From audiences sitting in the dark of the theater, to impassioned fans at conventions, there are many ways for us to engage with media. Popular culture inspires our passion, our anger, and sparks public conversation. 

This class explores different ideas about audiences, viewers, and fans. The class will look at a variety of film, television, and digital media texts, including: Hard Days Night, The Blair Witch Project, Battlestar Galactica, and the Harry Potter franchise. We’ll also check out what’s happening on YouTube, play digital games, and look at remix projects like Wizard People Dear Reader

The class asks students to take an active role in discussions by reflecting on their own experiences as viewers and by producing their own creative/critical digital projects in response to different media texts.

more info & registration ]

Much of the literature on fan fiction sees slash fiction as transformative because of its imposition of a queer framework on heteronormative texts. While I do not disagree that this is one way fan fiction can be transformative, it is a mistake to believe that slash is inherently more transformative than het or gen fic just because of its queering of canon.

Much of the literature on fan fiction sees slash fiction as transformative because of its imposition of a queer framework on heteronormative texts. While I do not disagree that this is one way fan fiction can be transformative, it is a mistake to believe that slash is inherently more transformative than het or gen fic just because of its queering of canon.

Emily Regan Willis, Fannish discourse communities and the construction of gender in “The X-Files” (via fanhackers)

The idea of fan cultures, or “fandoms,” cultivating fan fiction writers began at the earliest in the 1920s with societies dedicated to Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes, but took off in the late 1960s with the advent of Star Trek fanzines. The negative stereotype of “fans today is that of obsessed geeks, like “Trekkies, who love nothing more than to watch the same installments over and over…” However, this represents a core misunderstanding of what it is to be a fan: that is, to have the “ability to transform personal reaction into social interaction, spectatorial culture into participatory culture… not by being a regular viewer of a particular program but by translating that viewing into some kind of cultural activity.” Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and expert on fan culture, likens fan fiction to the story of The Velveteen Rabbit: that the investment in something is what gives it a meaning rather than any intrinsic merits or economic value. For fans who invest in a television show, book, or movie, that investment sparks production, and reading or viewing sparks writing, until the two are inseparable. They are not watching the same thing over and over, but rather are creating something new instead.

Casey Fiesler, Everything I Need To Know I Learned from Fandom: How Existing Social Norms Can Help Shape the Next Generation of User-Generated Content, p735

Update: Now with link to an open access version of the paper and correct page, apologies for the typo.

The idea of fan cultures, or “fandoms,” cultivating fan fiction writers began at the earliest in the 1920s with societies dedicated to Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes, but took off in the late 1960s with the advent of Star Trek fanzines. The negative stereotype of “fans today is that of obsessed geeks, like “Trekkies, who love nothing more than to watch the same installments over and over…” However, this represents a core misunderstanding of what it is to be a fan: that is, to have the “ability to transform personal reaction into social interaction, spectatorial culture into participatory culture… not by being a regular viewer of a particular program but by translating that viewing into some kind of cultural activity.” Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and expert on fan culture, likens fan fiction to the story of The Velveteen Rabbit: that the investment in something is what gives it a meaning rather than any intrinsic merits or economic value. For fans who invest in a television show, book, or movie, that investment sparks production, and reading or viewing sparks writing, until the two are inseparable. They are not watching the same thing over and over, but rather are creating something new instead.

Casey Fiesler, Everything I Need To Know I Learned from Fandom: How Existing Social Norms Can Help Shape the Next Generation of User-Generated Content, p735

Update: Now with link to an open access version of the paper and correct page, apologies for the typo.

From audiences sitting in the dark of the theater, to impassioned fans at conventions, there are many ways to engage with media texts. Popular media inspires our passion, our anger, and sparks public conversations around the role of media in society. This class will explore different theories of audiences, viewers, and fans and look at film, television, and digital media texts through these lenses. Over the course of the semester we will investigate how different media organize reception and the ways that viewers have responded to popular media. The course will ask students to take an active role in the class by reflecting on their own experiences as viewers and producing creative and critical responses to media texts. Students will also investigate historical contexts for different media texts and celebrities, placing their own experiences with media texts in conversation with others.

