From the zombies to the walkers. The awakening of the fandom economy

Abstract

The traditional media system that produced content for certain audiences that consumed it is in crisis. The use that audiences give to various digital platforms has altered the relationship between them and the media. Now it is not only the media that produce and distribute the contents, but they also become more dependent on their public to circulate them.
This article relates the speeches of the television series The Walking Dead (TWD) with the social, cultural and economic practices of the fandom The Walking Dead Peru (TWD-Peru). It addresses the collaborative cultural production that they perform in the transmedia media environment, in which digital technologies facilitate the creation, distribution and manipulation of content. The group was born with the creation of the Facebook page, from there it developed links motivated by the fans of the series that expand in the events they produce, transforming consumption due to the interaction they stimulate. In this way, they generate value through the extended circulation of content, that is, they develop alternative economic networks that I call the fandom economy.