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Fandom As a Remixing Culture

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Fandom As a Remixing Culture Fandom as a remixing culture “Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn't fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it; but if it didn't frustrate us on some level, there would be no drive to rewrite or remake it.” ― Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide Kimberly Leerkes 10586954 2022 EA 380A Haarlem [email protected] 0610236496 Master Thesis New Media Studies 2015-2016 University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities Thesis supervisor: Dr. N. A. J. M. (Niels) van Doorn Second reader: dr. J.A.A. (Jan) Simons 24 June 2016 1 Index Fandom as a remixing culture 1 Index 2 Introduction 3 Methodology 7 Case study 8 Autoethnography 9 Interviews 10 Interviewees 12 Episode I – Defining fandom 15 Fans and fandom 15 RemiXing the canon 18 Episode II – Start of an Empire 21 Fanzines and APA’s 21 Organized fandom 24 The epic story of Star Wars 25 Episode III – The Fans Awaken 29 Fans and the Web 1.0 29 Digital fan labor 32 A rebellion brew 37 Episode IV – The Empire Strikes Back 43 The emergence of platforms 44 The Disney reign 49 Conclusion 56 Further research 57 Bibliography 58 61 Appendix 63 Interview questions 63 Interview findings 65 2 Introduction A long time ago in a galaXy far, far away… Or maybe November 2014, the first sound after a silence of nine years is the voice of the legendary hero Luke Skywalker, actor Mark Hamill, saying the memorable words: “The force is strong in my family.” Familiar sounds of starships passing, lightsabers clashing and stormtroopers shooting are like music to the ears. The trailer of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens does not reveal the plot of the movie, but reassures fans that it is everything they have hoped for. The trailer was viewed over 112 million times in just 24 hours (Marshal 2016). Days after the release, The Force Awakens was still a social buzz with fans proudly tweeting and posting that they have seen the trailer more than 13 times. The satisfaction of the fans was proudly shared by posting parodies, reaction videos, cover arts and already fan fiction narratives on the Web. The fans were heating up ‘society’ for the upcoming movie and it proved to be the most successful Star Wars to date, it was even the highest grossed movie in North America (Hodak 2016). It is striking that Star Wars, with its most successful movies released in the 1970s/1980s and its disappointing trilogy in the late 1990s, was still this popular in 2014. I am convinced that this everlasting popularity is due to the rich fan community Star Wars has and the products they produce. Fans have always had a close relation with new technology. Media professor Henry Jenkins even states: “Fans have always been early adaptors,” (Jenkins 2006b 140-141). I consider fan culture a media culture; new technologies have shaped fan culture to an eXtent that fan culture cannot be seen without media developments. Therefore, the development of fan culture is constantly connected to the progression of new technology. Fans on their part have influenced contemporary society, with their key characteristic of remiXing source material, according to Professor Lawrence Lessig a characteristic of the new generation (Lessig 2007). Nowadays we can see several versions of remiXed content, ranging from parody videos on YouTube to meme culture1 imbedded in almost every website. These activities are no longer attributed to only fans, but have a pre-digital origin that has encountered compleX struggles regarding copyright laws. This thesis will discuss the rise of contemporary fan culture that has not been without difficulties. The focus will be on fan-produced products, the items that fuel the fan community but also cause conflict with the media industry. Though official owners want a harmonious relation with their fans, they cannot suppress the need to remiX content. This tension between owners and fans will guide the developments in fan cultures and new media. 1 An Internet meme is a concept or idea that spreads "virally" from one person to another via the Internet. An Internet meme could be anything from an image to an email or video file; however, the most common meme is an image of a person or animal with a funny or witty caption. 3 Fan culture and media eXpert Henry Jenkins describes a culture that encourages the production of new material. It resembles the nature fan culture, where the community helps each other to produce more qualitative new content. The voice of the masses is stronger than those of the individual, even if that individual is the official maker of the content presented (Jenkins 2006b 135-137). The notion of ownership is put to question. Fans are eXtremely critical and many filmmakers, authors and game developers have tasted the fierce critique fired at them. The power relation between fans and the media industry is one of the major themes that guide this thesis. It shows the increasing power of fans and how the media industry tries to deal with it. The focus is on the Star Wars fandom, a fandom that from its beginning in 1977 has been in a constant struggle between fans and creative owner George Lucas. In the beginning Lucas was appreciative of his fans, but soon he saw that fans crossed the boundaries of his approval. Like his fans, Lucas was an early adaptor of new technologies and therefore the Star Wars fandom was the first to encounter problematic situations. Lucas tried to collaborate with his fans, but his efforts backlashed when fans discovered they had creative differences with Lucas. The relation between companies and their fans is a delicate issue, because fans love to engage and create new content but to do this they use original source material that is the intellectual property of someone else. My research will contribute to new media studies and fan studies by directly connecting the fields of research with each other. Fans and media are inseparable and should be treated as such. This thesis will show how the production of fan products has changed over the years and what effects these changes have caused. The focus is on the fan-generated products. Products that are always connected with new media technologies. Fans use media to create, share and communicate with each other. New media has changed the way fan products are created and shared. New technology implies new ways use and will lead to new behavior. How much has fan culture changed with the emerging of digital technology? I will follow the history of fan cultures and show how closely connected fan cultures are with media and why this concerns the media industry. How has the media industry approached the changing behavior of fan cultures and how have fans reacted to this interference? Research question How has digital technology shaped fan culture and what are the effects of fan generated products in relation to the media industries? 4 Thesis overview The chapters are portrayed as ‘episodes’, a referral to the way each Star Wars movie is titled. The headline of some episodes refer to a movie quote or title that corresponds with the content provided in the chapter. The structure of the thesis follows a chronological order, where I will start with the emergence of organized fan culture and will follow the development of new technologies. Star Wars is therefore very appropriate because the release of each trilogy takes place in the different time periods discussed: pre-digital, early Web (1.0) and the present Web (2.0). I will discuss how new technology has influenced fan cultures and how the relation between fans and the original creator changes over the years. Methodology – The methodology is a theoretical analysis of the different methods and approaches used during this research. It will account for the decision to use certain methods and how these methods are eXecuted and designed. Episode I: Defining Fandom – This chapter aims to eXplain the essence of fan culture and the close relation fans have with media. Key terms and activities are introduced, such as the act of remiXing original source works. This is an activity that shows the nature of fan culture and suggests the conflict fans tend to have with the original authors. The aim for this chapter is to provide a short introduction to fandom. Episode II: Start of an Empire – I will discuss the emergence of fan culture of the 1900s by connecting technological developments with fan activities. It will show the fandom as a network that became more present as media progressed. This will not only show what role media plays in fan cultures, but also how the media industry initially treaded fan engagement. Episode III: The Fans Awaken – This chapter focuses on the transition of fan cultures to the early days of the Web. The time period discussed is the 1990s until roughly the 2000s. Lucas already struggled to control fan activities and tried to use fans for his company. The concept of free labor in relation to fans is discussed. Fan products are not just valuable in the fan community. George Lucas always had an interesting relationship with his fans. He started out loving the attention of fans, but at a turn point he aggressively protected his intellectual property. Over time, the Star Wars fandom has grown to enormous proportion and all the fans have a certain view of what Star Wars is about. When their idea of Star Wars does not match with how Lucas envisions it, conflict emerges.
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