Digital Media & Culture: Collaborative Essay Collection 2018/Transmediality/Research Question 1:Taran-trio

Essay Question:

"To what extent do online fandoms shape and redefine the understanding of existing media/texts? How do Jenkins' ideas on transmedia storytelling, convergence and fan participation lend to our understanding of this change?"

Introduction

There are many things that are important to the success of a text or medium. But the one thing that is key to success are having fans. Fans have engaged with texts/mediums throughout time and are empirical to the advancement of anythings career. Since the internet is available to most, people tend to post about their interests online, such as bands, films and TV. However, a question which needs to be focused on is whether fan participation is shaping a text or medium in a negative way. Through the exploration of the canon, memes and fanfiction we will decipher through the use of Henry Jenkins ideas on participation, transmedia storytelling and convergence whether online fandoms have an effect on the way in which we view and understand a certain text or medium. We hope to discover whether fandoms shape things in a positive or negative light.

Main Concepts

Misrepresentation of the Canon

The advancement of technology has allowed for a greater fan engagement when it comes to the relationship between the text and the viewer. Referring initially to the question, fandoms are definitely shaping the understanding of a text/medium. I personally take the stand point that it may not necessarily be for the better. Fiske defines Fandoms' “a collective strategy, a communal effort to form interpretative communities that in their subcultural cohesion evaded the preferred and intended meanings of the power bloc" (Recuero,Aramal,Monteiro,2012) Before I discuss the negative impacts that the fan world are having on texts, I feel it is important to mention the many positive. Academic Henry Jenkins believes that fan participation is at an all time high: "Fan culture is high on participation, where fans take the resources offered by a text and push it in a range of directions which are neither reprogrammed nor authorised by the producers" . This is seen through User-Discussion pages such as reddit and tumblr, a place where anyone can search and discuss specific thoughts and feelings about a text by connecting with other fans. The engagement of fans through sites like this has allowed for fan engagement and enjoyment to grow, as audiences can bond over shared experiences, theories and thoughts. This allows for audiences to grow, as people want to feel part of the conversation. Take the 2018 Black Panther for example, there was a huge engagement through twitter-being on the trending hashtags even weeks after release. These discussions between fans have allowed for others to engage with the text, creating a new genre of fandom. Jenkins ideas of participatory culture has allowed for us to see the way in which fans have shaped the understanding of a text. Another way in which fans participate in a text is through cosplay- dressing and acting like a character, going to events such as comic con ). This allows for fans to explore their love of a character, and sharing this with other people in the process allows for other people to almost witness the character in real life. In relation to the canon-meaning “being accepted as officially part of a text”-transmedia has allowed for fandoms to expand a narrative and expand upon their interests of a tv show or film". In Jenkins 'Interactive audiences' he mentions that fans often script their own episodes of shows when its cancelled. Being able to do this allows for fandoms to enjoy a text, even when it is not running or has been cancelled. This plays to Henry Jenkins Notion of Transmedia Storytelling as it keeps the narrative alive, and explores the idea of the universe in which the text is set being ‘ongoing’. I personally feel that this is important to do, as it creates a deeper engagement between viewer and creator, which altogether strengthens one's enjoyment.

Furthermore, this leads perfectly into my overall discussion point of fans going too far in ‘misrepresenting the canon’. With ready access to internet, photoshop and many discussion websites it is easy for fans to alter, write about and photoshop an original text that they may be a fan of. Fanfiction is something that fans of various texts engage with on a daily basis. If it exists, there is probably fanfiction about it. However, some of the fanfictions that end up circling the web are morally questionable; featuring incest, beastiality and paedophilic relationships. A major example is the pairing of Elsa and Anna in Frozen. Many of the Disney’s film fanfictions feature the two sisters in a sexual relationship. This can be seen on tumblr, reddit. YouTube and sole purpose fanfic websites such as fanfiction.net. While it has been said that the queerification of a text is used to politically push an LGBT agenda , it seems wrong that this is done through an illegal and incestial relationship. While I feel it is important for children to see members of the LBGT+ community from a young age, using a sisters relationship to do this is ethically questionable. Many fanfictions of this appear in animated form on Youtube, this is where some major issues have arisen with the ElsaGate case. It could be said that this is a negative example of media convergence by taking an old media such as film, and turning into something new through the use of new media such as editing, photoshopping and creating individual content through technology. Elsa Gate is a collection videos on Youtube, which feature characters-either dressed up or animated- from Frozen and Spiderman engaging in adulterated activities. This has caused major debates around the content allowed on Youtube as may children click on this content, rightly thinking it is suitable for them and end up being exposed to disgusting content. While this is an example of Jenkins Transmedia storytelling by ‘expanding the narrative’, it expands the story in a way in which the creators would not be comfortable with as it paints their ‘innocent’ characters in a negative light. It seems wrong that these creators have used kids imagery in order to gain views, while creating disturbing content. Fandoms in the modern world we live in have really changed and redefined the understanding of a text. In this specific light, participatory culture and transmedia storytelling has negatively impacted the text as it has stained and altered the text in a light in which is not preferable to the creator or the target audience. KaYuI (discuss • contribs) 16:03, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Participatory culture in Meme creation

