Thursday, September 29, 2011
Fan Culture
The other day in class we discussed fans and the media industry. I guess the accurate way to associate how fans can be is "fandom". There's even an article on Wikipedia about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom. Fans can be sometimes be the greatest thing and i'm sure at times also something close to the worst of things as well. As we talked about the pros and cons of fan production on Tuesday. The attention that fans can bring to a certain industry can give positive or negative attention. Regardless it's still attention that otherwise wouldn't have been there. Fans at times may feel as if they somewhat have some kind of ownership towards a product because they associate it with it so much and that at times is where the negative and positive attention could become a problem. I personally don't have an issue with the fan fiction. I enjoy parodies that fans are able to put out on the internet. For the most part they are always very enjoyable and bring a different level to the media. For instance with the different Twilight parodies that are out. The amount of time that fans devote to putting out a product like that is amazing. Should the big time industries be worried about parodies hurting their product? Probably not. But I don't know a way that we could stop them from trying to take the rights away from fans. Because without the fans there would be no major films, songs or etc. I'm all for the fair use and fans being able to express themselves in such ways because in my eye attempting to sue a fan for a parody of some sort would only make you like a villain.
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Danny, you said, "Fans at times may feel as if they somewhat have some kind of ownership towards a product because they associate it with it so much and that at times is where the negative and positive attention could become a problem." You could not have been closer to this issue. The whole idea of producing something is to "touch" a fan, relate, connect with them! That is the only true way to get a TRUE FAN. Why would it matter how this happened as long as it does, right?
ReplyDeleteI thought any publicity was good publicity. Even the parodies will bring the fans closer to the original product. It will remind them of how good the original was. I say they should embrace the creative abilities of the fans and listen to their actions- as clear as words. Give them what they want-stimulate their minds. These types of outlets provide depth to our culture and lure to the origins. It is similar to watching a PART III movie. We all know it is going to be awful, yet we will still watch it. It is a parody of sorts on the original- the only difference is that it's income is usually given back to the producer of the first two movies and not some "fan." A part III has the positive effect of reminding us how we loved the first one and the negative effect that we may not want to see any of the three again any time soon.
I also have no problem with fan created media. Star wars parodies serve not to take away from my enjoyment of the original movie but rather add to the enjoyment and understanding I have of the films.
ReplyDeleteHooray for fan fiction!
Now of course some of the shadier stuff is a little creepy but we'll not delve into that.