Cinema Fandom and Politics

Although fandom started big with cinema, cinema is not the only industry that warrants it. Fandom stretches across all corners of the entertainment world from Japanese anime to websites to video games. Each niche of fans has a few unique aspects, but, for the most part, fandom is the same everywhere. Video games have been popular since Pac-Man was introduced to us in the 80s. They evolved so much and became so popular that some games obtained their own Fandom. Tekken is one such game. The action-adventure fighting classic game from the early 90s was a craze in Japan and slowly spread to the U.S. By the late 90s, every gamer in America knew Tekken and every finishing move to every character. The craze spread from the computer and TV screens to Halloween costumes and homemade fandom movies.

One fandom preview for a movie, Tekken, shows the depth a fan wen

t to create his own thumbprint on the game he loves in hopes to forever be associated with it. The clip undoubtedly took hours upon hours to animate and edit, not to mention to find famous people and actors to paste beside the cartoon fighters pictures that resemble them. Jenkin's explains this transfer of fans into participants; "participation is open-ended, less under the control of media producers and more under the control of media consumers". But Jenkin's throws video games solely into the category of 'Interactivity'. I believe video games hold the best of both worlds; they create a "represented world" in which the consumers can act in, while, at the same time, offer a real dimension that gamers can communicate and express their love for their respective games.

Tekken has evolved into a same type craze as Star Wars, though on a smaller scale. Thousands of Tekken fans gather each year in cities around the world and pl

ay all variations of the games, many of which were created by 'participants' as a spur of the original game. The fans dress as their favorite warriors and carry their respective weapons and even stage mock battles in open arenas for everyone to watch.

Photoshopping may consist of totally man made pictures or just picture with a caption under it with a satirical message. This one of former President Bush captures the feeling of a large population of Americans (and cultures around the world for that matter). Bush, as you know, was not our country's favorite president. This subtle satire portraying a comical misspelling of a simple word along with one of his classic monkey-expression faces makes Bush look like a total idiot. It plays to all Americans. Any Democrat would join in on an anti-Bush tirade if given the time of the day, but it takes talent to make a republican make fun of another republican. When this picture is viewed, even the Republicans chuckle and say to themselves "man, he really was an idiot". If this picture wasn't viewed, however, many people would defend Bush's actions as good-intentioned. The picture contains an argument of anti-ethos. The creator stabs at Bush's 'less-than-spectacular-intellect' and America buys it, even though we know in our heads that he is a brilliant Yale University graduate.