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) found that in 2015 43.2 percent of people in the world, that is 3.15 billion individuals, that are using the internet worldwide. ITU estimates that the number of individuals using the Internet would exceed 3.5 billion in 2017, this tells us that there is a lot information flowing back and forth between users every day. The World Wide Web is now a standard tool in societies around the world, this is due to the evolution of the platform from web 1.0, which generally housed internet users that were not more than mere viewers to a ‘read-only web’ (Choudhury, 2014).To web 2.0, an evolved system of users consuming data, remixing data and providing their own data and services (O’reilly, 2005)This information comes presented to its users and created by its users in three base forms, text, audio and image. These forms shape how we communicate online, through this emergence as a by-product of Web 2.0 we have seen the birth of a new type of content communicated to each other, the Internet Meme.

To identify and begin to explain what an Internet Meme is, it is paramount to explain the term meme itself. The first definition appeared well before current digital media trends. Richard Dawkins coined the term in his book The selfish Gene(1976) in which he explains the concept of memes from his mapping of evolutionary theory to culture “small cultural units of transmission, analogous to genes, which are spread from person to person by copying or imitation”(Shifman, 2013, p. 363) Dawkins was referring to items of culture that would be passed on person to person, Internet memes share a very similar concept but differ in their strictly digital form. A select few academics have attempted to define the term, Carlos Diaz makes an attempt at defining it “An internet meme is a unit of information (idea, concept or belief), which replicates by passing on via Internet” (Diaz, 2013, p. 96) often these internet memes are created with humour in mind, “created to be shared with other people… aimed at a large audience “(Langlois, 2014, p. 1) We will look at Shrek (2001) the animated adventure family film being ‘turned’ into a meme and think about the potential implications of such a context shift.

On January 14th 2013 an anonymous story was posted on social media site 4chan entitled ‘Shrek is love, Shrek is life’ depicting a 9 year old boy praying to Shrek, later being sodomized by the green ogre character(KYM, 2014) this was not the first text, picture or video to re-contextualize the Shrek character for comedic effect and shock value(), but this spawned its global reach, other users writing stories, editing images from the film itself and creating countless parody videos, that remix and reframe the original content. For example, a video animated adaption of Shrek is love, Shrek is life appeared on YouTube in March 18th, 2014 which has amassed 11 million views this exposure is huge, this virality of content is touched on by Henry Jenkins, a leading scholar in the field of digital media, who has written a plethora of books and articles detailing the spread of information through digital media. He talks in context to what web 2.0 has to offer its users “a more participatory model of culture, one which sees the public not as simply consumers of preconstructed messages but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content” (Jenkins, Ford, Green, 2013) this participatory model is at the heart of how Internet memes are forged, travel and adapt by help of its fans. There is a communal aspect to memes, a sociability. “a group of delocalized, decentralized people can have a shared, collective experience of images” (Langlois, 2014, p. 2)

Why creators or rather contributors of the meme use Shrek is largely up to speculation, “the process of adapting memes to situations that would be out of reach for the original image, is exactly what makes a meme popular on the Internet” (Langlois, 2014, p. 2) and perhaps this the one of the only reasons users chose to participate. This may coincide with Jenkins ideas of fan participation, In his book Textual Poachers he about fan participation specifically about avid fans of the show Star trek “Fan writing builds upon the interpretive practices of the fan community, taking the collective meta-text as the base from which to generate a wide range of media-related stories”(Jenkins,2012) Internet meme creators and collaborators share similarities with this, however the memes constantly adapt through each user’s creativity to push the text further out of context than conceived, whereas traditional fans of story driven narratives want to hold tight the context and principles that makes their show dear to them. What does this mean for the film itself, Because of this context shift Shrek may be viewed with these memes in mind, the original story and its themes may not be taken in with the original intent and with the original reaction these creators may have given it back in 2001. It has led to the announcement of a 5th Shrek film which is quoted to “completely reinvent the series” (Alexander, 2017) it is seen here that the meme has rejuvenated interest into the franchise for better or worse, memes have transformed the original content and have given participants an online community to be apart of it has also given exposure to the original film in this new light. Participatory culture and its fast spreading formation of memes show how Jenkins ideas bring further insight into how media texts are changed and evolve in form. Jackaodha (discuss • contribs) 10:06pm, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

The Consequences of Shipping

When discussing the real-world implications of fan-created content, the degree of impact can greatly vary depending upon the subject of said content. Specifically, what happens when ‘undesired’ fan creations don’t stem from works of fiction – but rather celebrities, not the characters that they represent. I am of the belief that Jenkin’s work on fan culture in relation to texts still applies to this scenario, as the fans I shall be discussing choose to reject the reality with which their subjects present them with, and instead substitute it with their own fantasies. To speak specifically, this brief case study will analyse the ‘One Direction’ or ‘Directioner’ fandom – surrounding the prominent UK boyband which dominated the public eye between 2010-16, and how their fanbase created and maintained fictional homosexual relationships between group members. This phenomenon took shipping to new mainstream heights and redefined the image of the band – a prime example of fans taking control of the narrative to such a degree that it directly impacted the subjects of the ‘expanded fiction’ itself.

