Fandom: Area Revision

Fandom’s an interesting thing. Various fan works (art, fiction, videos, etc.) basically reinvent/reinterpret the original product into a new media form. Fans who do this are basically prosumers, and they’re building directly off of existing things rather than do entirely original stuff. Not that they can’t do both, of course. Theory-wise, the biggest one for this area is Henry Jenkins’ stuff. He basically talks about fandoms reinventing the stuff they like, and 'knowledge centres', fan community.

We were looking at fandom in relation to film. There was a stop-motion 'let it go' lego animation. But that’s not the only example out there. You can just type a character’s name into deviantart, and you’d be flooded with fanart. Fanfiction.net’s got a decent movies section, and there’s some fairly popular fanfics on there. The top few star wars ones, for example, have a fair few K favuorites (and all seem to be peggy-sue fics). You can check the site closer to the exam for more specific examples if needed.

Let’s take Deadpool for a more in-depth look. Type that into DA (or even google images), and you’ll find tons or art, most of it probably amateur-fan-made. The quality will be very varied, from pretty simple sketches to cell-shaded, full colour pictures you wouldn’t be surprised to find on official posters. This can be linked to Keen, and his argument about the ‘cult of the amateur’.

Terminology

·         Fandom

·         Prosumer(s)

Media in the Online Age: Media in Everyday Life

Media in the Online Age: Media in Everyday Life

'This is the age of the prosumer- where the consumer becomes the producer.' Discuss.

This statement basically means that the world today is heavily influenced by prosumers. It implies that prosumers are becoming increasingly common and relevant in the modern world. In this essay, I will be examining the extent to which this statement holds true.

One of the best examples of supporting evidence for the statement is the rising popularity of Vloggers. Individuals like Tyler Oakley, otherwise normal people who film their lives for the world to see, and gained a huge following in the process. Vloggers typically post their videos on YouTube, exemplifying the key role of Web 2.0 in enabling Prosumers to become successful. The core ideology behind Vlogging is the idea of sharing the story of your life with the viewers. This also supports Wesch’s theory about the web linking people together on a global scale. Oakley has become a veritable celebrity, and others have achieved similar fame. Looking forward, it is likely that we will see many more online celebrities making a name for themselves.

Another example of Web 2.0 providing a platform for prosumers is Twitter. Twitter allows users to post text, images and more for the world to see. The most entertaining, or otherwise engaging accounts can rack up huge numbers of followers. Naturally, various celebrities use the site, but amateurs can find just as much success. This can be seen as an example of ‘the great levelling’ that the internet is idealised as having done. Twitter allows anyone to become a prosumer with a few clicks. Goffman’s theory, which talks about the various ‘masks’ that people wear in different situations, obviously comes to mind when looking at any sort of social media. On sites like Twitter, behind the safety of a computer screen (and perhaps anonymity), users often feel more comfortable, and willing, to act as they wish to, rather than conform to society’s expectations.

The film industry’s various productions can often generate huge fandoms, especially when it comes to beloved favourites like Indiana Jones or Star Wars. Amongst the various ways that fans can express their enjoyment of such films is to create fanfiction, the more popular stories often being very creative and well written. For example, the most favourited story in the ‘Star Wars’ section of Fanfiction.net features a version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who finds himself transported back in time after dying in a duel he canonically won, thus giving him a chance to avert the development of Darth Vader. This 120K-word story has attracted over five thousand favourites. This, clearly, is an example of Jenkins theory in action, fans taking a work and reinterpreting it into another form. These fandom-based prosumers also have the potential to turn their works into profitable ventures- it is well-know by now that, 50 Shades of Grey started out as Twilight fanfiction before being adapted into a very popular book series and movie, quality aside.

For another example of Prosumers making profit from their creations, look at the rising popularity of parody music on YouTube. Various users, such as TheLivingTombstone, have produced videos based on various pop-culture elements that have received millions of views. From reworded pop-songs to all-original music and vocals, these creative musicians are able to entertain audiences, as well as catering to various Fandoms. Video Games, Like the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, are often popular subjects of these songs. It is a niche market, but being able to sell their songs on Itunes, as well as gaining ad revenue from YouTube, means that such musicians are able to benefit from the commercial effect of the ‘Long Tail’ described by Chris Anderson.

A counterexample to all this would be the continuing dominance of the mainstream record labels in the music industry. Universal Music Group, for example, is the label behind Justin Beiber, one of the most popular musicians in the world. It is likely that, without a paradigm shift in the nature of the web’s music scene, this will continue to be the case.

