Conference Program

Affective Fandom Dynamics and Democratic Stability in European Digital Politics

Elena VAROTTO
Universidad Católica de Murcia (UCAM)

Abstract (

This paper develops the notion of fanatic politics to describe an expanding mode of political engagement shaped by platform architectures, affective identification, and the cultural grammars of fandom. In contemporary digital ecosystems, political leaders and parties are increasingly consumed as symbolic brands, while policy debates are reframed through aestheticized storytelling, emotional intensification, and algorithmic amplification. Drawing on mediatization theory (Strömbäck 2008; Couldry & Hepp 2017), affective polarization research (Iyengar et al. 2019; Huddy et al. 2015), and fandom studies (Jenkins 2006; Sandvoss 2013), the paper argues that political participation is progressively reconfigured as a form of affective consumption rather than deliberative engagement.

The central research question is: How does the fan‑driven transformation of politics reshape economic priorities and democratic resilience within European political systems? To address this question, the paper employs a qualitative, multi‑layered methodology combining frame analysis, narrative reconstruction, and visual‑aesthetic coding. It examines how political actors mobilize symbolic repertoires, emotional grammars, and platform‑specific aesthetics across Instagram, TikTok, and Telegram. Particular attention is devoted to the construction of polarizing dichotomies, the personalization of conflict, and the conversion of political identity into a form of digital belonging.

Through case studies from Italy and Spain, the analysis shows how fan‑oriented narratives—such as anti‑taxation frames surrounding property levies or crisis‑centered energy discourses—can influence fiscal debates, redirect political attention, and weaken long‑term industrial strategies. These dynamics are situated within broader debates on platform governance (Gillespie 2018; van Dijck, Poell & de Waal 2018), digital capitalism (Fuchs 2014; Zuboff 2019), and geopolitical vulnerabilities, including European dependencies on private data‑analytics infrastructures, cyber‑security incidents, and the democratic implications of algorithmic opacity. Pedro Sánchez’s recent call for greater transparency in algorithmic decision‑making provides an institutional anchor for discussing democratic stability under conditions of platform power.

The paper contributes to digital politics scholarship in three main ways. First, it conceptualizes fanatic politics as a hybrid formation integrating affective, aesthetic, and algorithmic dimensions of political communication. Second, it demonstrates how fan‑based political narratives can shape economic policy agendas, generating distortions that privilege short‑term symbolic gains over long‑term strategic planning. Third, it proposes an analytical framework for assessing the vulnerabilities of democratic systems exposed to platform‑mediated polarization, emphasizing the need for institutional mechanisms capable of counterbalancing the emotional and economic pressures produced by digital fandoms.

Keywords

fanatic politics; affective polarization; digital platforms; political communication; democratic resilience

References

Couldry, N., & Hepp, A. (2017). The Mediated Construction of Reality.
Fuchs, C. (2014). Social Media: A Critical Introduction.
Gillespie, T. (2018). Custodians of the Internet.
Huddy, L., et al. (2015). “Expressive Partisanship.”
Iyengar, S., et al. (2019). “Affective Polarization in the Digital Age.”
Jenkins, H. (2006). Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers.
Sandvoss, C. (2013). Fans: The Mirror of Consumption.
Strömbäck, J. (2008). “Four Phases of Mediatization.”
van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & de Waal, M. (2018). The Platform Society.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.