Throughout the course of time, technology has affected the way that we interact with culture, people and places. The gap of time between Henry Jenkins’s Textual Poachers and now is no exception. Although, I couldn’t help but read the book as though it were written much more recently, I was still able to compare and contrast certain elements of his book and the way things are now. Fandom is an interesting concept to discuss especially in terms of television series because people are really relating to the characters and situations as opposed to the actors like in movies.
As Jenkins points out, those characters become real in the minds of the fans. They are able to predict the way that the character would react in a certain situation, or create their own scenarios for the character.
There are so many modern day examples of fan culture similar that of the Trekkies. There are online forums and fan sites for just about every show out there, but some shows tend to rake in more “fanatics” than others. The first thing that comes to my mind when conjuring up an example is “Sex & The City”. Although the show may not have gotten a glowing initial response when it aired on HBO, the show exploded when re-released on TBS with a little less racy version of the episodes. Women latched on the Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha’s characters relating every situation to a personal life experience or one that they hope never happens. After the show’s final season and a significant hiatus, the four women reappeared on the big screen for a final time. Anticipating the movie’s release date, there was talk among fans everywhere. I couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing callers taking a Sex & the City quiz to prove how knowledgeable they were about the show, or callers spilling the beans about how they had just as many sexual partners as Samantha. My roommate can relate every relationship problem to a specific episode and truly believes that we can all solve our problems by doing what one of the characters on the show did.
While I have many shows that I am a regular viewer of, I can’t consider myself a true fanatic or “poacher” of any. Jenkins talks about the type of people to have the television on for the sole purpose of having it on, not to scrutinize every detail. I fit myself more into that category of viewers. Jenkins also refers to the phenomenon of reruns or taped shows for the life of the fanatic. This really creates a whole other realm of viewing power. Today this power has been exponentially expanded with the introduction of Tivo and DVR. Fans can now record their favorite show and then skip over all of the commercials so as not to miss one detail. Then they can hop online and blog about the whole thing with others in the fan community. Right on their very own blog they can have an RSS feed to any and all sites related to their show. All rumors and spoilers can be revealed and all predictions can be shared within seconds. Many TV stations have now made it possible to catch the new episodes of all of their shows to be caught on their website just in case you missed the first 30 seconds after commercial when you were on your bathroom break. This way you can also replay your favorite moments over and over again
Social networking has existed for a long time, but now with Web 2.0, fans can network on such a broader level leading towards the whole idea of common knowledge. Just about anything you can think can be found with one keyword search on YouTube. And in case you didn’t get enough from an original video…there are also 5 remakes right along side it. Fans of particular shows can recreate their favorite moments in their own homes and then post it for the world to see. The emphasis has now shifted toward tailoring and customization.
From here, technology will only continue to advance, making it faster and easier and cheaper for fans to experience their favorite show, create their own spin-off, or form their own opinion.
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