On the whole, though, I agree with the statement: This is the Age of the Prosumer. There are many examples of Prosumers emerging in relation to various mainstream industries, and it is likely that this trend will continue to grow. It is certainly affecting the mainstream media gods: they are scouting talented individuals in the crowd of online of Prosumers, people like Justin Beiber, who started out posting his songs to YouTube.

Is Hatsune Miku a better pop star than Justin Bieber? (Another interesting video)

This is a another interesting video, comparing the Vocaloid phenomenon to human pop stars.

Vocaloid is an extremely interesting phenomenon to examine from the view of a media student. They say pop stars are nothing without their fans, but Miku and her fellows take that phrase to a whole new level. Vocaloids are literally built by the fans; their songs, personalities, all constructed by fans, for fans, in a variety of mediums. The only caveat to this is that the software itself is produced by a professional company. ASide from this, it's a perfect example of Prosumer culture. Someone will make a song and upload it to the web, often with artwork. Others will create fanart that fits the song. Some will remix it, create their own versions, translate it into other languages, etc. People feed and build off of each other's creativity.

Though many Vocaloid songs are made by professionals, just as many, if not more, are made by amateurs. The rise of the amateur is in full force. Vocaloid blurs the lines a little as well, meaning that amateur-made songs can be just as popular as ones made by professional bands, which has interesting implications for the 'long tail' theory.

Another interesting thing to note is that these amateur made songs can feed back into the professional world. The 'Project Diva' rythm game series, created by Crypton and Sega, essentially compiles some of the most popular Vocaloid tracks for each game, regardless of the professionalism of who made the song.

The Future of Fandoms

Just an interesting video I found.

Digital Piracy

The Development of Digital Piracy

The first example of digital piracy was the creation of Napster, a site based around the sharing of MP3 music files over the internet, in 1999. Napster survived in this form from June '99 to July '01, just over two years, before being taken down, after losing a legal case with the district court and being unable to comply with the demand for total filtering of copyrighted material. the following year, Napster declared itself bankrupt.

Napster worked as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based-service, essentially meaning that files shared on the service were provided by fellow users (peers), and not the producers or official distributors.

The Napster brand eventually became an online music store, before being acquired in 2011 by Rhapsody. It was the first, it inspired the creation of many other sites of a similar nature. Freenet, for example, is a free P2P platform that offers users a free way to publish and share copyrighted material online, preventing filtering of the uploaded content with the help of decentralized data storage. It follows the footsteps of the earlier Gnutella service, another large P2P file-sharing service.

Madster, a service similar to Napster, appeared in an attempt to take over the gap left by Napster's closure in 2000, but was shut down in 2002 by a lawsuit from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA was also responsible for the closure of Scour Inc. a service similar to napster that had been founded in 1997, suing on grounds of copyright infringement.

Finally, LimeWire, a P2P file-sharing service that used both Gnutella and Bittorrent, was ordered to terminate its services in 2010 by a federal court ruling. However, the software came in multiple versions,  both freeware and paid. As a result, any Limewire software that has not been updated past 5.5.10 remains functional, as the next and future versions contained a disabling backdoor created by the company.


Pirating today

The most pirated film of all time is, according to ExtraTorrent, Iron Man 3. Drake's 2013 album 'Nothing was the same' is likewise the most pirated music album ever.

Today, there are numerous ways to pirate copyrighted material. There are numerous sites based around the upload of televison programmes and movies, for example, which allow you to both watch online and download for future viewing. Some sites, like The Pirate Bay, provide links to these sources. Youtube is also a favourite, users uploading copyrighted songs and videos to the site. with Youtube Converters, that is, tools that turn youtube videos into MP3s and MP4s, this means that people have access to plenty of content for free.

Impact on the music industry

With the loss of revenue from piracy, producers look to other income sources to recoup losses. A link from piracy to rising ticket prices for concerts has been made, with Livewire's Executive Chairman Irving Azoff tweeting“So if you want ticket prices to go down, stop stealing music”  in 2010. However, it must be noted that these prices are also rising due to several other factors, including the presence of a ticket 'black market' of sorts which resells tickets to desperate fans.

In addition, the RIAA estimates that between 2001 and 2012, music industry revenues fell by around 27%

On the other hand, for smaller artists, Piracy actually helps their music spread and find new fans. Some argue that this promotional effect is true for all artsits, finding fans whose consumption of media related to the artist will increase revenue in the long term, or at least balance out the loss from the initial piracy. Radiohead has been notably unopposed to Piracy.

What attempts have been made to combat piracy?

