Notes
Henry Jenkins is an expert in fandom and participatory culture. Key to this idea is the concept of the ‘prosumer’ – audiences that create as well as consume media. This culture has revolutionised fan communities with the opportunity to create and share content. It also links to Clay Shirky’s work on ‘mass amateurisation’.
Fandom is now big business – with Comic-Con events making millions. More importantly, the internet has demonstrated the size of fan communities so it is no longer a minority of ‘geek’ stereotypes but mainstream popular culture (such as Marvel, Harry Potter or Doctor Who).
Jenkins defends fan cultures and argues that fans are often stereotyped negatively in the media because they value popular culture (e.g. films or games) over traditional cultural capital (high brow culture or knowledge). The irony is fan culture is often dominated by middle class, educated audiences.
Jenkins discusses ‘textual poaching’ – when fans take texts and re-edit or develop their meanings, a process called semiotic productivity. Fan communities are also quick to criticise if they feel a text or character is developing in a way they don’t support.
EU copyright law: a threat to participatory culture?
A new copyright law currently moving through the European Parliament has been described as a potential 'meme-ban'. It would place the responsibility for the distribution of copyrighted material with the platform rather than the user or copyright holder - and therefore could lead to huge amounts of content being removed. If implemented in full, it could end textual poaching, fan-made texts and re-edits and many more examples of fandom and participatory culture. You can read more on the potential implications in this Wired feature.
Factsheet #107 - Fandom
1) What is the definition of a fan?
fans of a media text in the sense that we like them and consume them regularly.
Fans (capitalisation intended) = do more than just like or even love a particular media text.
‘true fans’ have a devotion that goes beyond simply consuming media texts, and is, as Matt Hills argues, part of a person’s identity in much the same way as gender, class and age define who we are.
2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet?
hardcore/true fan:
Newbie:
3) What makes a ‘fandom’?
4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom?
5) What examples of fandom are provided on pages 2 and 3 of the factsheet?
6) Why is imaginative extension and text creation a vital part of digital fandom?
Henry Jenkins is an expert in fandom and participatory culture. Key to this idea is the concept of the ‘prosumer’ – audiences that create as well as consume media. This culture has revolutionised fan communities with the opportunity to create and share content. It also links to Clay Shirky’s work on ‘mass amateurisation’.
Fandom is now big business – with Comic-Con events making millions. More importantly, the internet has demonstrated the size of fan communities so it is no longer a minority of ‘geek’ stereotypes but mainstream popular culture (such as Marvel, Harry Potter or Doctor Who).
Jenkins defends fan cultures and argues that fans are often stereotyped negatively in the media because they value popular culture (e.g. films or games) over traditional cultural capital (high brow culture or knowledge). The irony is fan culture is often dominated by middle class, educated audiences.
Jenkins discusses ‘textual poaching’ – when fans take texts and re-edit or develop their meanings, a process called semiotic productivity. Fan communities are also quick to criticise if they feel a text or character is developing in a way they don’t support.
EU copyright law: a threat to participatory culture?
A new copyright law currently moving through the European Parliament has been described as a potential 'meme-ban'. It would place the responsibility for the distribution of copyrighted material with the platform rather than the user or copyright holder - and therefore could lead to huge amounts of content being removed. If implemented in full, it could end textual poaching, fan-made texts and re-edits and many more examples of fandom and participatory culture. You can read more on the potential implications in this Wired feature.
Factsheet #107 - Fandom
1) What is the definition of a fan?
fans of a media text in the sense that we like them and consume them regularly.
Fans (capitalisation intended) = do more than just like or even love a particular media text.
‘true fans’ have a devotion that goes beyond simply consuming media texts, and is, as Matt Hills argues, part of a person’s identity in much the same way as gender, class and age define who we are.
2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet?
hardcore/true fan:
- identify themselves as "insiders"
- consider themselves to be aficionados (a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about an activity, subject, or pastime.) of their chosen media text.
- spend a lot of time and money to become hard core fans
- take pride in how long they have been a fan and also the quantity and quality of the knowledge they have amassed whilst being a fan
Newbie:
- new fans.
- do not have the longevity (long existence) of devotion or depth of knowledge that hard core fans have
- initially viewed as the ‘outgroup’ within fandoms.
- develop attachment "at a distance" (Gray) through marketing publicity, like trailers.
- Hills argues that the ‘anti-fan’ seems to be a negative stereotype of a text or genre such as ‘all people who watch chick flicks are dim’ or ‘people who watch horror must be sick in the head’.
Anti-fan:
- identify themselves with media texts but negatively so; they loathe or hate the text.
- unlike ‘true’ fans they do not form their relationship with a text through close readings
3) What makes a ‘fandom’?
4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom?
5) What examples of fandom are provided on pages 2 and 3 of the factsheet?
6) Why is imaginative extension and text creation a vital part of digital fandom?
Comments
Post a Comment