Engaging Media: Fan Communities and Shock Advertisements

This volume contains adaptions of two excellent master theses that were written and defended within the international master’s programme media, communication, and cultural analysis at Södertörn University in 2023. Running since 2009, the programme has more than 100 alumni who are employed in the media, academic and education. In 2020, the programme coordinator together with the programme council and the department council, chose to distinguish the best theses in a printed volume. This is the fourth volume in the series.

The contributions in this volume cover two very different topics: how social media and content streaming sites are used to shape relationships between K-pop superstars BTS and their fan base in Sweden and how vegans/vegetarians respectively meat eaters react to the use of shock advertisements by the organization for animal advocacy, PETA. Although stretching across two such different topics, the chapters share an interest in zooming in on how media can be understood in relation to engagement and emotions.