There are numerous actions being taken against Piracy. Some artists, like Prince, are taking legal action, both against pirating fans and the sites that enable them.  U2 is apparently working with apple to create a new music file format which cannot be copied. Youtube has a system (albeit a heavily abused and faulty one) which allows copyrighted material to be reported. And finally, the streaming site Twitch mutes sections of recorded streams if (unauthorised) usage of copyrighted audio is detected.

Prosumers on YouTube

Prosumers on you tube from mjwilcox

The long tail on Amazon music

It is hard to pinpoint the sales of various music genres. however, it is poassible to prove that niche genres do have a place on amazon.

As you can see from the screenshots, Amazon prime lists 286,494 results for Pop music, and 37,699 results for New Age music. New Age is, obviously, a niche market, but there is still a decent representation of it on Amazon.

Universal Music Group

The music industry in the past

How I use the internet to consume music

There are two services which I use primarily when it comes to consuming music: YouTube and ITunes.

I use YouTube to stream music often. There are several channels, like the Piano guys, which regularly produce music that I like to listen to. YouTube, as a free service, means that I do not have to buy the songs to listen to and enjoy them.

ITunes, obviously, is a paid service. I use it to buy music, often tracks that I have come across on YouTube and would like to be able to listen to on the move (via mp3 player or car CD player). I have found that tracks on Itunes can sometimes be cheaper than on Amaxzon's digital music service; Tracks listed at 79p on ITunes can sometimes be 99p on Amazon. It also makes organisation of my music very easy, and allows be to burn CD's with little fuss.

Another online music streaming service is Spotify. I used to use spotify occasionally a few years ago, but I soon lost interest. This was, admittedly, more due to my lesser interest in music at the time than any issues with the service itself, though Itunes and youtube do seem easier to set up playlists and listen to.

Facebook Research

Origins

Facebook is a massive social media site based in California. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4^th 2004, while he was attending Harvard. Initially limited to Harvard students, the site quickly grew, first to other colleges, then universities and high-schools.  In 2006, the site was made open to anyone above 13 years of age. The site gained the interest of major companies like Microsoft, which purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million in 2007. The price implied that Facebook as a whole was worth around $15 billion.

Today

Now, Facebook has over a billion users worldwide, and is still owned by Zuckerberg. It has pages for businesses to promote themselves, online games, and news. It allows people to keep in touch with others on a global scale, and the chat function allows quick, free communication between individuals and groups. The company is buying new technologies and companies (such as Oculus Rift and its developer Oculus VR) to both improve the current Facebook format and to diversify the company.

Negatives

• Cyberbullying,
• Under-age children are ably to sign up easily,
•  Fake accounts,
• Radicalising groups can use it for propaganda,
• The systems behind blocking and reporting users can be abused for malicious purposes.

Controversies

Inevitably, Facebook has faced controversy over time. A policy to have registering users use their real names (in order to make finding friends’ profiles easier) backfired. The system implemented had no tolerance for adopted names or pseudonyms, resulting in legitimate users having their accounts suspended. Reporting of ‘fake names’ was abused, with one user using the system to target Drag Queens using their stage names on the site.

Their policies have also related issues. Although it is understandable for Facebook to not want certain types of images on the site, removed images have included naked mannequins and kisses between same-sex couples. Additionally, a policy to have the site be policed by its users has drawn complaints that it enables harassment, by empowering those with malicious intent to report innocuous posts and have the target account shut down for a period of time.

Changes to the site layout have not always been accepted either. In September 2011, Facebook announced a new feature called Timeline, which was meant to make profile navigation easier. However, a significant proportion of users disliked the change, an issue that worsened when Timeline became mandatory for all profiles.

Finally, Facebook has had some pretty serious technical issues over the years. Long downtimes and glitch-causing outages have attracted media attention several times. An outage in 2007 created a security bug that allowed users to read each other’s private messages. In September 2009, Facebook had catastrophic loading issues for a while, and a month later an unspecified amount of users were unable to log in for more than three weeks.

Opposition to Wesch's claim

Andrew Keen presents an opposing idea to Wesch's, seeing web 2.0 as a much more negative entity. He claims that it devalues true expertise and talented individuals in favor of the amateur, throwing culture into chaos.

I do not believe this is exactly true. Many prolific YouTube creators have built careers and businesses much like traditional media companies. Rhett and Link and the Fine Bros, for example, produce shows that use standard sets and a production crew. The latter have also produced a television show for Nickelodeon. Web 2.0 content producers are not degrading professionals. In many cases, they emulate them, and collaborate with professionals to ensure they produce quality content for their viewers.

It is the same with his claim that Internet Ogliarchs are replacing those of Old Media. No-one is deposing the controllers of standard media. For a start, there are no true Internet Ogliarchs; No-one truly rules the web, though several personalities do have considerable influence with their fans (as do more 'traditional' celebrities). What they are doing is giving old media ogliarchs huge competition.

