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This assignment asks you to analyze comments by fans, a specific type of audience. There is an immense variety of fan sites to choose from (ranging from officially sanctioned sites (like CBS?sSurvivor website, to MTV?sJersey Shore site), to unedited newsgroups to unapproved, unofficial sites (some of which support the official sites, and some of which steal from them). I recommend choosing a particular example of a tv show, film, music band, video game, etc. in order to highlight what the discourse of fans reveals, both about the text, and the context obviously. Your goal, here, is to study a specific audience ? so analyses of ?rock music? in general will be far less effective than a study of how fans of a particular group differ from other rock fans, for example.
You may find it easiest to start by considering what type of audience you?re interested in. Then, you will have to decide on a place to find evidence of the fan community. Finally, you will have to select examples of fan discourse/activities that provide evidence for you to answer the questions below. So, for instance, you might start out by thinking that you want to investigate the fan-audience of Survivor. You will then need to choose which site will give you the most information. Do you use the official CBS webpage or find a blog based around the show, or go to a website that hosts reality TV show discussions in general, or go to a targeted site such as http://www.survivorfire.com? Once that decision is made, you will need to find a manageable forum for posts by fans that demonstrate exactly what kind of audience they are, what they do, what meanings they make, and what they get out of the experience.
You may find that some sites reveal a preponderance of comments like ?McDreamy is so hot!? or ?it?s f***** excellent that you can get away with showing so much violence and swearing on a show like Dexter? or this show rocks/sucks etc. Self-aggrandizement and celebrity worship are not the most important things here. However, they reveal other very important emphases. What, for instance, are the reasons why some people seem to pay such close attention to the message in question?
Once your forum has been chosen, identify and highlight crucial comments that reveal the relationship between fans and their product of choice. Use these to help you answer the following questions:
1. Upon identifying your text, specify what type of fan support it engenders. (is it able to be contained and controlled? Are they lovers, haters, etc?)
1a) What type of audience is it? (Refer to all the applicable readings in weeks 9 & 10. Is it properly referred to as a consumer-audience, a fan-audience, a subculture-audience, an enthusiast audience, or petty producer-audience and, how do the other authors? definitions of fandom differ from Abercrombie &Longhurst?s?)
1b) What type of skills does your audience display? (please note ? this will also help you answer the earlier question since certain audiences exhibit different skills)
2. What ?sensibility? is present? Explain why.
3. What ideology is present here? (You must refer to both Ang&Grossberg)
4. How is your audience of choice productive? (i.e., do they create anything new here – new objects, new meanings, a sense of community?)
5. What are the fans celebrating? Why does the text matter to them?
6. Is there any evidence of ?poaching?? If so, what shape does it take? If not, what does this mean? (Some choices of audience activity may allow you to answer this question quite easily. Other choices may provide very little evidence of poaching. In either case, you will end up providing further substantiation for your answers to questions #1 and answering the even more important question: What power does the fan have?
7. Is there any evidence of a communal identity? If so, what? If not, why? What is there instead?
Please note ? like the classifications of audiences, these questions are somewhat ?fluid? ? you will note that they blend into one another insofar as questions of power and celebration and new creations are all tied to one another. What you say in one question will be confirmed in another. But do not repeat yourself.
his is, essentially, a tightly scripted essay in which your sections are already clearly laid out ? all you need to do is find the material that allows you to answer them to the best of your ability. Your choice of an audience for your case-study should allow you to demonstrate your knowledge of these core concepts from the readings. As such, you are expected to cite the readings wherever possible. Explicit understanding can only be demonstrated by explicit references. Page numbers and exact quotes are necessary wherever possible (but, since you?re only required to cite course materials, no bibliography is necessary. You can simply cite authors and page numbers to support your quotes.)
Be comprehensive in your citation of course material! Don?t assume that the reader knows all about the concepts in question. You have to demonstrate not just that you can answer the question but that you know what the question is asking. Demonstrate your knowledge of the concept first and then provide an example of fan/audience discourse that demonstrates that! Really, this is just an extended version of your seminar presentations on specific concepts.
You can use subtitles and organize your written assignment according to the numbered questions if you see fit. It may, in fact, help structure your argument.
Though not a formal essay (given its structure), you should have a brief introduction that explains who your audience is and where you found it and a conclusion that summarizes your overall impression of this audience and the nature of the activity you?ve studied.
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