Here's a roundup of stories on Hunger Games fandom that might be of interest to fans:

• The launch of the Hunger Games film has prompted fan activity to hit the news. A piece in The New York Times focused on the fandom's partnership with Oxfam to fight hunger and suggested that fandom can be a pathway for social activism, mentioning the upcoming issue of Transformative Works and Cultures that explores fan activities on this front. However, while it mentions the need for outside organizations to work with fan-originated groups, the article fails to discuss the fact that fan efforts are supported only if they go through official channels to do so. The Hollywood Reporter posted about the film's distributor, Lionsgate, sending a cease and desist letter to the Harry Potter Alliance's Imagine Better Project--the group featured in the Times' article. Lionsgate cites the Project's website and marketing as "causing damage" to its own efforts, and because Lionsgate had already paired with the United Nations' World Food Programme and Feeding America to pursue similar goals, the company wants fans to work through those two organizations. Though a source close to the studio said that Lionsgate would not pursue legal action, they did threaten a take-down of the fan site. Twilight fans can probably sympathize, as the films' distributor, Summit Entertainment, has been so aggressive in searching out related merchandise that it attempted to remove an artist's work for using the film's release date in her otherwise completely unrelated work.
• Unfortunately, some fans have been effective in squashing the squee of other parts of the Hunger Games fandom, as a post in The Guardian made clear. Says the article's author, "I am a woman of colour with a deep--almost unhealthy--love of popular culture. It is a love that is sorely tested in the face of such prejudice when I am told, loudly and with few qualms, that the stories of people who look like me just aren't viable in a specific universe. It is often explicitly stated by my co-fans that I am not–-ever-–what they picture when they read these books or hear about these movies. The language may be coded: 'She's not how I imagined' or, in the case of interracial couple Sam and Mercedes on TV's Glee, slightly more explicit: 'They don't look right together, like, they don't . . . fit.' But the message is clear. We get to be supporting characters-–the redshirts--or the villains. But heroes? Um, no. That would make things too . . . ethnic."
• A Connecticut high school produced its own version the story: "Teacher Janet Kenny dressed up as Effie Trinket to conduct the reaping and selected the names of one boy and one girl tribute from 'districts'--grades nine through 12. The students, or 'tributes,' then scrambled to collect items from the 'cornucopia' in the middle of the gym. Two months into the games, the tributes competed in games related trivia, fashion, cake decorating, and archery. The lucky winner [received] a pair of tickets to see the film opening weekend."
• A piece in Salon suggests that recent film successes have demonstrated "the awesome cultural power of young readers, especially young girls." Arguing that the film's marketing team can't take credit for fan enthusiasm, writer Laura Miller states "[A] good movie and a canny promotional campaign aren’t enough to make hundreds of people camp out in a tent city to await a movie’s premiere. That kind of enthusiasm only comes from a fandom, an organized, well-networked, convivial mass of people who really, really love something and want to talk about it—a lot." While prior to the film's opening, some coverage suggested that fanboys rather than families would be the core of the film's success, Miller counters this. Referring to a New York Times article that attributed Hunger Games' box office defeat of Breaking Dawn: Part 1 to its larger percentage of male viewers, she writes, "Like the Times, you could look at these figures as an indication of how much better a movie franchise can do when it appeals to young men as well as young women — or you could just acknowledge the fact that a movie can now be a big hit without appealing to young men at all."

If you are a Hunger Games fan 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 — 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.

Here's a roundup of "fandom everywhere" stories that might be of interest to fans:

• Mardi Gras in New Orleans now has an open-source side. "Bar2D2, as the robot is called, is the mascot of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, which runs a ragtag operation dedicated to all things science fiction. In two years, the group, which started as a drunken joke in a bar, has become the quickest-growing krewe in the city, and a center of the amateur costume culture in New Orleans." Aside from giving people a chance to be creative, "Chewbacchus and krewes like it are a response to the exclusivity of the older groups. Chewbacchus does not have any waiting lists or recommendation requirements, and dues are only $42 (an arcane numerical reference to the novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”)." Rather than change old traditions, the krewe believes they are modernizing it. "“The old Mardi Gras krewes play off of Greek gods,” Mr. Powers said. “We believe sci-fi is the strongest mythology of our time.”"
• Star Wars fandom was also in focus at the Hollywood Theater in Pittsburgh. The Fandom Meant Us is "a romantic comedy about Star Wars fans’ love for Star Wars, and their love for each other" that was advertised as "an awesomely geeky Valentine’s Day date."
• Media scholar Henry Jenkins ran a three-part interview with authors Catherine Belcher and Becky Herr-Stephenson, authors of Teaching Harry Potter: The Power of Imagination in the Multicultural Classroom, which Jenkins recommended as "one of the most powerful and engaging books I've read about American education in a long time." In discussing student reluctance, the authors write "The first thing we question is the idea that the "whiteness" of the books negates their use in multicultural classrooms. The nature of the books themselves - their complexity and Rowling's willingness to take on difficult and contemporary issues such as racism, genocide, classism, and difference - make them uniquely valuable." They add "On another level, it is also important because so many white, middle to upper middle class kids DO have ample access to Potter and other popular series at home and at school. In many ways, building students' reading confidence, helping them discover that yes, they too can tackle a book of this length or "that style," whether they end up feeling it is ultimately for them or not, is the most valuable accomplishment."

