Academia

  • Introducing Fanhackers, a directory of informative things about fans

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 1 March 2013 - 6:33pm
    Message type:
    Announcement
    Tags:
    Academia, Conferences, Studies, Education and Curriculum, Journal Committee

    The Journal committee is proud to announce that Fanhackers, the shinier and more experimental new incarnation of the Symposium blog, is now open for business!

    Short version

    Fanhackers is a place for fans, academics, activists, and anyone else with an interest in info on fans to share and discover new ideas. It's is a group blog where you can do the following things:

    • Post, search and discuss good fannish or academic meta about fans. Tl;dr allowed. This is the old Symposium blog, but much easier to post to.
    • Post and answer requests for copies of inaccessible academic papers that you need.
    • Post and explore quotes from long, hard to find, or otherwise hard-to-read works on fans. Just the really good bits, no tl;dr allowed.
    • Post and follow links to resources on fans, tools for writing and research, and news that may be of interest to people who like info and analysis on fans.

    Read more about Fanhackers and the other functionality we're planning on the About page. You can keep track via the WordPress mirror, the Tumblr mirror, Twitter, the DW and LJ feeds, or the RSS and e-mail subscription options detailed here.

    Longer version

    Making sure reliable info on fans gets made and reaches the right people has always been a priority for the OTW. The OTW blog reports regularly on important news that fans may want to know about. Fanlore is a place for fans to preserve their own history in their own words. The legal advocacy team works tirelessly to get correct info on fans to activists and governmental organizations whose actions can have an impact on fans. The fan video and multimedia project has prepared a range of practical and educational resources for and about vidders, and so on.

    The Journal committee has been especially concerned with creating good info and getting it out there. Among other things, we made a whole new open access academic journal about fans, we helped get the vidding bibliography off the ground and are working to expand it into a broader resource on all things fan studies, and we made the Symposium blog as a place for fans and academics to share meta in a less formal setting.

    We can and need to do better than that, though. There's never been this much insightful and relevant academic, fannish and other meta on fans being created. However, a lot of the useful ideas from inside that meta never get beyond the borders of wherever they were published and don't reach the people who want or need to hear them. Academic meta on fans remains hard to access because it's often locked in expensive books and journals, or written in often needlessly complicated and inaccessible language. Fannish meta is scattered all around the internet. Activists working on topics like copyright and open culture often publish ideas that are incredibly relevant to fans, but many of those ideas never reach fannish spaces. We have so much info, and yet so much of it goes to waste.

    Fanhackers wants to experiment with new ways of making sure that info on fans reaches the people who need it - not just when they know the info exists and are actively looking for it, but also when they have no idea yet that there's something about fans that they need to know.

    We want to make sure that everyone who's looking for good info or analysis on fans can find what they need as quickly and as cheaply as possible, whether they need fannish or academic meta, a particular piece of information, or help. We want to make sure that fans and academics can cooperate and share their info, meta, publishing tools, and research tools, so that the wealth of work and experience that we already have is put to better use. We want to make sure that academic meta on fans is published in usable and useful ways, openly and in formats that make it easy to share and improve the info, so that fans can access what’s being said about them and academics can see their hard work put to use by many people. We want to make sure that anyone can discover what info on fans is already out there, so that all that work can get built upon rather than duplicated. And we want a place to talk about all the important, amusing, and informative things about fans that we stumble across.

    Fanhackers is a space for us to experiment with how we can make those things happen. We'll be changing and adding functionality as we figure out what works. Please drop by, browse around, share the info you have, and tell us how we can make this more useful and enjoyable.

