New media has transfigured the television industry a great deal, due in large part to the intersection of communication and information made possible through social networks and the Internet, giving groups like fandoms the opportunity to gather and share their opinions and views on television programmes (Hills, M, 2004). Fandoms, or 'Telefantasy' as persons taking part in them prefer they be known as (Hills, M, 2004), are communal in nature and often form on websites started either by the programme's producers, or by the fandoms themselves, and many of them have topical, forum-based discussion boards that allow for discourse between fans on a number of subjects related to the programme (Hills, M, 2004).
Alongside discussion boards, fandom websites typically include sections dedicated to user-generated fan-fiction, which Hills explains is due largely to the formula that cult TV programmes establish as a basis for their narratives, that basis being specific questions that act as the axis upon which the narrative world depends (Hills, M, 2004). These questions are deliberately left unanswered, due to the programme's reliance on these questions to propel the narratives of these worlds forward, and leaves gaps in the plot-line that the fandom may attempt to fill through elaborate fan-fiction, or through the postulations of the more devoted fans with the necessary depth of knowledge to connect the loose threads of the lore to form viable hypotheses (Hills, M, 2004).
Through new media, the fandom is able to take ownership of the otherworldly realms that exist within the narrative worlds of cult television, coming to define them and their broader themes independent of the narrative's source, which supports the popularity of "fan activities", as Hills calls them (Hills, M, 2004), such as fan-fiction writing and the discourse between fans on discussion boards, within the social context provided by new media. This degree of intercommunication between people involved in fandoms is possible only through new media, which is an indication as to why so many fandoms have sprung up in recent years, given the efficiency and borderline instantaneous interpersonal communication that the Internet and social networking allows for, and it is precisely these aspects of new media that feeds the expansion of online fandoms (Hills, M, 2004).
Many fandoms are also cross-cultural, likely comprised of fans from all over the world, some of whom may reside in countries situated a great distance away from the cult programme's country of origin. New media allows fans residing in the same country of origin as that of the television series to disseminate information among those fans living overseas, keeping international fans abreast of recent announcements and developments pertaining to the programme; without new media, this task would make for a very daunting prospect, indeed. It is this kind of community mindedness that lends credence to Hills' suggestion that fandoms operate as online societies, replete with cultural customs and rituals that move beyond the television series that spawns them, independent of the bitter reality of the outside world (Hills, M, 2004).
According to Hills, however, the hardcore fans within these fandoms whose depth of knowledge far exceeds that of newer fans' may instill a sense of elitism within fan communities, alienating some fans from the larger collective of cult television enthusiasts (Hills, M, 2004), which may lead some outsiders to hurl labels of "fanboyism" levelled against the more knowledgeable, pedantic sorts common among cult television fandoms.
Furthermore, fandoms seem to revel in the underground vibe attributed to cult television, and this correlates with the narrative worlds which they so zealously worship every smidging aspect of; both are incomprehensibly foreign to the casual onlooker, and are "niche", "kitschy", and "fringe", entirely removed from the reality of life and the world that surrounds them. Perhaps this is a key part of the appeal of cult television, and why fandoms are so resistant to newcomers, because in actuality they desire to preserve the gaping chasm between the real and surreal worlds, to sustain the fantasy a while longer in its purest, unspoiled form by shielding it from the influence of the outside world with all its flaws.
After all, as Hills suggests, it is only through this extreme and undying devotion that embodies a typical fandom that any cult television series even achieves the mark of "cult status" at all (Hills, M, 2004), keeping the worlds depicted in them alive while other television series go the way of the dodo once initial interest diminishes among other, less passionate viewerships.
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