Henry Jenkins - Fandom + 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?

People who devote themselves to their favourite media text or person.

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

• Hard core
• Newbie, Anti-fan

3) What makes a ‘fandom’?

Fandoms exhibit 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?

Dominant social forms are used to reinforce existing hierarchies

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

• Harry Potter
• Family guy
• Books

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

Crawford suggests that it is this which distinguishes fans from ordinary consumers.

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?

They are more than consumers, they're a group of people who are devoted to that particular product.

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!)

"Mass media’s role has been to package consumers and sell their attention to the advertisers, in bulk."

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

• Loyals
• media-actives
• prosumers
• 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?

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

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

Less geeky version of the fan, fans who don’t wear rubber Spock ears, fans 

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[.

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

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

8) Why is fandom 'the future'?

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’?

Media companies are exploiting audiences for profit rather than for appreciation.

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?

Everyone is a fan of something and the concept of a fandom is mainstream but not necessarily what people are a fan of.