    Read more

  • OTW Fannews: Diversity and Creativity

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 23 November 2012 - 6:48pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Gender and Sexuality, Gaming, Sports, Television, Fan Conventions
    • While blogger Maryann Johanson at Flick Philosopher asks about the relevance of using the term 'fanboy' as female fandom keeps getting more and more visible, over at The Learned Fangirl, Vivian Obarski and Keidra Chaney ask what can be done about fandom misogyny, and a Tumblr account for female academics tired of mansplaining quickly led to a spinoff dedicated to female sports fans tired of the same thing.
    • Yet even as female fans hope to get some support from content creators, whether by bringing more women to the professional table or simply wielding the banhammer for a good cause, media reports continue to emphasize gender stereotypes as if to explain the presence of women in what they always considered to be male events. A recent piece on Wizard World in Austin, Texas took care to separate fanboys and fangirls into different camps. "A fangirl can sometimes fanboy — get into the statistics, the completionism, the minutiae of continuity, while fanboys sometimes get their fan-girl on: obsessing about family dynamics in character development and wax poetic about the emotional and psychological implications of any and every plot development — but the discussions overheard from a fanboy booth versus a fangirl booth were pretty easy to tell apart."
    • By comparison, people who attend those events have long noticed their diversity. In an interview with former Doctor Who actor, Peter Davison, he noted “I’ve always loved the fandom...You do seem to be an extraordinarily tolerant bunch of people, and I mean this in the nicest way, because it’s every kind of facet of the human condition that you see at every kind of convention.”
    • Meanwhile, other recent articles have instead focused on the importance of creativity and inspiration in fandom, whether at a convention or just in everyday life. "Fandom can just as often produce a creative response, or provide life-directing inspiration. Think about the first Puerto-Rican astronaut, who was originally inspired by her love of Star Trek...UCLA historian Eugen Weber relates an amusing anecdote about a 19th century French labor leader who was asked whether he was more inspired by Karl Marx or Georges Sorel, to which the labor leader replied, “Lord no, I don’t read this sort of chap — I read Alexandre Dumas, I read The Three Musketeers!” In short, being a “fan” means nothing more than that one has heroes."

    Have you attended fan cons? Do you have opinions about the terms fanboys and fangirls? Why not discuss it in Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

    We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

    Read more

  • OTW Fannews: Explaining Fandom

    By Claudia Rebaza on Thursday, 8 November 2012 - 7:38pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Fannish Practices, Fanfiction , OTW Sightings
    • Writing for Novis, a "Journal of Communication, Culture & Technology", Sara Levine looks at the PBS OffBook video "Can Fandom Change Society" and focuses on the importance of fanworks. "If I were hired to create a seven minute video explaining fandom to the general public, I would focus on notable examples of the impact that these passionate communities have on their members and, increasingly, the world outside of fandom. Fanfiction would be the first feature because I believe it is the easiest concept to comprehend." More importantly, "[a]n introduction to fan communities would be more effective if it showcased the excitement and creativity fandom can inspire in its members."
    • From communication and cultural studies to philosophy, Mark Linsenmeyer at The Partially Examined Life speculated on "the existential weirdness of being a fan." "Sartre’s concern in all this would be what this says about me, the person who feels this way. By treating celebrities like toys, I exert imagined power over them. By denying their reality I deny my own basic humanity, as a person among other, ontologically equal persons, meaning that the celebrity’s social status, or wealth, or fame is all irrelevant to the moral facts relationship between us. Being star-struck is existential because it makes a claim (a wrong claim) about my position as a human being in the world."
    • A new book of essays tries to explain one specific fannish creation, Fifty Shades of Grey. "Editor Lori Perkins collected writers from all walks of life to pen the essays on debate. Romance novelists, BDSM dungeon masters, matrimonial lawyers, and professors are just a few examples of those contributing to the collection." The essays aren't all positive. "While several topics -- including sexual empowerment and pop culture influences -- are included in the upcoming book, [Jennifer] Armintrout’s viewpoint is that of an author and it is a negative one. “It’s the writing, the content, and the ethical violation of taking someone else’s work to sell and make a heap of money,” Armintrout said of her troubles with "Fifty Shades."
    • A more supportive view of fanfiction appeared in The Huffington Post where writer Peter Damien discussed the importance of it in his life. "This, then, is the purpose of all my rambling: to show that my own roots run deep as anyone's, but they begin in other people's worlds, in fan-fiction. It's not evil, it's not dangerous. It's unoriginal true enough, but so what? Fan-fiction is the equivalent of a group of teenagers working hard as they can to play covers of Metallica songs. Eventually they're good enough to play in bars, and maybe beyond...Writers becoming snotty, or hostile, or even actively aggressive against fan-fiction is, to my mind, the equivalent of a big rock band showing up in a tiny town bar with a SWAT team to stop a group of teenagers from playing an off-key cover of one of their songs. It's not only stupid and pointless, it's petty, mean, and probably more harmful to the major rock band than to the bar band."
    • One of the more interesting examinations of fanfic appeared on Buzzfeed, looking at deathfic in pop star fandoms and it cited Journal Committee staffer Kristina Busse's work for Transformative Works and Cultures. "But Busse says that these morbid fanfics are a drop in the bucket compared to the larger genre of stories of the writer’s imagined trauma and recovery, like the ones where Bieber saves a girl from self-harm. “[Deathfics] are few and far between compared to the much larger and more popular ‘hurt/comfort' genre,” Busse says, “where the pain and suffering functions as a way to bring the characters together, like a cancer victim meets Justin and they fall in love, or as a way to test their love." Fan fiction of this stripe can even have a therapeutic effect. “[In fan fiction], tragedies that are then survived and overcome are actually much more common,” says Busse. "They're a very safe way to work through imagined or real trauma.”