If you are a Star Wars or Harry Potter fan, why not contribute 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.

The Futures of Entertainment conference was held at MIT over November 11-13 and several panels dealt with fan topics. Videos of conference panels are now available. One was of "Collaboration? Emerging Models for Audiences to Participate in Entertainment Decision-Making". The panelists were Jamin Warren, whose interest is in video games, Seung Bak whose business streams international films, and C. Lee Harrington, a sociologist who has studied soap opera fans and is focusing on aging audiences.

• The panel began by discussing how fans are influencing corporate decision makers, starting with the case of the Hoover corporation to partner with soap fans to protest the cancellation of All My Children. They also touched on fan subbing communities, and how foreign content such as Korean dramas or telenovelas from Latin America have language barriers to their distribution. Bak said that 80% of his site's content is subtitled through crowd sourcing. This led into a discussion of content creation tools being given to video game communities.
• There is more of a focus on international audiences for products that are flops in their home countries since they may become popular in other locations and to other audiences. Bak said that although 80% of his site's content was Korean in origin, his audience of users is only around 30% Asian, with 15% being Hispanic, 15% African American and 30% Caucasian. Harrington mentioned that age may be a factor in content reception since older audiences do not generally see participation as part of their role as media consumers. Warren agreed, noting that games need to be marketed based on what people like to do with the games, rather than their demographics.
• Another topic broached was how credit is given to participants outside the business model. Warren cited Defense of the Ancients and the complications for games in how the copyright law applies to them, as well as their team-based authorship. There was then a discussion about fan-curation experts, and different paths for fans to follow, whether to professional work or simple play. Warren mentioned that professionals also need to be able to balance their creative work and their need to work for clients. The panel concluded by circling the issue of how valuable audience contributions can be solicited and rewarded.
• An example of solicitation and rewards to an audience can be seen in the Worldbuilder experiment announced by Angry Robot. "In January, when we publish...Empire State, we’ll be inviting fan creators everywhere to visit...and create their own works of art based in the Empire State universe. These creations can then be uploaded to a dedicated website, and distributed under a Creative Commons license. The best of these will be featured in a number of “Best of” anthologies (with most of the proceeds going to the creators)."

If you are part of a gaming or a fansub community, or in a soap opera fandom, why not contribute 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.

Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 8, a special guest-edited double issue comprising Race and Ethnicity in Fandom (edited by Robin Anne Reid and Sarah N. Gatson) and Textual Echoes (edited by Cyber Echoes, a collective comprising Berit Åström, Katarina Gregersdotter, Malin Isaksson, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth, and Maria Helena Svensson).

Race and Ethnicity in Fandom comprises four research essays covering topics such as race, identity, and construction in fandom, gaming, and Web series.

Mel Stanfill, in "Doing Fandom, (Mis)doing Whiteness: Heteronormativity, Racialization, and the Discursive Construction of Fandom," provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film and television shows to assess fandom as a form of performativity that both undercuts and reinforces white privilege.

"Fandom as Industrial Response: Producing Identity in an Independent Web Series," by Aymar Jean Christian, expands the definition of fan by analyzing a made-for-Web series based on the TV show Sex and the City.

Thomas D. Rowland and Amanda C. Barton, in "Outside Oneself in World of Warcraft: Gamers' Perception of the Racial Self-Other," provide survey results showing how gamers' racial attitudes intersect with avatar and interavatar creation.

Sun Jung, in "K-pop, Indonesian Fandom, Social Media," performs an ethnographic study, also drawing on material on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to analyze K-pop fandom from the perspective of Indonesian youth.

Textual Echoes comprises four research essays and two Symposium essays. The special issue grew out of a three-day symposium hosted by Umeå University, Sweden, which included a keynote address by TWC's own Kristina Busse.

Charles W. Hoge reads fan fic as play in "Whodology: Encountering Doctor Who Fan Fiction through the Portals of Play Studies and Ludology" by applying the criteria of theorist Roger Caillois's for game and play.

The three Praxis essays address themes of desire, sexuality, and identity in relation to fan works. Bridget Kies ("One True Threesome: Reconciling Canon and Fan Desire in Star Trek: Voyager") analyzes desire in terms of fan fic about the Tom Paris–Harry Kim–B'Elanna Torres triad.

Mark McHarry, in "(Un)gendering the Homoerotic Body: Imagining Subjects in Boys' Love and Yaoi," discusses dōjinshi, fan comics with young male characters, by performing a reading of Maldoror's Freeport (based on the anime Gundam Wing) via Grosz, Kristeva, and Foucault.

Kate Roddy's essay, "Masochist or Machiavel? Reading Harley Quinn in Canon and Fanon," discusses Harley Quinn (the Joker's girlfriend in the Batman canon) in relation to medical and feminist discourses about female submissiveness.

In the Symposium section, Maria Lindgren Leavenworth discusses The Vampire Diaries and its fan fiction in "Transmedial Texts and Serialized Narratives," assessing mythos, topos, and ethos in terms of the story world. And Nele Noppe, in "Why We Should Talk about Commodifying Fan Work," sees opportunities for fans to build hybrid economies via Web-based commerce.

TWC No. 8 also includes two book reviews: Melanie Kohnen reviews The Young and the Digital by S. Craig Watkins, and Laurie B. Cubbison reviews Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction by Rebecca Black.