Fans: The Most Active and Creative Group Within Media Audiences

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Recommended: Media influence on the public

“Fans are the ones who wear the colours of their favourite team, the ones who record their soap operas on VCR’S to watch after the day of work is over, the ones who tell you every detail about a movie stars life and work, the ones who sit in line for hours for front row tickets to rock concerts.” (Lisa. A. Lewis 1992: 1).

This description of fans exhibits the intriguing nature and great interest so called fans has for their idols. It is argued that fans are the most creative and active group out of all of the media audiences. This could be because of the lengths fans go to in order to find out about the latest news concerning their idols or to get the latest merchandise provided by their idols. The examples of the activities fans engage in such as waiting in line for hours to receive front row tickets to their favourite artist’s concert is argued to make fans the most identifiable and visible media audience.

In this essay I plan to discuss if fans are the most active and creative group within media audiences and if true, how are they the most active and creative media audience.

To fully gain an understanding of fans as a media audience it is important to define the word ‘fandom’ to gain a better understanding of fans as a media audience. In a way we are all fans of something in the sense that we all as individuals respect, admire and desire. However it is important to distinguish between a ‘fan’ and an individual who just simply respects or admires a certain individual. Three scholars have different definitions of fandom and the first scholar is Joli Jensen who:

“Surveys the social scientist’s view of fandom as pathological and deviant. She draws a parallel between the fan’s obsession with popular media figures...

... middle of paper ...

...hin media audiences. Although I have also come across research which would dispute my agreement with fans being the most active and creative group I feel that the research that supports this is stronger evidence and therefore supports this conclusion.

Bibliography

Alasuutari, P. (1999) rethinking the Media Audience, London: Sage

Alexander, A. and Harris, C. (1998) Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subcultures and Identity, London: Hampton

Barker, M. and Brooks, K. (1993) ‘knowing Audiences: Judge Dredd: It’s Friends, Fans and Foes.

Jenkins, H. (2006) Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: media consumption in a digital age, London and New York: Routledge

Lewis, A. L. (1991) The Adoring Audience, London: HarperCollins

Web referencing

Wikipedia. (2010 18th March). Trekkie. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekkie. Last accessed 10th March 2010 at

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