The group arrived on the music scene in 2010, following a rise to popularity through the household-name UK talent show “X Factor” – and went on to achieve both commercial and critical success after signing with the show’s creator, Simon Cowell. Throughout their six active years as a group, they amassed a colossal fanbase – in fact, even their now-dormant promotional twitter account is ranked 47th globally. As interest around the band grew, the fan-generated content surrounding them became increasingly diverse – there were cartoons, musical covers, artworks, but above all else, there was the tide of fanfiction. Initially harmless, elaborate stories detailing relationships behind closed doors in the all-male group were considered part-and-parcel of the celebrity experience – however the outspokenness and insistence of the fans is what drove them into infamy. The pair most prominently shipped together, dubbed “Larry” (Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles) was the first to be recognised by the band in late 2012, as Louis tweeted a response against the fiction, referring to it as “…the biggest load of bullsh*t I’ve ever heard”. Since fandoms are comprised of countless sub-divisions and groups in relation to the one founding source of admiration, it wouldn’t be a fair assessment to say this angered the entire ‘Directioner’ community, however it certainly sparked a great deal of anger in the ‘Larry’ subsect – and it wouldn’t be the first time that this would occur.

This was only the beginning of group members being exposed to and reacting to a medley of different fanfiction – and as time progressed, it simply became harder to brush off to one side. Former group member Zayn Malik spoke out about his experience with shipping content in multiple retrospective interviews, and even mentioned it in his own autobiography briefly – when speaking with ‘The Fader’, he recalled that “[group members] won’t naturally go put their arm around each other because they're conscious of this thing that's going on, which is not even true. They won't do that natural behaviour”. Roughly around the same time, fellow 1D singer Liam Payne came under a great deal of scrutiny from fans after remarking in an interview that “It’s like when you know the ins and outs of what’s going on with people, it’s just annoying when it’s so stupid…It becomes like a conspiracy or a cult”. From both these statements occurring within a close time-frame (late 2015), a pattern of resentment towards shipping culture within their fanbase can be observed – which is only natural. Certainly, it is my belief that fictional characters are fair game to tinker around and reinvent, that much is the duty of a good fanbase – however to be repeatedly sexualised alongside your friends must take a lasting mental toll. If anything, I believe this speaks volumes to the extent of disconnect between celebrity figures and their fanbases, both sides failing to realise the impact that they have upon the other. Whilst celebrities are the ‘muse’ so-to-speak, the point of origin for a fanbase to begin, they also absorb and interact with the creations of their fans (retweeting fanart/creations, fan meetups/panels) – therefore it isn’t unfathomable that years of misrepresentation might end up causing a degree of separation. Even after the band went into an indefinite hiatus in 2016, some of the fan content being created is still absurd – there was even an art exhibit dedicated to ‘Larry’, with a sculpture of a pregnant Harry Styles, so there is yet to be an end in sight.

In line with Jenkins’ notions of fan participation (specifically), a great shift in the image and representation of One Direction can be seen across their six-year arc – and I firmly believe that their case of ‘real-world’ shipping contributed greatly to it. They did not seek to extend or build upon the ‘lore’ (if you will) of these boys, but rather rewrite it – a prime example of zealotry in fandom, when you would try to overwrite that which you claim to appreciate. This problem translates into a great deal of frustration when you aren’t just trying to appropriate a fictional character, but actively defy human individuals their own right to express and identify freely – and it strikes me as odd that anyone would continue to promote those ships in good conscience after hearing the band’s remarks. In closing, you simply can’t wield total control over how audiences (and by extension, fans) will interpret and adapt/build-upon what you create – but this case stands as a subtle warning to show consideration for public figures when involving them in your work, as the repercussions for them can be more impactful then you can account for. JamesFDTD99 (discuss • contribs) 05:05, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Conclusion

To conclude briefly, fandoms can be massively influential over their chosen media/text - steering and re-imagining content, sometimes for better, and occasionally for worse. By taking a hard glance at fan culture and how we theorise it across these three case studies, we believe that our accounts of the evolution of specific texts have contributed to a greater net understanding of transmediality - a concept which is the subject of heated debate to this day. Thanks for reading, we hope you found our research insightful - and if not, at least a bit intriguing!