Video games: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture

 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:

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?

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 

Newbie

Anti fan

3) What makes a ‘fandom’?

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.

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

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?

Hardcore/True fan , Newbie and Anti fan

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

It creates attention and engagement with others.

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?

Such services transform the relationship between media producers and consumers.

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!)

"There may no longer be a “normal” way of consuming media"

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

Loyals,media activists, prosumers, inspirational consumers and connectors.

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?

Indeed, many media analysts believe that these communities of prosumers, multipliers, loyals, influencers, ahmm, fans, will play an even greater role in the future.

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 organise the lives and work of media makers"

I agree with this as audiences have a significant role in the way things run in the media in the present day and this will only grow.

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

Jenkins suggests that the new ideal would certainly be a fan whilst the old ideal would have been a "couch potato".

8) Why is fandom 'the future'?

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

brand.

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

He is criticising the celebration of practices that exploit the creativity of fans and treating them like a means of profit.

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 are no longer niche communities and every celebrity will have a fandom as we see today every big celebrity has a fandom and they have a significant role in society as they voice all concerns and positive opinions.