The evolution of technology has had major impact on the behaviors of fans. However, the foundations of fandom discussed in Henry Jenkins’s book, Textual Poachers, still exist in the twenty-first century. The following essay discusses how technology has influenced fan behavior, using contemporary examples to demonstrate changes since Jenkins first wrote his book.
Jenkins describes how fandom for a certain show becomes an addiction. Since a fan of a series must wait a week before they can feed their addiction by watching the show, previews become their way to get through the week.
The series becomes a sort of anticipation: previews are scrutinized in fine detail, each frame stopped and examined for suggestions of potential plot developments; fans race to buy TV Guide as soon as it hits the newsstands so that they may gather new material for speculation from its program descriptions.(58)
![Text Box: The evolution of technology has had major impact on the behaviors of fans. However, the foundations of fandom discussed in Henry Jenkins’s book, Textual Poachers, still exist in the twenty-first century. The following essay discusses how technology has influenced fan behavior, using contemporary examples to demonstrate changes since Jenkins first wrote his book. Jenkins describes how fandom for a certain show becomes an addiction. Since a fan of a series must wait a week before they can feed their addiction by watching the show, previews become their way to get through the week. The series becomes a sort of anticipation: previews are scrutinized in fine detail, each frame stopped and examined for suggestions of potential plot developments; fans race to buy TV Guide as soon as it hits the newsstands so that they may gather new material for speculation from its program descriptions.(58) In the twenty first century fans now turn to blogs and other fan based websites to feed their addiction to certain television series. At these sites fans discuss theories and make predictions about the future of the series. Below is an example from the lostblog.net, a website focused on the television show, Lost. Here one fan discusses a popular theory and provides a link to the information supporting his theory. The website provides the fans a faster, easier and interactive way to share information about their favorite show. This interactivity demonstrates another change that technology has given fans. In Textual Poachers, Jenkins explains how fandom creates a unique social network.Fan reception cannot and does not exists in isolation, but always shaped through input from other fans and motivated, at least partially, by the further interaction with a larger social cultural community. (76)The internet has opened the door to allow fans a space to interact with each other. Before the internet fans were limited to the interest of people located in their specific geographical area. Now fans from around the world can gather and bond over their common interest, whether that be TV show, movie or book. Take for example the obscure 1990s show, Pete and Pete, most people have forgotten about this Nickalodean series, however this fan demonstrates how there are communities of people that still follow the show. This page represents fan response to the series that was updated as recently as September 2008. Here fans share their admiration to the series. (http://pnp.norecess.org/analysis.html) One fan, Dan Brow writes, “One more thing that I wanted to comment on was that I thought that it was a great mistake to cancel the show. This show was easy for all ages to relate to and that is very disappointing to hear that it is canceled.” Another fan, Raymond Marateo writes, “What makes Pete & Pete an exceptional series is the way it communicates to all of us.” It is because of the internet that these fans are able to come together and share a unique connection. YouTube offers another place for fans to come together and share parts of their favorite series. Formally, “the exchange of videotapes [had] become a central ritual of fandom, one of the practices helping to bind it together as a distinctive community.” This has changed. Now fans share videos over the web rather then share VHS tapes that they make off of their home VCR. The following link connects one to a segment of the 1980s show Who’s the Boss. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9PqZkVCUAs) Not only are fans able to watch part of the series, the commentary indicates a community of Who’s the Boss fans.() One fan, Bigloc1 writes on November 13, 2008, “Love this show watched it Ireland 9pm Wed nights for a few years till earlier this year repeated every episode weekday mornings, have it on my iPod the tune from later series and as a ringtone.” YouTube has also changed the face of textual rewrites of fan media. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFxhsPNvdI0) one fan engages himself in the television series, “24”, by remaking a particular scene from season 3. Jenkins explains that “intense interaction eventually leads many fans towards the creation of new texts… fans evaluated the episodes and “rewrote” them,” (52). YouTube offers fans an easier way to share with other fans their personal admiration and relationship with a certain series or media. In addition to remaking video clips, fans create media similar to the Kirk and Spock slash fiction that Jenkins discusses in chapter 6 of his book. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0FK8UZIgU) is a video based off of “Full House” and questions the sexuality of characters Joey and Uncle Jesse. This video demonstrates how the practice of fans making slash fiction is still alive; it has just changed mediums of distribution from magazines to internet video content. The internet offers a way for fans to come together, to express their love for a series and to re-write the original works. The internet has changed the ways fans interact but the basic behavior of the fan that was discussed in Textual Poachers still exists.](file:///Users/gladdenc/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image002.png)
In the twenty first century fans now turn to blogs and other fan based websites to feed their addiction to certain television series. At these sites fans discuss theories and make predictions about the future of the series. Below is an example from the lostblog.net, a website focused on the television show, Lost. Here one fan discusses a popular theory and provides a link to the information supporting his theory. The website provides the fans a faster, easier and interactive way to share information about their favorite show.
This interactivity demonstrates another change that technology has given fans. In Textual Poachers, Jenkins explains how fandom creates a unique social network.
