[research] Piece in TWC: Why we should talk about commodifying fan work
The new issue of Transformative Works and Cultures was published last month and includes a symposium piece by me:
Why we should talk about commodifying fan work
Summary:
Although the idea of commodifying fanworks has been raised every now and then in the last few years, many fans and fan scholars active in the English-language online fan community reject this concept for fear of industry encroachment, litigation, or disruption of the fan community's gift culture. However, the idea that money is simply incompatible with fannish interactions may be not a universally applicable "rule" of fan communities, but only a description of the situation as it is in one particular community at a particular point in history. There are other fan communities that do engage in some form of commodification of their works, and have been doing so succesfully for decades. For instance, many Japanese fans combine a gift culture with a more commercial culture that involves the sale of fanworks, primarily fan comics (dōjinshi). Large-scale sales of fan comics take place in other Asian countries as well, etc.
It has been suggested that this sort of “hybrid economy” for unauthorized derivative works of all sorts, including fanworks, is likely to emerge elsewhere as well. According to several researchers from various fields, such a hybrid economy would result in social and financial benefits for amateur creators as well as for the media industry. The fan community comprises a very large portion of all creators of unauthorized derivative works to whom this new hybrid economy would apply. However, at the moment, researchers who speak about commodifying fanworks tend to neglect crucial fannish issues, such as the particularities of the communal space in which most fanworks are created and the gendered nature of the relationship between most fan creators and industry professionals. I suggest it is time fans and fan scholars added their voices to this debate, to ensure that fannish concerns are taken into account as new economic models for the commodification of unauthorized derivative works emerge.
(Note: this is a self-authored summary, not an official abstract from the journal.)
One more post about that other open source paper, and then I can finally actually read the rest of the issue.
This entry was originally posted at http://fanficforensics.dreamwidth.org/39918.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Why we should talk about commodifying fan work
Summary:
Although the idea of commodifying fanworks has been raised every now and then in the last few years, many fans and fan scholars active in the English-language online fan community reject this concept for fear of industry encroachment, litigation, or disruption of the fan community's gift culture. However, the idea that money is simply incompatible with fannish interactions may be not a universally applicable "rule" of fan communities, but only a description of the situation as it is in one particular community at a particular point in history. There are other fan communities that do engage in some form of commodification of their works, and have been doing so succesfully for decades. For instance, many Japanese fans combine a gift culture with a more commercial culture that involves the sale of fanworks, primarily fan comics (dōjinshi). Large-scale sales of fan comics take place in other Asian countries as well, etc.
It has been suggested that this sort of “hybrid economy” for unauthorized derivative works of all sorts, including fanworks, is likely to emerge elsewhere as well. According to several researchers from various fields, such a hybrid economy would result in social and financial benefits for amateur creators as well as for the media industry. The fan community comprises a very large portion of all creators of unauthorized derivative works to whom this new hybrid economy would apply. However, at the moment, researchers who speak about commodifying fanworks tend to neglect crucial fannish issues, such as the particularities of the communal space in which most fanworks are created and the gendered nature of the relationship between most fan creators and industry professionals. I suggest it is time fans and fan scholars added their voices to this debate, to ensure that fannish concerns are taken into account as new economic models for the commodification of unauthorized derivative works emerge.
(Note: this is a self-authored summary, not an official abstract from the journal.)
One more post about that other open source paper, and then I can finally actually read the rest of the issue.
This entry was originally posted at http://fanficforensics.dreamwidth.org/39918.html. Please comment there using OpenID.