A.O.: 11-3-16: Brightside of the Feedback Loop of Fan Culture

I’m not quite sure what tone Jenkins is taking in his piece on participatory culture, but I would like to speak in favor of fan culture and the feedback loop it creates with mainstream industry. In a way this feedback loop reminds me of symbiotic relationships that occur in nature in that both parties, potentially, have something to gain from this relationship.

The media puts forth content which, in Jenkins words, the fans perceive as raw material for telling their own stories and making their own communities (457). They take these “materials” and alter and change different aspects leading to spin-offs, explanations, or just fantasies of fantasies of the stories that they have been told. The companies then see these fan folk works, admire their success, and then attempt to emulate them. In some cases, big companies take on the creators of these fan works to make sure that the corporations properly capture the essence of what they are trying to emulate.

In this relationship, the fan creator was able not only to garner attention and admiration for their work from peers but from the media’s officials as well. Should they be taken in they become official, working under those that the fan admired and can access far more resources. Granted this potentially removes the “folk” aspect from the work it isn’t to say that this is bad. Sometimes it’s nice to see the small indie media that you like have access to the resources and materials that the pros have that allows them to truly flex their creative muscles and make something truly amazing. On the media end of it, the corporations now have a new insight into what the fans want and can (emphasis on can, they might not always…) use the information to generate something different and new. These new media contents can be successful ventures and generate more profit (yes its quite a capitalist driven relation, but hey always look for the silver linings in the clouds).

Of course, this is all provided that the corporations that go out and observe these folk cultures are pleasant in nature. There are some corporations who would go out and adopt these fans offering to make their project big, but in doing so distort the project to make it more fitting for a consumer market, otherwise known as “selling out”. Or worse, if they can, corporations take legal action against fans for infringing on creative laws, sometimes rightfully, other times for the sake of removing competition.

Of course both of all of these instances are plausible but I just thought it would be nice to appreciate the positives of fan culture and how they have a chance at becoming something even greater.