Fan reception cannot and does not exists in isolation, but always shaped through input from other fans and motivated, at least partially, by the further interaction with a larger social cultural community. (76)
The internet has opened the door to allow fans a space to interact with each other. Before the internet fans were limited to the interest of people located in their specific geographical area. Now fans from around the world can gather and bond over their common interest, whether that be TV show, movie or book. Take for example the obscure 1990s show, Pete and Pete, most people have forgotten about this Nickalodean series, however this fan demonstrates how there are communities of people that still follow the show. This page represents fan response to the series that was updated as recently as September 2008. Here fans share their admiration to the series. (http://pnp.norecess.org/analysis.html)
![Text Box: The evolution of technology has had major impact on the behaviors of fans. However, the foundations of fandom discussed in Henry Jenkins’s book, Textual Poachers, still exist in the twenty-first century. The following essay discusses how technology has influenced fan behavior, using contemporary examples to demonstrate changes since Jenkins first wrote his book. Jenkins describes how fandom for a certain show becomes an addiction. Since a fan of a series must wait a week before they can feed their addiction by watching the show, previews become their way to get through the week. The series becomes a sort of anticipation: previews are scrutinized in fine detail, each frame stopped and examined for suggestions of potential plot developments; fans race to buy TV Guide as soon as it hits the newsstands so that they may gather new material for speculation from its program descriptions.(58) In the twenty first century fans now turn to blogs and other fan based websites to feed their addiction to certain television series. At these sites fans discuss theories and make predictions about the future of the series. Below is an example from the lostblog.net, a website focused on the television show, Lost. Here one fan discusses a popular theory and provides a link to the information supporting his theory. The website provides the fans a faster, easier and interactive way to share information about their favorite show. This interactivity demonstrates another change that technology has given fans. In Textual Poachers, Jenkins explains how fandom creates a unique social network.Fan reception cannot and does not exists in isolation, but always shaped through input from other fans and motivated, at least partially, by the further interaction with a larger social cultural community. (76)The internet has opened the door to allow fans a space to interact with each other. Before the internet fans were limited to the interest of people located in their specific geographical area. Now fans from around the world can gather and bond over their common interest, whether that be TV show, movie or book. Take for example the obscure 1990s show, Pete and Pete, most people have forgotten about this Nickalodean series, however this fan demonstrates how there are communities of people that still follow the show. This page represents fan response to the series that was updated as recently as September 2008. Here fans share their admiration to the series. (http://pnp.norecess.org/analysis.html) One fan, Dan Brow writes, “One more thing that I wanted to comment on was that I thought that it was a great mistake to cancel the show. This show was easy for all ages to relate to and that is very disappointing to hear that it is canceled.” Another fan, Raymond Marateo writes, “What makes Pete & Pete an exceptional series is the way it communicates to all of us.” It is because of the internet that these fans are able to come together and share a unique connection. YouTube offers another place for fans to come together and share parts of their favorite series. Formally, “the exchange of videotapes [had] become a central ritual of fandom, one of the practices helping to bind it together as a distinctive community.” This has changed. Now fans share videos over the web rather then share VHS tapes that they make off of their home VCR. The following link connects one to a segment of the 1980s show Who’s the Boss. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9PqZkVCUAs) Not only are fans able to watch part of the series, the commentary indicates a community of Who’s the Boss fans.() One fan, Bigloc1 writes on November 13, 2008, “Love this show watched it Ireland 9pm Wed nights for a few years till earlier this year repeated every episode weekday mornings, have it on my iPod the tune from later series and as a ringtone.” YouTube has also changed the face of textual rewrites of fan media. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFxhsPNvdI0) one fan engages himself in the television series, “24”, by remaking a particular scene from season 3. Jenkins explains that “intense interaction eventually leads many fans towards the creation of new texts… fans evaluated the episodes and “rewrote” them,” (52). YouTube offers fans an easier way to share with other fans their personal admiration and relationship with a certain series or media. In addition to remaking video clips, fans create media similar to the Kirk and Spock slash fiction that Jenkins discusses in chapter 6 of his book. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0FK8UZIgU) is a video based off of “Full House” and questions the sexuality of characters Joey and Uncle Jesse. This video demonstrates how the practice of fans making slash fiction is still alive; it has just changed mediums of distribution from magazines to internet video content. The internet offers a way for fans to come together, to express their love for a series and to re-write the original works. The internet has changed the ways fans interact but the basic behavior of the fan that was discussed in Textual Poachers still exists.](file:///Users/gladdenc/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image004.png)
One fan, Dan Brow writes, “One more thing that I wanted to comment on was that I thought that it was a great mistake to cancel the show. This show was easy for all ages to relate to and that is very disappointing to hear that it is canceled.” Another fan, Raymond Marateo writes, “What makes Pete & Pete an exceptional series is the way it communicates to all of us.” It is because of the internet that these fans are able to come together and share a unique connection.
YouTube offers another place for fans to come together and share parts of their favorite series. Formally, “the exchange of videotapes [had] become a central ritual of fandom, one of the practices helping to bind it together as a distinctive community.” This has changed. Now fans share videos over the web rather then share VHS tapes that they make off of their home VCR. The following link connects one to a segment of the 1980s show Who’s the Boss. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9PqZkVCUAs) Not only are fans able to watch part of the series, the commentary indicates a community of Who’s the Boss fans.() One fan, Bigloc1 writes on November 13, 2008, “Love this show watched it Ireland 9pm Wed nights for a few years till earlier this year repeated every episode weekday mornings, have it on my iPod the tune from later series and as a ringtone.”
YouTube has also changed the face of textual rewrites of fan media. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFxhsPNvdI0) one fan engages himself in the television series, “24”, by remaking a particular scene from season 3. Jenkins explains that “intense interaction eventually leads many fans towards the creation of new texts… fans evaluated the episodes and “rewrote” them,” (52). YouTube offers fans an easier way to share with other fans their personal admiration and relationship with a certain series or media. In addition to remaking video clips, fans create media similar to the Kirk and Spock slash fiction that Jenkins discusses in chapter 6 of his book. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0FK8UZIgU) is a video based off of “Full House” and questions the sexuality of characters Joey and Uncle Jesse. This video demonstrates how the practice of fans making slash fiction is still alive; it has just changed mediums of distribution from magazines to internet video content.
The internet offers a way for fans to come together, to express their love for a series and to re-write the original works. The internet has changed the ways fans interact but the basic behavior of the fan that was discussed in Textual Poachers still exists.
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