• The popularity of Game of Thrones prompted a variety of fan-oriented discussion in the media about its finale. NPR's Talk of the Nation held a discussion on how people deal with unexpected or unhappy story endings. "[P]eople seemed to be not only shocked by what happened...but really angry, and that was what's so fascinating about it. Not just that they were disappointed that, you know, the characters who they had liked would no longer be on the show, they were really angry. And I think that shows just how locked in we are to the kinds of conventions and expectations that we have when we approach a story, even at a time when, you know, we have more stories available to us than at any time in human history. Nevertheless, we feel like it's supposed to go down a certain kind of path." (Transcript available)
• Smithsonian.com discussed the topic with a more research-oriented angle. "The powerful emotional response by fans of Game of Thrones may seem weird to those who are not fans of the show. But we’re here, along with a little bit of help from University of Helsinki researcher Howard Sklar, to tell you that that powerful, visceral, emotional response you had...is totally okay...The key, Sklar argues, is that the way we get to know fictional characters—through little tidbits of information, through watching their actions, through the things we hear about them—isn’t so different from how we come to understand strangers. He says the processes of getting to know a fictional character is much like learning about a real person who lives out in the real world who we’ve only come to know through online interactions or non-fiction writing. From our perspective, sure, we know that one person is real and the other isn’t—but sometimes it doesn’t feel that way."
• At policy.mic, Rajiv Narayan uses Arrested Development to discuss What Fandom And Economics Taught Me About So-So TV. "I think part of what’s missing from my TV-watching experience is a real-time fan community and critic response. What makes some series great has less to do with the show than the conversation surrounding the show. The poster-boy for this argument is Lost, a show that was incredible to watch in its heyday even as it made its viewers put up with spontaneous time-travel, unsolved mysteries, alternate timelines, ecologically-impossible wildlife, and so on...The emergence of straight-to-full-release shows on Netflix like House of Cards and Arrested Development pull the rug out from under a fan base. Even if the shows are great (like the former), the potential enjoyment of their experience is limited from the outset by being all out there. What’s the point of a rabid fan base when you have all the answers? Fan communities that once guess at reveals now police spoiler alerts."
• Molly Templeton at Salon returns to Game of Thrones, ostensibly to pitch fanfic as a balm, post-finale, but also to recognize that fanfiction communities are about more than fic. "I searched Tumblr tags, skimmed LiveJournal communities, and searched fanfiction.net and AO3 for fanfic that disproved the common assumptions about it — that it’s bad, or all porn, or a waste of time for everyone involved. Here’s what I found. Stumbling into fanfic without a guide will make you feel like a tourist." Browsing archives leads to the discovery that "[f]anfic is an immersive, collaborative world, and to be just a reader of it is to miss a lot of what makes it tick: writers taking prompts, writing stories for friends, beta-reading each others’ work, inspiring and being inspired by the stories that might sprawl across fandoms. It’s unexpectedly lonely being just a reader when it’s so clear how much action is going on behind the scenes."

What fandom discussions have you seen taking over the media? Write about them 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.

• At Slate, Tammy Oler lauds writer Hugh Howey's approach to dealing with fans in a piece discussing the success of his self-published sci-fi novel. "Most intriguingly, Howey has encouraged readers who want to develop their own Wool stories to self-publish and sell their works. In an interview, I asked Howey about why he’s not just encouraging fan fiction but actually endorsing it. 'There’s room for readers to become writers and play in this world,' he said. 'I view fan fiction as the opportunity to teach readers how much joy there is in creating worlds instead of just living in them.' Right now—much to Simon and Schuster’s chagrin, one has to imagine—the first two of what are sure to be many Wool-related fan fiction stories are available for sale on Amazon."
• BookRiot hosted a guest piece by writer Jill Guccini who pondered how to evaluate professional/fan collaborations. "So here’s the question: Is this unbelievably cool and innovative? Or is it simply, as the AV Club called it, 'a dizzying cycle of mutual promotion and self-promotion?' Can it be both? Fandom is a more sprawling, often intimate, force now than it ever has been before in every variety of the arts, including books. I used to know authors simply by, you know, what books they wrote; I now gauge a lot of them in my head unwittingly by their social media personalities. And sometimes they reblog the same things I reblog; sometimes they follow me back; and they become weirdly closer, somehow, to That Guy I Went to High School With, as opposed to The All Mysterious Author. Essentially: the fourth wall has already been broken. So does authors reaching out to fans enrich the literary world? Or does it cheapen it? Alternately, does a corporate-sponsored, preconceived interactive project still count as 'reaching out'?"
• Aja Romano over at the Daily Dot is also concerned about how fans are valued in these interactions, and writes about the way they are spoken of in SXSW panel blurbs. "[F]andom itself is growing to be synonymous with geek culture as a whole—both of which are seeping inexorably into the mainstream. That’s a huge reversal from where things stood even a few years ago, and not everyone is quite on board with this change. We can see this anxiety in the very language two of this week’s SXSW panels use to summarize the fan/creator relationship." Questioning the panelists on 'Frenemies: Fanning the Flames of Fandom' and 'Creators vs Audience: Next Chapter in Storyteling', she notes "the introductory angle that both panels take seem to pit fans and creators against one another, rather than as potential partners in a relationship built around shared love for a story."