However, the relationship isn't always antagonistic. Several YouTube channels, such as the Fine Bros and Epic Meal Time, have been invited to create television programmes. Others have written books, collaborated on music tracks, advertised products,etc.

It is true, on the other hand, that YouTube videos can have a 'shout loudest, seen most' sense to them. The more outrageous a video is, the more likely it is to be shared. But then, that isn't exactly a new trick in the book. Marketing campaigns have been doing impressive stunts to raise awareness for ages.

Additionally, more traditional media stars have been able to use YouTube to find huge success. the Korean music artist Psy, for example, released Gangnam Style on YouTube in December 2015, and the outrageously funny video spawned hundreds of imitations and parodies. The video became a viral sensation, becoming the most-viewed video on YouTube with over 2.5 billion views.

However, despite all this, it is clear that media is changing. YouTube is a huge, and growing, media platform, one which avoids many of the traditions of media. Anyone can pick up a camera, anyone can create a video. Anyone can, with enough effort and maybe some luck, become a star.

The Audience as Creators and Collaborators

Wesch views the audience as the centre of today's mediascape, and says that online media changes and mediates modern human relationships.

Vlogging is an interesting concept, which seems to support these views. The most prolific vloggers have turned little videos of their daily lives into online fame and huge careers. Joe Sugg, for example, has over 6 million subscribers, and recently released a graphic novel, 'Username: Evie', as well as starring in the 2015 film 'Joe and Casper Hit the Road'.

Jonny Benjamin vlogs to keep on top of suicidal thoughts, producing videos which touch and affect people the world over. The audience gives back to him, offering support, and he lets others know that they are not alone in their struggles.

Rhett and Link, a pair of comedy vloggers from America, entertain over 9 million subscribers with Good Mythical morning, a 15-minute show every weekday which covers a vast array of topics. Two extra channels extend this entertainment show, and give a look behind-the-scenes. Their business has grown to the point where they have a production crew, merchandise, prize contests, and a segment introduced by audience members.

Vloggers are ordinary people who film themselves. Everything that else that is attributed to them, all their fame and influence, is due solely to the force of their audience, the people who they connect with through vlogging. They can inspire others to pick up a camera as well. The audience becomes the creators, building upon each other and building a vast community focussed around numerous individuals.

YouTube Statistics and Facts

Youtube stats from mjwilcox

Looking at Michael Wesch

An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Wesch believes that YouTube is a perfect example of new forms of media and community. He uses the evolution of the Numa Numa viral video to illustrate this. Numa Numa is just a guy messing around in his bedroom, doing a silly dance that the whole world joined in.

• 'The Web is not Just about information, it's about linking people in new, unpredictable ways'

YouTube is at the centre of a user-based system. User-generated filtering, organisation and distribution are what makes videos popular. An analysis video he himself did whent viral due to the networks in place, reaching number one by noon and staying there through the next day. The Next day, in this case, being Superbowl Sunday, the day that tons of super-popular clips from the event flooded YouTube.

Wesch also says that media is not just context and tools of communication. It mediates human relationships; When media changes, so do human relationships.

Wesch identifies A 'Cultural Inversion' on the web. People express individualism, independence and commercialisation, but value community, relationships and authenticity. This links to a 'Cultural Tension', where the connection of people leads to constraint. On YouTube, he says that this tension is absent.

• The most private place becomes the most public with YouTube+webcams.

Youtube is also a source of drama. It can lead to identity crisis's, when people are discorvered to not be who they claimed, e.g. emokid and loneleygirl. People can rage over this. It has been pointed out by people, though, that this links to the idea of 'Masks', comparable to Goffman and Giddens' theories on self identity.

   -People are producers, producing themselves, re-taking identity (literally, redoing filming), editing      our own histories (e.g. deleting past videos), playing with identity.

As things spread about on YoutTube, there can be a collapse of context. some war vets joking around at a party becomes an official endorsement to bomb iran, complete with it's own theme tune.

The Resurgence of Creating Things

Gauntlett suggests that 'maybe we'reentering an era where the pleasure of making things is having a resurgence?'

There are many examples of this being true in the online world. Youtubers are one of the most well known examples. Videos can range fron original sketches, to parodies, to 'lets plays' of various video games, in which the main draw is the commentator's personality and reactions to a game.
 Some examples include the following:

  

  

Other examples include Webcomics, online stories like the well-known 'creepypastas' and indie games, which have constituted some of the biggest games in recent years, incuding titles like 'Undertale' and 'Five Nights at Freddies'.