Bibliography 177
Index 187

“The popularity of the BBC’s recent Sherlock series, fueled by social media, has only added to the longtime fandom of Arthur Conan Doyle’s quirky detective. Authors Wojton and Porter contend that the BBC production’s unique, compelling feature is its complex attitude toward sexuality, a pairing known in fan communities as Johnlock…describ[es] the ways online fans analyze and celebrate the ambiguous relationships between characters, often through fan fiction”—Booklist