1) What is the definition of a fan?
Fans 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 Fans - Hard core fans 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.
Newbie Fans - Newbies, as the name suggests, are 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’.
3) What makes a ‘fandom’?
Fandoms can be described as ‘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 can be narrowly defined and can focus on something like an individual celebrity, or be more widely defined, encompassing entire hobbies, genres or fashions.
4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom?
Bordieu argues a kind of ‘cultural capital’ which confers a symbolic power and status for the fan, especially within the realm of their fandom.
5) What examples of fandom are provided on pages 2 and 3 of the factsheet?
Ritual and Participation - True fans watch the texts over and over again and they also participate in cosplay, (dressing up as characters) and attend conventions and specialist screenings of their texts
Ironic Readings - Ironic readings and multiple readings of texts are also prevalent within fan cultures. Fandoms engage in philosophical debates around the texts and impose meanings which other fans can engage with.
Defying Critics and Institutions - Fan behaviour, especially their buying power behaviour has the ability to challenge media institutions and opinion leaders such as critics. Producers say they pay close attention to comments to gauge audience response in real time, but when it comes to script and plot decisions, creative teams are cautious about giving fans outright control.
Imaginative Extension and Text Creation - 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.
Tomb Raider and Metroid fandom research
Look at this Tomb Raider fansite and answer the following questions:
1) What types of content are on offer in this fansite?
This fansite is an index of other Tomb Raider fansites which breaks down each website into categories based around what that website provides to fans. E.g websites are broken down into categories which are then ticketed off based if the website provides that feature.
2) What does the number of links and content suggest about the size of the online fan community for Tomb Raider and Lara Croft? Pick out some examples from this page.
The amount of lints and content on the websites suggests that the Lara Croft fanbase online is extremely large with people creating fansites in order to benefit from audience pleasures such as nostalgia.
3) Scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the short ‘About me’ bio and social media updates. Is this a typical example of ‘fandom’ in the digital age? Why?
This would be an example of a hardcore fan as this person is the 'webmaster' of three other fan pages and also runs social media pages for the website which provide daily updates and posts to their audience. Their devotion goes beyond just consuming the product, "it is now apart of their identity much the same way as gender, class or race."
Now look at this Metroid fansite and answer the following:
1) What does the site offer?
This website is Metroid fansite which provides it's audience with information about Metroid Character Changes as well as providing interviews and q&as for their audience to interact with. The website is similar to the Lara Croft website besides featuring other fansites were they have an active social media page with content being uploaded daily.
2) Look at the Community Spotlight page. What does this suggest about the types of people who enjoy and participate in fan culture?
The Community Spotlight page is a page for the hardcore fans which go beyond just consuming the media product and go out their way to further engage themselves with the product, e.g. through cosplay, art and music. These people can also be identified as true fans.
3) There is a specific feature on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. What do the questions from fans tell you about the level of engagement and interest in the game and franchise from the fan community?
The questions the fans ask go beyond the normal 'gamer' questions as they are more focused on specific parts of the game which only a handful of fans would understand and find interesting. Some questions also include asking for statues of Samus to be made and puton sale which reflects the hardcore fan behaviour.
Henry Jenkins: degree-level reading
Read the final chapter of ‘Fandom’ – written by Henry Jenkins. This will give you an excellent introduction to the level of reading required for seminars and essays at university as well as degree-level insight into our current work on fandom and participatory culture. Answer the following questions:
1) There is an important quote on the first page: “It’s not an audience, it’s a community”. What does this mean?
"It's not an audience, it's a community" suggests that media services transform the relationships between media producers and consumers. Media conglomerates are now "harnessing collective intelligence, supporting user-generated content" meaning that they are now taking ideas from the audience to improve their products.
2) Jenkins quotes Clay Shirky in the second page of the chapter. Pick out a single sentence of the extended quote that you think is particularly relevant to our work on participatory culture and the ‘end of audience’ (clue – look towards the end!)
"Some are calling them “prosumers,” suggesting that as consumers produce and circulate media, they are blurring the line between amateur and professional".
3) What are the different names Jenkins discusses for these active consumers that are replacing the traditional audience?
He calls these active consumers: “loyals,” stressing the value of consumer commitment in an era of channel zapping; “media-actives,” suggesting that they are much more likely to demand the right to participate within the media franchise than previous generations; “prosumers,” suggesting that as consumers produce and circulate media, they are blurring the line between amateur and professional; “inspirational consumers” or “connectors” or “influencers,” suggesting that some people play a more active role than others in shaping media flows and creating new values
4) On the third page of the chapter, what does Wired editor Chris Anderson suggest regarding the economic argument in favour of fan communities?
Anderson argues that investing in niche properties with small but committed consumer bases may make economic sense if you can lower costs of production and replace marketing costs by building a much stronger network with your desired consumers.
6) Look at the quote from Andrew Blau in which he discusses the importance of grassroots creativity. Pick out a sentence from the longer quote and decide whether you agree that audiences will ‘reshape the media landscape from the bottom up’.
"The media landscape will be reshaped by the bottom-up energy of media created by amateurs and hobbyists as a matter of course." I agree with this quote and consumers are can now create and publish their own products online and create profit. This can be linked to Clay Shirky's end of audience theory.
7) What does Jenkins suggest the new ideal consumer is?
When he’s talking about consumers of manufactured products, management professor Eric Von Hippel (2005) talks about “lead users,” that is, early adopters and early adapters of emerging technologies and services. Understand how these lead users retrofit your products to suit their needs and you understand important new directions for innovation. In a sense, fans can be seen as lead users of media content—consider for example the ways that the concept of the fan metatext (Jenkins 1992), linking together the back stories of series characters.
8) Why is fandom 'the future'?
Fandom is the future. I use the word “fandom” and not “fans” here for good reason. To me, it seems a little paradoxical that the rest of the people involved in this conversation are more and more focused on consumption as a social, networked, collaborative process (“harnessing collective intelligence,” “the wisdom of crowds,” and all of that), whereas so much of the recent work in fan studies has returned to a focus on the individual fan.
9) What does it mean when Jenkins says we shouldn’t celebrate ‘a process that commodifies fan cultural production’?
He says that we shouldn't celebrate this production as they 'sell it back at us with a considerable mark up'.
10) Read through to the end of the chapter. What do you think the future of fandom is? Are we all fans now? Is fandom mainstream or are real fan communities still an example of a niche media audience?
I think fandom will slowly grow during a long period of time and more and more people will become apart of fandom which will cause it to influence their lives.Factsheet #107 - Fandom
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