Henry Jenkins: Fandom and Participatory culture

Factsheet #107 - Fandom

1) What is the definition of a fan?

A fan is a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal.

2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet?

Hardcore/True Fan- 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.

Newbie- 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-fan- Are 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.

3) What makes a ‘fandom’?

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. 

4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom?

Clearly this level of display is not simply about preferring one team over another, it is, as 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?

1) Rituals and Participation- Fans who watch the texts over and over again and they also participate in cosplay. 

2) Ironic Readings- Fandoms engage in philosophical debates around the texts and impose meanings which other fans can engage with.

3) Defy critics and institutions- Fan behaviour, especially their buying power behaviour has the

ability to challenge media institutions and opinion leaders such as critics.

4) Imaginative Extension and Text Creation- Fans use the original media texts and get creative and innovative with the material. 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.

6) Why is imaginative extension and text creation a vital part of digital fandom?

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.

Henry Jenkins - degree-level reading

Read the final chapter of ‘Fandom’ – written by Henry Jenkins (note: link may be blocked in school - try this Google Drive link if you need it.) 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?

This means that a community actively engages with the media that producers create rather than passively consuming them. 

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; some are calling them “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."

3) What are the different names Jenkins discusses for these active consumers that are replacing the traditional audience?

-Inspirational consumers

-Connectors 

-Influencers

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. 

5) What examples does Jenkins provide to argue that fan culture has gone mainstream?

Jenkins argues that the new multipliers are simply a less geeky version of the fan- fans who don't fit the stereotypes, These writers are predicting, and documenting, a world where what we are calling “fan cul-

ture” has a real economic and cultural impact; where fan tastes are ruling at the box office where fan tastes are dominating television where fan practices are shaping the games industry (where today’s modders quickly get recruited by the big companies). More than half of all American teens—and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet—could be considered media creators. Thirty-three percent of teens share what they create online with others. Nineteen percent remix content they found online

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’.

"This bottom up energy will generate enormous creativity, but it will also tear apart some of the categories that organize the lives and work of media makers." I agree that audiences will reshape the media landscape from the bottom up as audiences are becoming more active with the media they consume and are becoming their own producers of media products. 

7) What does Jenkins suggest the new ideal consumer is?

The new ideal consumer talks up the program and spreads word about the brand. 

8) Why is fandom 'the future'?

Fandoms are becoming more mainstream and consumers hold more power. 

9) What does it mean when Jenkins says we shouldn’t celebrate ‘a process that commodifies fan cultural production’?

There is a school of thought, for example, that links user-generated content with the downsizing of the creative economy, that sees these forms of commercially embraced grassroots expression primarily as a means of cutting costs by off-loading jobs onto consumers who now produce the content others are consuming and even create the networks through which that content is circulating.

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 believe that fandoms will become even more mainstream in the future even though I would argue they are already mainstream as nearly everyone is a fan of something to a certain extent whether it be movies, books, fictional characters, sports etc.