Videogames: Henry Jenkins fandom blog tasks

Factsheet #107 - Fandom

Read Media Factsheet #107 on Fandom.

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, true fan and anti-fan.

3) What makes a ‘fandom’?

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.

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

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 - the currency.

5) What examples of fandom are provided on pages 2 and 3 of the factsheet?

Sherlock Holmes.

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.

Henry Jenkins - degree-level reading

Read  this Google Drive link 

1) There is an important quote on the first page: “It’s not an audience, it’s a community”. What does this mean?

I think it's trying to imply that the people who consume this content as part of a fandom are actively feeding back to into the product. They don't just read, see and watch but they write, produce and create. 

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’.

"In the age of the inter-net, 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?

“prosumers,”/“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?

That it makes economic sense if you can lower costs of production and replace

marketing costs by building a much stronger network with your desired consumers.

5) 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 organise the lives and work of media makers.

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

In the old days, the ideal con-sumer watched television, bought products, and didn’t talk back. 

Today, the ideal consumer talks up the program and spreads word about the brand. 

7) Why is fandom 'the future'?

This kind of fandom is everywhere and all the time, a central part of the everyday lives of consumers operat-ing within a networked society.

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

It's because it is sort of exploiting and taking advantage of fans who are making content for fun for their favourite piece of media, but they profit off  of that for promotion and that's quite unfair. 

1) 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?

No I don't think it's niche. By what I think if you watch, read (whatever the content might be) and interact with it that means you're a fan. It's not a small community of people, who are fans. After all, there are so many things to be a fan of.