    If you cover rock tunes, enjoy deathfic (pop stars optional), or have an academic take on fandom, why not put together an entry on Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.

    We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent OTW Fannews post. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

    Read more

  • Links roundup for 24 July 2012

    By Claudia Rebaza on Tuesday, 24 July 2012 - 5:02pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Studies, Commercialization of Fans, Fandoms, Audio Fanworks, Fanfiction , Fannish Histories

    Here's a roundup of stories about how fandom has arrived that might be of interest to fans:

    • YPulse, a Millenial marketing site, focused on fan fiction as part of their check-in on youth trends. "What once was a nerdy pastime is now the norm, and fan fiction goes well beyond creative writing. Teens are still writing fan fiction stories, but now they're also creating videos of themselves acting out scenes from books and movies, crafting animations of their favorite stars in stories they devise, and recording covers of songs with their own twists to the music and lyrics. And Millennial stars and brands are embracing this form of co-creation."
    • Indeed, discussions of brands and marketing revolves around fandom talk. "Stephenie Rodriguez, of social-media consultancy Mighty Media Group, says there's no question the internet is enabling people to become more verbal about their views. Without the passionate few, Rodriguez says, the online world would be contrived and disengaged. 'I believe the presence of a hater or fanboy is an indication of a healthy community,' she says. 'A forum or community without conflict reeks of artifice. For brands, nothing sounds as dead as no discussion, no query, no conflict, no advocates.'"
    • Fandom is also the focus of many an academic, one of whom recently discussed "Minions, Memes, and Meta: The Varieties of Online Media Fandom Experience" at The University of South Carolina, Sumter. The presentation focused on "the origins of media fandom, its activities and...fannishness as a philosophy of engaging texts."
    • Of course the OTW itself hosts many an academic work about fans as well as various other fannish projects, at least one of which led us to believe we've arrived when someone created a "me/ao3 otp" fanmix.

    If you're in "brandom", create fanworks or are an acafan, why not write about it in Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

    We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup at transformativeworks.org. Links are welcome in all languages! Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

    Read more

  • Internet and Fan Culture Inspires Social Activism

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 15 June 2012 - 11:33pm
    Message type:
    Announcement
    Tags:
    Activism, Academia

    Transformative Works and Culture Discusses the Impact of Fandom on Social Activism

    NEW YORK, N.Y. (June 15, 2012)—_Transformative Works and Cultures_ (TWC, http://journal.transformativeworks.org/) today released its tenth issue, "Transformative Works and Fan Activism." This issue is guest edited by media studies scholars Henry Jenkins and Sangita Shresthova and features academic articles on the growing involvement of fan cultures and fandom on activism. Following its regular format, this open-access online multimedia journal has collected scholarly essays, personal essays, and book reviews that seek to bridge fan and academic writers and readers. TWC is published under the umbrella of the nonprofit fan advocacy group Organization for Transformative Works (http://transformativeworks.org/).

    Co-editor Henry Jenkins argues, "One way that popular culture can enable a more engaged citizenry is by allowing people to play with power on a microlevel...Popular culture may be preparing the way for a more meaningful public culture." Jenkins's contribution discusses the idea of "cultural acupunture"; other essays discuss civic engagement via the Harry Potter Alliance; the German federal elections of 2009; the response to the Wisconsin legislature's stripping unions of collective bargaining rights; and affect and agency. Essays about specific fandoms address The X-Files, The Colbert Report,the Whedonverses, and Ho Denise Wan See. A central interest of many essays is the use of social media by organizations such as the Harry Potter Alliance, Invisible Children (whose Kony 2012 video recently went viral), and the Nerdfighters.

    This large special issue emerges from work being done by the Participatory Culture and Civic Engagement Project (http://sites.google.com/site/participatorydemocracyproject/) at the University of Southern California (Henry Jenkins, principal investigator).

