OTW Guest Post: Henry Jenkins
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | OTW Guest Post: Henry Jenkins |
| Interviewer: | Claudia Rebaza |
| Interviewee: | Henry Jenkins |
| Date(s): | September 21, 2017 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | OTW Guest Post: Henry Jenkins; [http://www.webcitation.org/6tuzgKm8r WebCite |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
OTW Guest Post: Henry Jenkins is a 2017 interview done as part of a series. See OTW Guest Post.
"Henry Jenkins is one of the best known media scholars studying fandom. His 1992 book Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture has been read all over the world, and is seen as one of the foundational texts of the fan studies field. When we asked if he’d do this month’s guest post for our 10th anniversary, he replied “It’s an honor to be asked to perform this role.” Henry talks with us about fans, students, and fandom."
Some Excerpts
Textual Poachers continues to be widely read by students and those curious about fans and fandom, but you’ve written a dozen books since and many more articles. What do you think has changed the most about fandom from your early days as both a researcher and as a participant?
In terms of fandom, the impact of digital media has been decisive: expanding the scope of fandom, including greater connections between fans around the world; accelerating the speed of fan response in terms of being able to react in real time to our favorite programs; creating a space where fan works are much more visible to the culture at large (for better and for worse); allowing people to find their way into fandom at a much younger age; and increasing the impact of fan activists in seeking to assert their voice in response to canceled programs. (One has to look no further than the dramatic reversal of fortune for Timeless this past spring).
In terms of the academic study of fandom, we’ve seen the emergence of an entire subfield of research, which has its own conference and professional organization, its own journals (including Transformative Works and Cultures), its own publishing lines, its own courses, etc. In the next year or so, there will be at least four major academic anthologies devoted to mapping the field of fandom studies, reflecting the emergence of a new generation of researchers and representing innovations on so many fronts, but especially in terms of fandom studies finally coming to grips with race issues.
What fandom things have inspired you the most, either currently or at different points in your life?
I never cease to be amazed by the way that fandom provides a learning space for so many people and in so many different ways. Early on, I had been interested in the ways fandom provided mentorship into writing, video editing, and other creative processes, with beta-reading and fan mentorship held up as a rich example of a peer-to-peer learning system.
Years ago, fandom played a key role in helping more women enter cyberspace, overcoming what policy makers were describing as a gendered digital divide. And fandom provided a safe space for people to work through shifts in gender and sexual politics across the 1980s and 1990s, helping women in particular to express their sexual fantasies and become open to alternatives otherwise closed to them. Fandom in this sense functions as something like a feminist consciousness raising group.
Fandom has also been a leadership academy, helping women to acquire entrepreneurial and activist skills which have expanded their voice and influence within the culture. And fandom is performing these functions at an earlier age as online fandom allows high school students to find their way into the larger community. Fandom doesn’t fit everyone’s needs, and these ideals are not always fully realized in practice, but through the years I’ve known so many people who have grown and learned through their fannish experiences. And for many of them, the OTW is giving them a chance to deploy these personal and professional skills to give something back to their community.