At UW-Milwaukee this fall! [x]

From audiences sitting in the dark of the theater, to impassioned fans at conventions, there are many ways to engage with media texts. Popular media inspires our passion, our anger, and sparks public conversations around the role of media in society. This class will explore different theories of audiences, viewers, and fans and look at film, television, and digital media texts through these lenses. Over the course of the semester we will investigate how different media organize reception and the ways that viewers have responded to popular media. The course will ask students to take an active role in the class by reflecting on their own experiences as viewers and producing creative and critical responses to media texts. Students will also investigate historical contexts for different media texts and celebrities, placing their own experiences with media texts in conversation with others.

At UW-Milwaukee this fall! [x]

courtneystoker:

Does anyone know any good graduate programs for studying science fiction and/or fan studies (specifically cosplay)? My list so far is:

English @ University of British Columbia

Comparative Media Studies @ MIT

Department of Modern Culture and Media @ Brown

MPhil in Audience and Fan Studies @ Cardiff University

English @ University of Toronto

English @ University of Kansas

Any suggestions?

Just pulling a few from my brain here… You may also want to check out: Northwestern’s Screen Cultures track (I think it’s in the media/film dept?); UT: Austin’s Department of Radio-TV-Film; UW-Milwaukee’s English Dept (look at the media track); NYU’s Media Ecology program; Georgetown’s Communication, Culture, Tech program (although they may be moving away from this stuff); BGSU’s Popular Culture track. 

Since this post mentions sci-fi, you may want check out where the major sc-ifi lit libraries or media archives are housed. (I’m pretty sure there’s a big one somewhere in the UCs. Riverside maybe?) 

Overall, I think its useful to keep in mind that fan studies is interdisciplinary. So, technically, you can study fans in many different places and in many different ways. Spectatorship/reception/audiences are studied all over the humanities and social sciences. I think part of the trick is to figure out which broader discipline you either want to be using as your disciplinary lens into fans/audiences (if you’re looking at a MA) or which area you’d prefer to teach in (if you’re looking at a phd).

courtneystoker:

Does anyone know any good graduate programs for studying science fiction and/or fan studies (specifically cosplay)? My list so far is:

English @ University of British Columbia

Comparative Media Studies @ MIT

Department of Modern Culture and Media @ Brown

MPhil in Audience and Fan Studies @ Cardiff University

English @ University of Toronto

English @ University of Kansas

Any suggestions?

Just pulling a few from my brain here… You may also want to check out: Northwestern’s Screen Cultures track (I think it’s in the media/film dept?); UT: Austin’s Department of Radio-TV-Film; UW-Milwaukee’s English Dept (look at the media track); NYU’s Media Ecology program; Georgetown’s Communication, Culture, Tech program (although they may be moving away from this stuff); BGSU’s Popular Culture track. 

Since this post mentions sci-fi, you may want check out where the major sc-ifi lit libraries or media archives are housed. (I’m pretty sure there’s a big one somewhere in the UCs. Riverside maybe?) 

Overall, I think its useful to keep in mind that fan studies is interdisciplinary. So, technically, you can study fans in many different places and in many different ways. Spectatorship/reception/audiences are studied all over the humanities and social sciences. I think part of the trick is to figure out which broader discipline you either want to be using as your disciplinary lens into fans/audiences (if you’re looking at a MA) or which area you’d prefer to teach in (if you’re looking at a phd).

The regifting economy that is emerging, I argue, is the result of the industry’s careful cultivation of a parallel fan space alongside grassroots formations of fandom. By precariously attempting to balance the communal ideals of fandom’s gift economy with their commercial interests, the regifting economy of ancillary content models in particular can be viewed as attempting to regift a narrowly defined and contained version of fandom to a general audience. This regifted version of fandom that ancillary content models represent exchanges grassroots fandom’s organically generated output and fluid exchange of fan works for the regulation and resale of fan works through contests and the elusive promise of credibility.