Starring System Writing fan cultures as a dialogical performance of [aca]fandom Agnese Vellar PhD student in Communication Science Department of Social Sciences Università degli Studi di Torino - Italy “ Transforming Audiences 2” - 3 September 2009. University of Westminster. London, UK

Writing fan cultures as a dialogical performance of [aca]fandom Scenario : convergence culture and networked publics. Methodology : multisited ethnography and biographical interviews. Case Study : italian fandom of tv serial. Conclusion : fan communities and transnational audiences.

Scenario : convergence culture and networked publics.

Methodology : multisited ethnography and biographical interviews.

Case Study : italian fandom of tv serial.

Conclusion : fan communities and transnational audiences.

Convergence Culture (Jenkins 2006) Partecipatory media cultures Corporation Producers Media-mix Primary and secondary text Amateur media production Tertiary text Cross-media platform

Corporation

Producers

Reconceptualizing audiences Mobilized audiences Mass Media Networked Publics (Ito 2008, boyd 2008) Interpretive community (youth) Immagined audience Community of practice (fan group) Niche peer culture

Performances of Fan Audiencehood (Hills 2002) cultural capital symbolic capital social capital Competitive self performance of the audience-as-text Just-in-time fandom Textual Performers Emergence of culture

From Community to Collectivism networked (Baym, N. K. 2007) (Forum, Blog,Social Network Site, Video Sharing Site) Broad audience site-based (Baym, N. K. 2000) (Usenet Newsgroup) Techno-élite Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv.soaps From: [email_address] Subject: Re: AMC: Episode 256 >Hi Everyone, Did you like the episode? I do --- “ my life is a soap opera, isn’t yours?” { =.=}

Starring System cultural capital symbolic capital social capital egocentric network and networked collectivism competition and collaboration multifaceted and multisited individual and collective performances of fan audiencehood (boyd 2009) (Baym 2007) Remix cultural material

A methodology to write fan cultures Explorative research on Italian Networked Publics (03.2008 – 07.2008). Case study on a community of practice (08.2008 – 07.2009): Multi-sited participant observation. Content analysis of multimedia material. Analytical auto-ethnography: Narrative biography. Visual chart. Biographical interviews. 12 face-to-face interviews (6 Male; 6 Famale).

Explorative research on Italian Networked Publics (03.2008 – 07.2008).

Case study on a community of practice (08.2008 – 07.2009):

Multi-sited participant observation.

Content analysis of multimedia material.

Analytical auto-ethnography:

Narrative biography.

Visual chart.

Biographical interviews.

12 face-to-face interviews (6 Male; 6 Famale).

Amateur Expert and Networked Collectivism meetings - Conventions MySpace profiles fansite fanforum blog fansubs Creative work - Collaborative Knowledge - Social Text fanart performs their competence and their passion Productive activity   Social interaction

ItaSA: community of fansubbing Cooperate to create italian subtitle of American Tv Serial Forum Chat Telefilm festival 2009 Facebook Twitter Hierarchical site-based community of practice

Staff Forum subbing, review , global moderation, website administration subbing, review , global moderation subbing, review subbing subbing resync december 2008 Founded in december 2005 by Klonni 7 19 16 148 32 board More than 30.000 thread More than 1.000.000 post More than 130.000 Users 9 199 Subtitles Tv serial (300) movie anime documentary more than 115.000 0 50 Meredith Grey 292 50 99 Betty Suarez 175 100 199 Kyle 174 200 499 Earl Hickey 60 500 999 Dexter Morgan 42 1000 1999 Michael Scofield 25 2000 3499 Hiro Nakamura 8 3500 4999 Christian Troy 10 5000 6499 Jack Bauer 3 6500 9999 Gregory House 3 10.000 ***JACOB***

Subtitles

Tv serial (300)

movie

anime

documentary

Emerging identities Online group a common interest Collective identity a common ethos Community of practice a common project Sense of belonging Offline local subgroups a common place Ongoing dialogue

A dialogical performance of [aca]fandom Analytical auto-ethnography (visual and narrative) fan scholar-fan fan-scholar 12 biographical interviews with members of the community to describe the emergence of fan cultures from individual biographies.

The emergence of a community of practice I wanna apply my technological skills. I wanna improve my english. Organize work teams Adapt english subtitle Manage a Web 2.0 portal Adapt open source software (we wanna have fun!) Gain visibility in the italian networked publics scientific faculty  interdisciplinary staff  humanistic faculty Collaboratively develop skills

Media production – P2P learning Learn foreign languages Improve writing competences Visual literacy I wanna became a subber . media oriented  creative practices  social oriented role models Cooperate to product fansubs  collective activities  Collaborate sharing fanart We communicate in a multimedia environment.

Fandom - Transnational audiences Cross Media Platform space of flow National PayTv (walled garden) National TV Commercial media sharing (controll) P2P Networks (open) National Imagined Community National Networked Publics Global   Local Transnational Networked Publics Niche markets Free / Pay Consumption / Participation Italia / English Networked collectivism

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