What Is Fan Studies?

Nintendo’s Pokemon franchise is a rare beast in a field of short-lived children’s cultures. The series, which began in the realm of handheld video games, quickly developed into one of the longest running anime television series, an ongoing series of manga volumes, feature films, music and an ever expanding realm of merchandise (McCormick, 2000). The success of Pokemon is partly attributed to its ability to target a younger demographic almost exclusively. Parents in the nineties would rush out to pick up a Pikachu themed Gameboy or the latest Pokemon game for the N64 console for their kids (Buckingham, 2007). The impact of Pokemon on children as a whole is significant. This research will explore the impacts of Pokemon fandom on children by focusing on three different aspects: 1) the impact among children; 2) the impact between children and parents, and; 3) the impact between children and society. For the purpose of this research, we will only investigate the impacts on children between seven to twelve years old in the nineties.

When reflecting on my experiences and knowledge of popular culture, I arrived with a number of remarkable questions and concerns:

A fan base or fandom is a group of regular supporters and enthusiasts that spend a rather large amount of time and energy focussing on a team, musician or musical group, entertainer or any other celebrity; these different people/groups can be classed as sort of a leader or main person that holds the group together.

Learning about pop culture truly frightened me when I saw the book we were utilizing at the beginning of the semester. Having been without television for more than 10 years now, I suspected I wouldn’t know much. Being a single parent amid this time gave me an opportunity to see this present era progress through the technological advances of our time, and interestingly, my age placed me in pop culture arena’s that the more youthful era doesn’t even think about. Our book, “Signs of Life in the USA” was splendid at addressing such a variety of products, movies, television, spaces, semiotic multiculturalism, alongside the gender and sexual societal rational to name a few. The transition back to school after 40+ years has given me some shock in the amount of openness and evaluation of actually any subject, religion to politics. Since these are places I refrain to go into conversation with others on the planet, to have my opportunity of opinions gives me a protective feeling with the

Neal Gabler’s 1998 book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, brings up controversial questions about the necessity or unnecessary want of entertainment. Scholars may claim that entertainment breaks family bonds, undermines community, and decreases people’s integrity. Certainly, entertainment in the 21st century in the form of movies, video games, and social media are more widespread than ever. However, not all forms of enjoyment are obscene; sports, television shows, and fan conventions can promote social involvement, reduce stress, and improve collaboration skills.

Movies are not the only types of entertainment that incorporates genre; stories, music, flyers, tweets on twitter, and much more also do too. When applying a genre to ones form of expression, we can look at all aspects of the piece and analyze, analyzing is crucial in today’s society

When using reader-response criticism, a comparison to modern entertainment could be invaluable. Investopedia.com will be used to present evidence that humans enjoy thrilling entertainment by citing box office sale for action films. It would be logical to come to the conclusion that humans would keep the same basic reaction to entertainment. After all, poems and books are meant for entertainment just like films are today. To use reader response criticism on work that time has long since claimed the original audience, it is helpful to have comparable modern

The line between television and the Internet seems to be growing more and more blurred as networks and producers learn to adapt to using online media to grow and capture new audiences. A recent article, “Chris Hardwick, King of the Nerds Is Expanding His Empire” by Lorne Manly in the New York Times features a profile of entertainer Chris Hardwick, who is described as the “model of an entertainment brand for a multiscreen generation” (Manly, par. 5). As a fan of both Chris Hardwick and of geek culture, I found this article to be a fascinating profile of how savvy use of media can allow performers to reach a much wider audience than television alone.

“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been,” in the words of Actor Alan Alda. And that is what why many creative people flock to the seemingly popular subreddit inside Reddit.com, known as FanTheories to to share theories, interpretations and speculation related all types of creative works and to experience a creative place most are unable to say they have been. I too am one of these people who became an active member of this discourse community as it represents my high interest in creative works and combines it with critical thinking and postulating to explore new ideas and bring new life into aging media. However, there is much more to FanTheories than just sharing ideas and hypotheticals

Tyler Daniels speaks about Johnson’s perspective about popular culture in his book review called “Artifacts: A Jurnal of Undergraduate Writing” published in January 2009, giving as a good example “World of Craft”, a video game that has been gravely criticized because it was thought that the game would blurr the fine line between fantasy and reality. However, Steven has a very different perspective as he says that “it’s not what you’re thinking about when you’re playing a game, it’s the way you’re thinking that matters”, empathizing the fact that people can make the difference between what is healthy for their sanity and what could damage them.

The purpose of this evaluation is to analyze the HTML website ‘We the Fans’ and estimate the feasibility and overall functionality of the site. When creating websites, there are many factors which need to be considered to make a site look, function and feel professional. Animation, Website features (video, sound, picture quality and resolution size), Design Principles, Positives/negatives, Improvements, and usability including navigation and load time, will be thoroughly researched to conclude the overall product.

Everyday there are competitions in sports going on. Thousands of people gathered around to watch that one sport they truly love. Those people are called “sports fan”. What does sports fan stand for? According to Oxford English Dictionary the word “fan” means “A fanatic; in modern English (orig. U.S.): a keen and regular spectator of a (professional) sport, orig. of baseball; a regular supporter of a (professional) sports team; hence, a keen follower of a specified hobby or amusement, and gen. an enthusiast for a particular person or thing.” In that case a true “sports fan” is someone who just doesn’t stop talking about that one sport, only wears that one sport team jerseys and if he has a son or daughter he’s going to want them to play or support that one sport he truly loves.

The producers will develop a test and the audience will tell the producers whether it is something they want to see or they are not going to see. This can affect the next text to be produced in an attempt to conform to the audience demands. Looking at the development of different types of genres and the development of films within the same genre, it’s possible to look at similarities and differences and identify changes in society and audience ideologies and tastes.

What do you think of when you hear the word entertainment? Do you ever wonder why it’s the way it is? Have you wondered what forces, ideas, and people have molded and shaped it over time? How does entertainment affect culture and a society? These are questions that might have many different answers of varying explanations and magnitudes. For centuries, people have looked to a multitude of different things to do as a way to escape their normal lives and to have fun. So then came various forms of entertainment. Although it may not seem so at first glance, taking a more critical look at the similarities that our society shares with the Brave New World’s society may yield some shocking discoveries.

It seems ironic, however, that when his fans were near him, he would show no effort to interact with the crowd. No stories, jokes, or anything of the like with which shared with the watchmen. Instead, he seemed to take the fans for granted, almost treating the fans as if they were weak and unimportant, ? occasionally even stretching his arm through the bars to let them feel how skinny he was, but then again withdrawing completely to himself, paying attention to no one.? (Kafka, 256) The Hunger Artist assumes that the crowd will always be there, witnessing and admiring his skills, constantly wondering, ?How does he do it?? So, as time goes on, the hunger artist becomes more and more expecting of his crowd, hungering more and more for the fame and love that his fans seemed to give. Unfortunately, every star, no