Abstract

What began as a humble greeting card company soon evolved into a major media conglomerate capable of producing up to 40 new feature-length movies during Christmas time alone. How did Hallmark achieve such a transformation? This thesis explores the role that social media has played in propelling Hallmark movies' popularity to astronomical heights. After providing a historical overview of Hallmark and a timeline of its growth, I will provide an analysis of how the company uses social media to promote its films and communicate with its fans. This will include a breakdown of how the network incorporates Christmas into its social media and programming strategies throughout the entire year. After examining how Hallmark manages its own social media profiles, I will look at the types of content being produced by fans and anti-fans. This section will begin by defining what an anti-fan is as well as explaining how analyzing their online behavior helps us understand more about the media objects they are responding to. I will then provide an analysis of the content being created by fans and haters of Hallmark movies alike. Through analysis, this thesis aims to map out Hallmark’s social media strategy in conjunction with its complex fandom to explain the popularity of its seemingly unremarkable movies.