Share your own stories about fan and creator collaborations 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.

• Although there's been a lot of talk recently regarding fanfic authors going pro, there's been less focus on fan video makers. Tessa Stuart wrote in L.A. Weekly about Machinima's overreaching contracts with fan producers on YouTube. "Over the last two years, YouTube has quietly transformed from the province of amateurs to an increasingly cutthroat ecosystem where everyone — stars, networks, advertisers — is competing for views, viewers and view time." As a result "Internet and intellectual-property lawyers say that a rash of public disputes between networks and their talent suggests a serious problem in the emerging industry." The article talks about the origins of the machinima community and how the practice was co-opted by for-profit entities. One of the latest is a new organization called Union for Gamers. "Everyone in Union for Gamers, Duncan says, would be entitled to the same CPM, which would be raised every year. Gamers no longer would be forced into restrictive contracts — union members would have the right to leave whenever they saw fit. He promises 'resources to help people create better videos,' adding, 'and we'll do the labor, the administration and ad-serving side, allowing them to monetize their content.'"
• An AP article on Nerdist described the site as "the purest expression of fanboy-ism" following "a kind of manifesto...of an 'artful nerd' — one whose fandom isn't merely critical and passive, but is passionately proactive." The analogy to a growing empire seems apt, "As Hardwick says, there's something of 'a land grab with nerd culture right now'" and they are following it with podcasts, a YouTube channel, book, talk show, etc. "Nerds can be out about the stuff that they love without as much as the stigma against it as when I was growing up," says Hardwick. "I just want people to feel OK about what they love. Unless that thing is murder and you're a Murder Nerd."
• Writing for New Republic, Marc Tracy talks about the effect of gambling on sports fandom. "I am a football obsessive. I’m also something of a purist. Not counting fantasy football and March Madness pools, I had made maybe four sports bets in my life until last month, when I decided to bet throughout the NFL playoffs. I wanted to see if, as I’d long believed, betting distorts one’s appreciation of the game; if the psychic benefits outweighed the costs, literal or otherwise; and if I could balance one type of entertainment (elite competition) with another (risking money)." He found "Nothing is as bewitching as money. When it’s at risk, your mind can think of nothing else...There was great football being played, and here I was thinking about money—not even money that I had risked, but rather money that I had not risked." His conclusion? "Our pastimes, whatever they may be, should be sacrosanct. They are part of why we go to work, save money, and take time for ourselves."

What commercialization of fandom stories do you have to tell? Write about 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.

• One's fandom path can be hard to predict. College student Peter Fulham wrote in Salon that the search for a perfect boyfriend led him to become a One Direction fan. "What is it that makes a fan? I’ve never been much of a fan of anything. Perhaps my elitism is what has kept me from being one, believing myself to be above the kind of middlebrow obsession that fandom demands. When you’re a fan, you love more than just the sound. You love what the band represents, its idiosyncrasies, its deficits, its collective personality – flaws and all." One also has to take a stand. "I’ve given up pretending to be indifferent. I play their music loudly, often and unapologetically in my dorm room – and it’s a terrific, almost rebellious, feeling. I like this band. So deal with it."
• However, it's increasingly the case that fans will have a part in where fandoms will go. This seemed to be the thought behind editor JJ Duncan's interview at Zimbio with Twilight fanfic writers. "We wanted to know how Twilight fans think the movie will end, how they feel about the book's ending, and how they would rewrite it if they could. So we reached out to two readers who have not only lived in Meyer's world, they've augmented it with Twilight stories that are longer than any of Meyer's four books. Meet Steph and Lisa, two popular writers on FanFiction.net."
• Meanwhile canons are taking on new lives in new spaces. OTW staffer Aja Romano conducted a group interview for The Daily Dot on the topic of Transmedia and the new art of storytelling. "Transmedia—the technique of telling a single story across multiple mediums—is bigger than ever. Numerous Web series have turned to social media and other storytelling platforms to enhance their narratives, while major media franchises from Heroes to The Hunger Games have modeled their marketing campaigns around the idea of engaging fans on multiple levels, both on the big and small screens." The interview covered the topics of the collision of fandom and corporations, large vs. small properties, internationalization and the difficulties of working with multiple mediums.

Have you been sucked into a fandom you never expected to be in? Do you have something to say about transmedia fandoms? Why not discuss it in at 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.