A frequent topic within fandoms of a variety of entertainment media in the past few years keeps reappearing and has unfortunately been co-opted by conservative and right-leaning voices online. The involvement of politics within entertainment is a sore subject for many, and in America specifically, many believe that it shouldn’t have any space within media people enjoy.
This is likely the result of the increasing polarization of politics within the country, in addition to the burnout many feel dealing with the ramifications of politicians in their daily lives. Unfortunately, completely removing politics from media is virtually impossible. Politics isn’t arent strictly theoretical concepts meant to only be studied in classrooms, and they never have been. Entertainment Media has been one of the main ways for groups to push views, concepts, and themes into the public consciousness. Television, movies, and even radio can be extremely persuasive, altering how people view things, like the negative effect the blockbuster movie Jaws had on sharks.
Issues revolving around the culture war, specifically topics revolving around sexuality and gender, are an ever-present, important example of this. Whether it be in fandom spaces or in writers’ rooms, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters or concepts around gender and media are held up to increased scrutiny. While indirect, certain online creators and spaces have increased their efforts in changing the perception of how people view these topics in entertainment. Oftentimes, it could be as innocuous as not wanting pronoun differences or gender neutral terminology within video games.
In the most extreme cases, this can lead to writers or production teams being faced with outcry from loud minorities to get these things pulled from the story. It’s one of the reasons so many people are watching the merger between Warner Bros and Paramount. Paramount’s parent company is owned by the Ellison family, notorious owners of the tech giant Oracle and known friends of Trump and his administration.
It’s become increasingly alleged that David Ellison is buying Warner Bros to change the company to make it more favorable towards conservative views, similar to what was done to the CBS news network and the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
