New Media and Entertainment
It’s evident that new media has altered the way the entertainment industry is run. It’s ‘no longer enough to produce something just for TV, you have to give the audience opportunity to not just view, but also engage with it on other platforms.’ (Saughter, 2014) We see the industry adapting to this with convergence, TV shows can now be watched on the viewer’s time and through a device of their choice.
Shefrin’s reading looks at the contrast of embracing and rejecting fandoms, and how when utilized effectively, they can be beneficial to not only the circulation but also the production of media content. Because when it comes down to it, who knows a TV show better than the fans? Their ‘close textual readings… critical analyses… extreme dedication and growing numbers are [making] them recognized as important contributors’ (Shefrin 2004, 269) The example Shefrin uses is ‘Lord Of The Rings’, where Peter Jackson was interacting with fans through new media platforms and not only listening but acting on what the fans were wanting from the films. While this is an idealistic example of participatory fandom, it’s not realistically what is happening at the moment. However, that’s not to say that producers aren’t aware of their fandoms. It’s just that ‘the vast majority of cultural production by fans is occurring extemporaneously to, not collaboratively with, the ‘’official’’ authorship of the narratives’ (Shefrin 2004, 268).
To show how involved fans currently are, I want to take a look at a TV show with a rather large and dedicated cult-like following, ‘Supernatural’. I constantly see ‘Supernatural’ related content on my dashboard and newsfeed. This TV series shows how committed the fans are to sharing, creating and editing its content, and how it has helped the show grow over the years. Which couldn’t have been possible had the producer’s been focused on copyright and power dominance. Additionally, the channel 10 ‘Supernatural’ website, has a section titled ‘Castiel gifs to help express your feels’. It can be seen here how the old media have embraced the ways of new media (and what the fans have been doing for years) in order to better relate to the audience. Furthermore, producer’s have even ‘openly acknowledged their fans’ (Felschow, 2010) in a ‘Supernatural’ episode where the protagonists find out their lives are recorded and made into what everyone believes to be ‘fictional’ books titled ‘Supernatural’, which have a dedicated fan following. ‘Viewers watching the program, recognise this meta-nod to the show's own die-hard fans’ (Felschow, 2010) Similar to this there have been numerous episodes that subtly reference an inside joke within the fandom.
This shows how fans have some sort of role in the production of content, however they are not deciding what that content is. While the producer’s recognise and benefit from the power that fandoms have in sharing content and contributing ideas, they are still writing the story themselves. However, they write it with the fans in mind, which benefit both parties.
Reference List
Felshow, Laura E. 2010. “Hey, Check it out, there’s actually fans!” Accessed April 2, 2014. http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/134
Shefrin, Elana. 2004. “Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Participatory Fandom : Mapping new congruencies between the Internet and media entertainment culture” in Critical Studies in Media Communication 21 (3) pp.261-281. Accessed April 2, 2014. https://qutvirtual3.qut.edu.au/qv/olt_material_search_p?p_unit_code=KCB206
Saughter, Theresa. 2014. “KCB206 Internet Self and Beyond: Week 5 Lecture Recording.” Accessed April 3, 2014. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_4_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fcontent%2FlistContent.jsp%3Fcourse_id%3D_108110_1%26content_id%3D_4831513_1%26mode%3Dreset