Micro‐Celebrity Communities, and Media Education : Understanding Fan Practices on YouTube and Wattpad

This chapter considers changes in children's and young people's opportunities for participation with digital media technologies and the implications for media education. In particular, it argues that the emergence of digital platforms over the past decade has promoted new entertainment forms that require ongoing revision of media education's content and form. The argument developed in the chapter mainly responds to the version of media education that has become formalized through school curricula produced for the Australian education system. The chapter presents case studies of how fans interact with social media entertainment content. It provides a thematic analysis of fan comments made on one StacyPlays video on YouTube. In addition, an analysis of fan fiction about StacyPlays circulated on the self‐publishing platform Wattpad is also considered. Digital platforms afford these young people with opportunities to respond to content, request particular forms of entertainment, and be closer to the production of content