Videogames: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture

Factsheet #107 - Fandom

Read Media Factsheet #107 on Fandom. Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or log into your Greenford Google account to access the link. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the definition of a fan?

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

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

- 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.

- 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’ 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’ 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. Fandom 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 for 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?

The factsheet provides examples from Sherlock Holmes, Liverpool, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lord Of The Rings, Family Guy and Harry Potter. 

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

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?

The distinction between 'audience' and 'community' indicates that online fandoms are active and participatory with their engagement in the media they enjoy, instead of passively consuming what is given to 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!)

"In the age of the internet, no one is a passive consumer anymore because everyone is a media outlet."

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

 Some call such people “loyals,” stressing the value of consumer commitment in an era of channel zapping; some are calling them “media-actives,” suggesting that they are much more likely to demand the right to participate within the media franchise than previous generations; 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.

4) On the third page of the chapter, what does Wired editor Chris Anderson suggest regarding the economic argument in favour of fan communities?

Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson has offered a particular version of this argument about grassroots intermediaries creating value, what has come to be known as the “long tail.” 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?

“Fan culture” has a real economic and cultural impact; where fan tastes are ruling at the box office (witness all of the superhero and fantasy blockbusters of recent years); 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).

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." 

Reflecting on the current state of the digital and traditional media landscapes today, I think this statement was ultimately correct, as mass amateurisation caused by technological developments has lowered barriers for people to produce their own work, with much of what modern audiences consume today being made by other amateurs instead of professionals within the cultural industries. 

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

In the old days, the ideal consumer watched television, bought products, and didn’t talk back. Today, the ideal consumer talks up the program and spreads word about the brand. The old ideal might have been the couch potato; the new ideal is almost certainly a fan.

8) Why is fandom 'the future'?

Media companies act differently today because they have been shaped by the increased visibility of participatory culture: they are generating new kinds of content and forming new kinds of relationships with their consumers.

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

There have been suggestions made that the rise of user-generated content is connected to the downsizing of the creative economy; what Jenkins is trying to communicate is that companies should not be selling back the works and ideas of fandom back to itself. 

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?

Due to the decentralized and participatory nature of digital media, what was once considered the behaviour of hard-core fans only, such as discussing their favourite media texts with others online, has become normalized, meaning that the definition of fandom has changed and become more fluid. There is a broad spectrum of what we might consider to be "fan behaviour", and the level of participation in these is what defines the differences between mainstream casual fans of a media text and a much more focused and devoted niche audience of the same text.