Cinema Fandom and Politics

Participatory culture is a contrast with older notions of passive media spectatorship. Instead as seeing the spectators as consumers or producers we see them as participants. The role of a consumer is changing due to the converging of media and those “consumers” are currently starting to produce their own media. The Web provides a powerful new distribution channel for amateur cultural production (Jenkins137). You can find fans posting videos, commentaries, or “Fan Fictions,” all over the Internet these days. The film clip I choose to relate to this chapter, Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars? by Henry Jenkins, was a parody of transformers. The people who altered the original cartoon of transformers saw something else in the film. They posted this fan fiction to add their own taste, essentially become a participant and not just a consumer or producer. Jenkins also wrote that,” the Web has made visible the hidden compromises that enabled participatory culture and commercial culture to coexist throughout much of the twentieth century” (Jenkins141). Those two separate meanings now coincide with each other. Fans today are readily able to digitally express their opinions to others who may be fans as well. In the short film I posted the ones who produced it changed the voices to many different other quotes from movies which in turn gave it some comedic scenes. This shows exactly how they wished to share their opinion; perhaps they wanted more laughs throughout the next film? The fan films today are a thriving new way to look at convergence in media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObkCZlUHoek

The picture I have chosen was clearly altered to fit the perception of producer. It looks to me that this person is again president Barack Obama because to him he sees just another republican. In this picture it is clear that there is both ethical and emotional appeals. The fact that he strongly dislikes the president and also the major point that Barack himself is a democrat but some democrats believe him to be more of a republican. Jenkins writes “collective intelligence can be seen as an altered source of media power” (Jenkins 4). And that “collective meaning making is changing the way politics operate. Politics has changed dramatically with media converging. Something that should be pro Barack can be turned around just by someone else’s’ opinion. Jenkins predicted that the ability to mass-produce and mass-circulate images would have a profoundly democratic impact (Jenkins 223). Anyone can alter a photograph and change the whole intent of that photograph and then circulate it to whomever and wherever. And in that case could change other peoples’ opinion on that matter. Media has changed politics and I am almost sure it will always be apart of politics from now on.

http://coverawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/newrepublic.jpg