I’ve been having health issues the past two weeks, so I’m behind on my blog postings. However, I just read a brilliant article by Arthur Chu of The Daily Beast that pretty much is a manifesto for my research topic and why I want to study geeks and geek culture: because it’s everywhere now. It even validates my thesis about fans influencing the direction of popular culture that I derived by discussing shippers and Community.
How Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, and Fanfiction Conquered Pop Culture
Geek Girls and Gatekeeping 
I hope you are feeling better. Thank you for the post your research has always interested me. I read the whole article and it did a great job explaining everything you have been saying for the past year! “We’re all just fans here”
How do fans have the biggest influence on writers and the out come of a script/show production?
Sorry it’s taken me so long to comment back! As for your question, the relationship between fans and producers is rocky, to say the least. I recently listened to a podcast by Community creator Dan Harmon, where he had one of the most well-known Twitter fans of the show come up and talk to him. He was mentioning that someone on Twitter told him to “stop talking” in a tweet, then mentioned her Twitter handle, and lo and behold – she was in the audience! He asked why she wanted him to stop talking, and she said it was because he was saying things that could be detrimental to the show – he’s kind of an alcoholic jerk, and when he says random weird stuff on his Tumblr, entertainment news sites like Vulture and Entertainment Weekly pick it up and make it a big deal.
The feeling I got from the talk was that it was an issue of ownership – who owns the show? Is it the fans who watch it or the producers who create it? Who has the show’s best interest at heart? Who is allowed to speak on behalf of the show? I think the biggest influence fans now have is that producers are now aware of them – they’re not some faceless person on the other side of the screen, they’re people on Twitter telling you to stop talking.
Social media gives fans a chance to voice their love for the show, and with that voice comes a sense of the show being “ours” instead of “theirs,” especially with a show like Community that directly references fandom in its episodes.
I agree, as a marine scientist, I sometimes find it difficult to follow other areas of research. However, it’s great to learn something new! Hope you’re feeling better as well!