    Guest editor Henry Jenkins is a professor of communications and cinematic arts at the University of Southern California. Formerly the director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program, he specializes in fan cultures and their effect on world making and franchise growth; his landmark book Textual Poachers remains a classic in the fan studies academic canon. Based on his studies on the evolution of popular culture and the processing of news information, Jenkins focuses on the transformation of the role of journalism in the digital age. His most recent book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, discusses the intersection of grassroots and corporate media, with examples of the transformative fan interactions in the worlds of Harry Potter and the Matrix.

    Guest editor Sangita Shresthova is a Czech/Nepali international development specialist, filmmaker, media scholar, and dancer. She earned her doctorate from UC Los Angeles' Department of World Arts and Cultures and specializes in the globalization of Bollywood dance. Shresthova also manages Jenkins's new project on participatory culture and civic engagement.

    Founded in 2007, The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), is a nonprofit established established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fan works and fan culture in its myriad forms. Advocating on behalf of fans, the OTW believes that fan works are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.

    The 11th issue of TWC will feature more general submissions and is scheduled for release on September 15, 2012. No. 12 is slated to be a special issue on "Transnational Boys’ Love Fan Studies," guest edited by Kazumi Nagaike and Katsuhiko Suganuma, and will appear on March 15, 2013. No. 13 is slated to be a special issue on "Appropriating, Interpreting, and Transforming Comic Books," guest edited by Matthew Costello, and will appear June 15, 2013.

    Read more

  • Links Roundup for 30 May 2012

    By Camden on Wednesday, 30 May 2012 - 7:14pm
    Message type:
    News of Note
    Tags:
    Academia, Conferences, Entertainment Industries, Business Models, Television, Fannish Histories

    Here's a roundup of group gathering stories that might be of interest to fans:

    • The Walt Disney Archives and Disney fan club D23 is putting on a show called Fanniversary. The presentaton is "a celebration of movies, TV shows, attractions, characters and all things Disney that are celebrating milestones in 2012. It’s a roughly 90-minute presentation filled with rare and never-seen-in-public clips, audio, photographs, art and more, touring the country for the first time ever." The six city tour had already sold out when it launched.
    • Another fannish event in Southern California was centered on bronies, and the first ever local meeting got an extensive write-up in The Los Angeles Times. "Stephen Thomas, from Claremont, became something of a brony celebrity when he based his senior high school physics presentation on 'MLP' last year. A video shot in the classroom and posted online quickly went viral; it has racked up nearly 1 million views. Thomas, now at Cal Poly Pomona, said he’d been concerned initially about reaction from his schoolmates. 'I wondered if I’d be a laughingstock for admitting how much I liked the show,' he said. 'But people didn’t think it was silly or dumb.'" They plan to hold their first convention in November.
    • Sequential Tart wrote about yet another Southern California gathering, this one academic and business oriented, Transmedia, Hollywood 3: Rethinking Creative Relations. Unfortunately, one of the panels that was perhaps of particular concern to fans, "Working on the Margins: Who Pays for Transformative Works of Art?", was rather inconclusive. "One of the audience questions posted to the question website asked the panelists to actually address the questions posed in the title of the panel. I had been enjoying the panel, but as soon as that question popped up on the screen, I reflected on it. I'm not sure that the panel addressed the question at all. They talked about their personal experiences, and Mike Farah was pinned down on a question about where Funny or Die pays for stuff, but even then the answer was not super informative. I came away from the panel wondering who indeed pays for transformative works of art and multimedia projects like those being mentioned at this conference? How do some of these people make a living? Where is the profit in things done for free and / or by the Average Joe?"
    • Finally in France a conference on "La Culture du Fan Symposium" was held, which took a more fan-focused approach to some of the same issues, featuring a panel on fan-subbing, brand fans, opera fans, an examination of the term "acafan" and a panel looking at "cultural policy and copyright law in fan production...[and] how fan activity had now entered the political arena, with their practices increasingly monitored by media producers."

    If you're a fan of Disney, My Little Pony, or have your own fan gathering stories, why not contribute them to Fanlore? Additions are welcome from all fans.

    We want your suggestions! If you know of an essay, video, article, event, or link you think we should know about, comment on the most recent Links Roundup — on transformativeworks.org, LJ, or DW — or give @OTW_News a shoutout on Twitter. Links are welcome in all languages!

    Submitting a link doesn't guarantee that it will be included in a roundup post, and inclusion of a link doesn't mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

    Read more

Pages

Subscribe to Academia