Fan Sites

"fans are not fringe extremists with an unhealthy and urealistic interest in a particular media text, but savy consumers who are able to use popular culture to fulfil their desires and needs, often explicitly rearticulating that culture in unique and empowering ways" (82)

I would agree that fans are not fringe extremists--crazy yahoos who have nothing better to do with their time. Well, some of them are. But "fans" (the concept of what a fan is) has been around for awhile, and the internet simply gives fans the ability to express and share their delight and enthusiasm for particular things publicly and with other fellow fans. (Fans who use the internet to show their excitement probably seem more on the fringe--although arguably this stereotype is rapidly eroding away as it becomes more commonplace--because they have even more tools to publicly display their devotion.)

Media is a part of culture and is meant to be shared and enjoyed. Fans who participate in fan sites and forums use popular culture as a bridge, a connection, to other people. (By definition, popular culture is implanted in the consciousness of the masses.) These "savy consumers," and consumers they are, using the internet, are able to 1) express themselves, 2) partaking in the particular text of their fancy and thus participate in culture, and 3) and share their enjoyment with other people, and as a result, building relationship and becoming part of a community. These three things are not necessarily consciously done, however, humans are socio-cultural beings and will naturally find ways to do these three things in many different media. It's no surprise, then, that the internet fosters such activities.

Now, although I pretty much agree with the quote, I'm not so sure about the "explicitly rearticulating that culture in unique and empowering ways" part. Certainly, fan site contributors, especially those who write fan fiction and the like, are in concept doing something unique. On the other hand, a lot of fan fiction is really crappy and of course very derivative. Great artistic achievements would be hard to come by in the depths of on-line fan fiction. And exactly how is this empowering? Perhaps there are cases where fans actually bond together to keep a show on the air. This is empowering. But this probably is the exception not the rule. I don't think we should look down upon the online fan or fan internet fan communities. At the same time, I don't think we need to idolize them either. On-line fan communities are a cultural phenomenon where individuals can increase and deepen their cultural interaction beyond what was possible in the pre-World Wide Web days because of the internet's instantaneous, mass-public, and unrestrictive nature.