These individuals – typically displaying an affective relationship with their fan object that is, they are passionately interested in and committed to following their beloved pop group, sports team, or soap opera – may nevertheless not take part in socially organized fan activities. By using the term ‘‘fans’’ we can refer to individuals who have a particular liking or affection for a range of popular cultural texts, celebrities, sports (teams), or artifacts. Scholars have tended to isolate out and focus on specific fandoms such as fans of science fiction film and TV (Bacon Smith 1992 Jenkins 1992) fans of soap operas (Harrington & Bielby 1995 Baym 2000) fans of the Star Wars films (Brooker 2002) fans of particular TV series and radio shows (Thomas 2002) and sports fans (Crawford 2004).įans and fan culture are, however, not quite the same thing. Indeed, Tulloch and Jenkins (1995: 23) distinguish between ‘‘fans,’’ who claim a cultural identity on the basis of their fandom, and ‘‘followers,’’ who despite following pop cultural texts, pop groups, TV series, and so on more than casually, do not make such an identity claim.Īs can be seen from this, fandom is generally discussed in relation to media consumption and media texts, sometimes being referred to specifically as ‘‘media fandom’’ (Jenkins 1992: 1), although this prefix is often assumed. Fans thus seek to break down barriers between themselves as subjects and their objects of fandom, their fan identity becoming a meaningful aspect of cultural and self identity. This ‘‘intimacy’’ could involve meeting a celebrity, getting a sports woman’s autograph, seeing an actor give a talk onstage at a convention, chatting with him or her in the bar afterwards, or even visiting real locations used in the filming of a TV series (see Hills 2002). They also ‘‘tend to seek intimacy with the object of their attention – a personality, a program, a genre, a team’’ (Kelly 2004: 9). Against this narrative, depicted as belonging to the Frankfurt School of Marxist theorists such as Theodor Adorno as much as to forms of cultural common sense, Jenkins argues that fans discriminate keenly between and within their objects of fandom, developing an aesthetic sense of what counts as a ‘‘good’’ episode of television series such as Star Trek or Doctor Who (see Tulloch & Jenkins 1995).įans develop extensive knowledge and expertise about their shows or sports teams, also characteristically feeling a sense of owner ship over ‘‘their’’ object of fandom. Jenkins, whose seminal work Textual Poachers (1992) helped to make fandom a viable object of academic study, suggests that the creativity of fans is downplayed in cultural common sense in favor of viewing fans as ‘‘cultural dupes’’ who are perfect consumers, always accepting what the culture industry produces for them. Henry Jenkins has highlighted and opposed this negative fan stereotype, arguing that such portrayals of fandom should be critiqued, and that fans should instead be viewed more positively as building their own culture out of media pro ducts, and as selectively ‘‘poaching’’ meanings and interpretations from favored media texts. Whilst connoisseurship is typically deemed culturally legitimate, fandom has been analyzed as rather more problematic: the stereotype of ‘‘the fan’’ has been one of geeky, excessive, and unhealthy obsession with (supposedly) culturally trivial objects such as TV shows. People who appreciate high culture, often being as passionately partisan as pop culture’s ‘‘fans,’’ are described as ‘‘connoisseurs’’ or ‘‘aficionados’’ rather than as fans (Jensen 1992). Fandom – the state of being a fan – is usually linked to popular culture rather than high culture. doi:10.4135/9781412994248.Fans have become important to work in media sociology and cultural studies for a variety of reasons: they can be taken to represent a dedicated, active audience they are consumers who are often also (unofficial, but sometimes official) media producers (Jenkins 1992 McKee 2002) and they can be analyzed as a significant part of contemporary consumer culture. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Textual poachers In:Textual poachers Encyclopedia of consumer culture Vol. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011, pp. "Textual Poachers." Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture. Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2011. "Textual Poachers." In Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture, edited by Southerton, Dale, 1446-47. In Encyclopedia of consumer culture (Vol.
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