youth, identity and fandom

• “Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one”- David Gauntlett

• “Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there’s no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing’s wrong. My name is Oliver Tate.” – Oliver Tate

Sometimes I wish there was a film crew following my every move. I imagine the camera craning up as I walk away, but unless things improve, the biopic of my life will only have the budget for a zoom out.

Youth, Identity and Fandom

Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference

Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012G D Seal

P R O L O G U E

Youth, Identity and Fandom

Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference

Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012G D Seal

Conclusions/ Key ThemesNarrative and Identity

• We create our identity as a narrative/ as a journey. A “narrative of the self”

• Media texts place emphasis on the notion of narrative of the self

• Media texts provide us with a narrative. OR Media texts provide a way to understand our own narrative/ our own journey

Conclusions/ Key ThemesFandom and Identity

• In a postmodern world, we express (find?) our identity through fandom

• Fandom is a form of collective identity• Fandom is a way of creating our narrative/ identity

• Fandom is being corporatised, and as a result our identities are increasingly defined through consumerism

• We are all a target market• Otherness is a target market• Our identity is being sold back to us

Youth, Identity and Fandom

Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference

Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012G D Seal

P A R TO N E

E4 identity

media textsyouth

TVfilm

The gleeks shall inherit the Earth

fans

fandom

The corporate incorporation of fandomThe corporatisation of fandom

target market

Defining Otherness• Based on binary opposition• Used to define oneself and ‘the Other’• ‘The Other’ is a tool of repression and

ideological dominance• Minorities; Outcasts; Less powerful;

Disenfranchised• Gays; Women; Ethnic minorities; Goths; Geeks• Negative representation• The Other = the mocked; the repressed; the

“what we’re not”

Embracing Otherness• Embrace difference. Celebrate Otherness.• Embrace the Gays/ the minorities/ the

Geeks/ the outcasts• Re-appropriation of the Other• “Gay”; “Queer”• “Geek”, “Loser”• “I’m a gleek” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWR3UQCRSTY

• Is it empowering, or reasserting hegemony?

“I’m a gleek”“You’re a geek”

‘The Other’ becomes a marketing tool

The corporate incorporation of Otherness

Narrative of the Self

• Our identity is a story• We create a narrative of the self• We create a biography• We form our identity through this narrative and

its reassertion• Always being added to. Never completed;

always changing and reflexive

Narrative of the self• Paul Ricouer• French• Philosopher

• Anthony Giddens• British• Sociologist/ political

thinker• Self identity is reflexive. It

is a process

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard

• French theorist• Postmodernism• Sociologist/ cultural

theorist/ philosopher• Simulacra and

Simulation• Hyperreality

• ‘the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.' – there is no such thing as

first-hand reality – Instead all we have are

copies of copies of copies, mediated experiences, perfect replicas without an original.

– Nothing has an innate essence anymore; everything is surface.

Jean Baudrillard

• French theorist• Postmodernism• Sociologist/ cultural

theorist/ philosopher• Simulacra and

Simulation• Hyperreality

• ‘the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.' – there is no such thing as

first-hand reality – Instead all we have are

copies of copies of copies, mediated experiences, perfect replicas without an original.

– Nothing has an innate essence anymore; everything is surface.

Henry Jenkins• American• Professor of

Communication

• Fans are ‘textual poachers’

• Take meanings that are useful to them and leave the rest

• @HenryJenkins

Youth, Identity and Fandom

Presentation for Media Studies A Level Conference

Cinema City, Norwich, 8th Feb 2012G D Seal

Conclusions/ Key ThemesNarrative and Identity

• We create our identity as a narrative/ as a journey. A “narrative of the self”

• Media texts place emphasis on the notion of narrative of the self

• Media texts provide us with a narrative. OR Media texts provide a way to understand our own narrative/ our own journey

Conclusions/ Key ThemesFandom and Identity

• In a postmodern world, we express (find?) our identity through fandom

• Fandom is a form of collective identity• Fandom is a way of creating our narrative/

identity

• Fandom is being corporatised, and as a result our identities are increasingly defined through consumerism

• We are all a target market• Otherness is a target market• Our identity is being sold back to us

P A R TT W O

Key Themes of this Part 2

• Submarine is a rite of passage/ coming of age text. It is all about identity. Adolescence is identity formation

• Oliver constructs his identity/ experience of life through narratives learned from media texts

• In Submarine, identity is ephemeral and transient

Most people think of themselves as individuals, that there's no one on the planet like them. This thought motivates them to get out of bed, eat food and walk around like nothing's wrong. My name is Oliver Tate.

I’ve already turned these moments into the Super8 footage of memory

Music can make things a bit more real, if you know what I mean

Music can make things a bit more real, if you know what I mean

This was one of those vivid memories of youth that I would cherish when I was old and frail.

I don’t quite know what I am yet. I’ve tried smoking a pipe; flipping coins; listening exclusively to French crooners. Other times I’ll go to the beach and stare at the sea. I saw it in a documentary about a prominent thinker who struggled with unspeakable loss. I even had a brief out phase, but nothing stuck.