Young People and Media Use by Eda Guven

The Evolution of Technology

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This graph represents the evolution of technology within the United States from 2000-2016. As the years increase, more and more individuals are using technology in their lives (Pew Research Center, 2017).

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"New media technologies have created a participatory popular culture in which audience members do much more than interpret the movies, television programs, video games, and music produced by large corporations. Digital technologies allow individuals to sample and remix popular culture content, write back to popular culture producers, and connect with fellow fans from around the corner and around the world." (Williams & Zenger, 2012, pp. 1-2).

Digital News Outlets Want To Be Social Too

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When studied, digital news outlets were seen to have multiple social media accounts (Pew Research Center, 2016).

Social Media For Change

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"Americans are increasingly turning to social media for news and political information and to encourage others to get involved with a cause or movement. In addition to social and political issues, social media also serve as places where conversations about race intersect with a number of issues, including pop culture, sports and everyday personal experiences." (Pew Research Center, 2016).

Advocating Online

edaguven96 — 2017-03-20 16:54:51 UTC

39% of American adults took part in some sort of political activity in the context of a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter in the 12 months preceding our survey. This includes anyone who did one or more of the following eight activities listed in the table below (Pew Research Center, 2013).

Making New Meanings

edaguven96 — 2017-03-20 17:17:29 UTC

Given the participatory and multimodal nature of media, such as video games, students are engaging in meaning-making activities that challenge the traditional schema for learning that is related only to schoolwork. Attention, therefore, has been centered on the need for curricula to respond to technological and cultural changes with advocates calling for integrating video games or the gaming experience into the classroom (Abrams et al., 2012, pp. 91-92).

Fan Behaviors: Discrimination

edaguven96 — 2017-03-20 17:30:59 UTC

Fans discriminate fiercely, and the boundaries for what falls within their fandom and what does not are sharply drawn (Fiske, 1992, p. 34).

For example, "real" fans of Grey's Anatomy know everything that has happened in the show and there is an emotional connection between the fans and the characters. But, with fandom comes exclusivity. Only the real fans will know, and therefore only the real Grey's Anatomy fans will understand all of the 19 jokes that Buzzfeed has created. Even the title of the Buzzfeed post creates discrimination by using the word "only". "Only" real fans of Grey's Anatomy will understand all the jokes, and if you do not understand a joke, then are you even a real fan?

Fan Behaviors: Productivity

edaguven96 — 2017-03-20 17:55:38 UTC

Popular Culture is produced by the people out of the products of the cultural industries (Fiske, 1992, 37). Fans produce and circulate among themselves texts. Fan texts are not produced for profit, they do not need to be mass marketed unlike official culture (p. 39).

When fans write fan fiction, they are engaging in that world, and create without boundaries. Fans of Grey's Anatomy have over 16 thousand different fans writing about the show on Fanfiction.com. Fans can also create more than texts. In this example of productivity, a fan creates a Tumblr blog all about Greys Anatomy.

Fan Behaviors: Capital Accumulation

edaguven96 — 2017-03-20 23:14:57 UTC

Fan cultural capital lies in the appreciation and knowledge of texts, performers, and events. Yet, the fan's objects of fandom, by definition, are excluded from official cultural capital and its convertibility among education, career opportunities, or economic capital (Fiske, 1992, p. 42). Fan cultural knowledge differs from official cultural knowledge in that it is used to enhance the fan's power over, and participation in, the original text (p. 43).

Both popular and official cultural capital is signaled materially by collections of objects such as artworks, books, and memorabilia.

This example of capital accumulation is of a fan's collection of Grey's Anatomy from different parts of the world.

Fan Discrimination

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Ethnography

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Media Ethnographers study how audiences assume the active role of constructing the meaning of media texts. The meaning of texts evolves out of the activity of audiences' social participation with media texts (Beech, 2007, p. 55).

Media Ethnographers also study how audiences use their responses to media texts to build social relationships (p. 57).

"Students can conduct their own small scale media ethnography studies by analyzing audiences' responses in terms of their engagement, interpretations, applications of beliefs and attitudes, or identity constructions as fans" (p. 64).

Fan Productivity

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This Grey's fan decorates her graduation cap with a quote from the series.

Fan Behaviors: Mode of Enactment

edaguven96 — 2017-03-21 00:54:20 UTC

Mode of Enactment is looking at the way fans engage with text. Fans are emotional, particapatory, subjective, and authoritative (Jenkins, 1992).

Fans know what they like and dislike, and they will defend what they like. With this example of mode of enactment, fans react to the death of a favorite character with a lot of emotion.