Fandom as a mode of second production : Active audienceship of the rising shadow

• Looking and visuality imply an audience. The aim of this paper is to open audience’s passive role as a communicative receiver for discussion. The paper will focus on the productive practices of a digital fandom network of science fiction and fantasy genre literature. It connects Walter Benjamin’s notions of the afterlife of texts and the translator’s task (1924, 1936) to fandom as a productive network (Fiske, 1992; Jenkins, 1992). The empirical analysis draws from an ethnographic study of a Finnish science fiction and fantasy literature fandom Rising Shadow digital network, www.risingshadow.net. The analysis illuminates how networked exchanges produce translation zones and loving closeness as a form of afterlife of genre texts facilitating learning, accumulation of expertise within fandom network, and even professional development that is linked to commercial publishing and fan production in media.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

audience participation; science fiction; fandom; literature; organisation; digital production network; consumption; innovation; consumer culture

Organisation theory

Organisationsteori

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)