Starting in 1972, Star Trek fans launched a series of fan run conventions that led to the revival of the Star Trek franchise. It also marked the return of user created programming to a generation of passive media consumers.  This letter to the editor of The Bridgeport Post was published in Feb 1973 and attempted to frame the Star Trek phenomena in broader terms. Amusingly, many of those “broader terms” are still being debated.  Here is a snippet quoted from the beginning:

“Daily we hear the cry that the youth of America is mentally unhealthy. The crime rate is up. Sexual promiscuity is the vogue. Morals are at an all-time low.

A recent speculative science fiction convention at New York’s Commodore Hotel proved that over 7,000  people, predominantly high school and college age have bright hope for the world in the future.”

You can read more about the early Star Trek conventions on Fanlore, the fan run, non-profit wiki about media fandom here.