Henry Jenkins - 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).


https://youtu.be/ZCKoLB1kUsY

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.

Then Answer these…

Henry Jenkins - fandom blog tasks

The following tasks will give you an excellent introduction to fandom and also allow you to start exploring degree-level insight into audience studies. Work through the following:

MAKE A BLOGPOST ABOUT HENRY JENKINS;

Factsheet - Fandom

1) What is the definition of a fan?
A fan is someone who is interested in a particular media text and consumes it regularly.

2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet?
The different types of fans identified in the factsheet are:

• Hardcore fans- Insiders within the group of fans and consider themselves aficionados of the franchise
• Newbies- Newcomers to a given text and don't have as much devotion as hardcore fans
• Anti-fans- those which identify themselves with media texts but negatively so;

3) What makes a ‘fandom’?
The state of mind/attitude of being a fan

4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom?
Bordieu argues that there is a kind of ‘cultural capital’ which confers a symbolic power and status for the fan.

5) What examples of fandom brodening audience?
Rituals and Participation
Fans will re watch media texts and even dress up like characters from the text in cosplay

Iconic Readings
Fans will engage in philosophical debates with each other & readings have even intensified through fan fictions which will focus on same sex relationships with characters in the character universe.

Defy Critics and Institutions
Buying power of the fans can help bring back shows that have been axed. E.g. Brooklyn 99 and Family Guy.

Imaginative Extention and Text Creation
Fans will create products using the content provided to them from the text already.

6.) CAN YOU FIND SOME FANDOM OR EXAMPLES OF PROSUMERS FOR EACH OF THE CSP’s?

First list ALL your CSP’s. Then find an example!

https://lbbonline.com/news/sarah-lund-stars-in-save-the-children-xmas-viral/

The Killing- Christmas Jumper Commercial

No Offence- Halloween Costumes/ Fan Fiction 

Billie Jean-Literal Music Video

Letter To The Free- 13th documentary

Sim Free play- play through videos/ living like a sim for a day/plumbob

Tomb Raider- Lara croft Cosplay/ real Lara croft

Metroid- Cosplay/ fan remakes

Chicken- fan fiction/ reaction

Brooklyn- Cosplay Costumes

Daily Mail-

The i-

Score Ad- recreation of the Ad

Maybelline- 

Fanatic: a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal - shortened to fan.

·         Hard core fan: identify themselves as the ‘insiders’ within any given fandom and consider themselves to be aficionados of their chosen media text. They spend a lot of time and often money in becoming hard core fans. They 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.

·         Newbies: new fans of any given text and do not have the longevity of devotion or depth of knowledge that hard core fans have and are initially viewed as the ‘outgroup’ within fandoms.

·         Anti-fans: those which identify themselves with media texts but negatively so; they loathe or hate the text but unlike ‘true’ fans they do not form their relationship with a text through close readings, they develop their emotional attachment ‘at a distance’ (Gray) through marketing publicity such as 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’.

Fandoms exhibit a ‘passion that binds enthusiasts in the manner of people who share a secret — this secret just happens to be shared with millions of others.’ Fandoms are subcultures within which fans experience and share a sense of camaraderie with each other and engage in particular practices of their given fandom. Fandoms can be narrowly defined and can focus on something like an individual celebrity, or be more widely defined, encompassing entire hobbies, genres or fashions.


Bordieu argues a kind of ‘cultural capital’ which confers a symbolic power and status for the fan, especially within the realm of their fandom.

Fans use the original media texts and get creative and innovative with the material. Crawford suggests that it is this which distinguishes fans from ordinary consumers. They engage in diverse activities such as ‘the production of websites, mods and hacks, private servers, game guides, walkthroughs and FAQs, fan fiction and forms of fan art, fan vids’ all of which have been aided by digital technology. Digital fandoms use technology in multiple ways and Fiske sees this as the ‘cultural economy’ of fandoms, one that is focused not on making money but on expressing the complex ideas and value systems behind fandoms.