Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Media Consumers in a Digital Age

by Henry Jenkins

Brings together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers

Henry Jenkins's pioneering work in the early 1990s promoted the idea that fans are among the most active, creative, critically engaged, and socially connected consumers of popular culture and that they represent the vanguard of a new relationship with mass media. Though marginal and largely invisible to the general public at the time, today, media producers and advertisers, not to mention researchers and fans, take for granted the idea that the success of a media franchise depends on fan investments and participation.

Bringing together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers takes readers from Jenkins's progressive early work defending fan culture against those who would marginalize or stigmatize it, through to his more recent work, combating moral panic and defending Goths and gamers in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Starting with an interview on the current state of fan studies, this volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies. It goes on to chart the growth of participatory culture on the web, take up blogging as perhaps the most powerful illustration of how consumer participation impacts mainstream media, and debate the public policy implications surrounding participation and intellectual property.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fandom, Academic, Academia, Pop Culture, Sociology, Theory

279 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

Reviews

[Sesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminante su tutto quel che riguarda la cultura dei "Fan".

[Kifflie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Henry Jenkins (does that make me a meta-fan?), because he's one of us (geeks), and he's a smart guy with a lot on the ball. This is a collection of essays he's done for various publications since his seminal work Textual Poachers came out in the early 90's.

If you want to understand fandoms and how modern communications technologies have brought geeks out of our basements and onto the front pages (Comic-Con, anybody?) then give this man a read. His is also a voice of sense and reason against the ignorant and puritanical among us.

The revolution may not be televised, but it may be blogged, or even gamed.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of essays about contemporary media studies, some reworked from other published work by the author. The author sort of started contemporary media studies, at least in terms of taking fan communities and their interactions with their chosen media seriously, rather than mockingly as some sort of "frozen adolescence" or some other shamefully condescending treatment.

Goes more into slash than is of interest to me, but those in the slash community may really like this treatment.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first half of this book (the 'inside fandom' part) for my dissertation research. Most of the information included in the essays is incredibly outdated, from some of the information to the people's viewpoints. As a 2024 reader, I found some of it actually frustrating to the point where I had to sit back and be like, 'What?'. I am aware that this book was published in 2006, and therefore, the writing is around two decades old, which explains my response. If I had been reading this in 2006, then I would definitely have had a different approach and rated much higher. That being said, there was the occasional comment that could still be used in reference to today.

Shoutout to Dr Beverley Crusher (p.90), who says, "Perhaps someday our ability to love won't be so limited" in the discussion of queer identities in reference to media representation. It makes me happy to see how far we have come.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read some of these essays - the ones that were most relevant to the research I'm doing now, but I also read a few of the others just because they looked/were interesting. This is a collection of essays, most of which were written or published previously, so there is less cohesion than I was expecting, but some useful discussions of fan, blogger, and gamer culture.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some parts were pretty useful for my dissertation. A lot of discussion that seems a little dated now.

[Anna Svystun Khort · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring, redundant and too long for what it actually says. but okay…

[marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

me lo recomendó mi tutor del tfg por si me servía algo pero me lo he leído entero pq el tío es un máquina

[rosana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it for my dissertation, it was okay, but definitely need something not that old to use.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last semester I worked on a Web 2.0 research paper where the emphasis was on library blogging and its use by and benefit to patrons (or Patron 2.0). One of the books I came across in the process was Fans, Bloggers and Gamers by Henry Jenkins. As an ex-film theory student, I had to read the book.

This book is an update to Textual Poachers, his book about fandom and fan fiction. His contention is that the fans of yore are the bloggers and gamers of today.

The book is organized chronologically into three sections: "Inside Fandom", "Going Digital" and "Columbine and Beyond." The fandom section is a rehashing of his studies of Star Trek fans and especially Star Trek slash. It was my least favorite part of the book.

The middle section was of the most interest to me as it covers blogging. The blogging though is specifically the subset of fans who post their theories, fan fiction and fan art and that sort. As I was researching the interaction between library, blog and library patron the blogging covered in this book wasn't on topic for my project. It was however an interesting slice of life, something I sometimes run across through book blogging. I did, once upon a time, use my site for posting fan art when I had nothing else to post.

The last section is Jenkin's turn to weigh in on the on-going debate about media violence and its effects (if any). They are worth reading. The basic gist is: media violence doesn't automatically make anyone violent. Those who are already predisposed towards violence might be pushed over the edge but that's a very small percentage of any given population.

[Adam Bogert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see in Henry Jenkins, if not the scholar I'd like to be, then at least a signpost pointing in the direction I'd academically like to head. I read this book as part of a directed reading course designed to generate research ideas; to that end, it has been enormously fruitful. I particularly enjoyed the final third of the book, dealing with a post-Columbine mindset towards media and the preponderance of "media effects" in the national discourse which Jenkins suggests is extraordinarily foolhardy, if not dangerous.

For sure, there are some topics covered in this book which I wasn't particularly keen on studying, and which those I may recommend this book to would be pretty confused by when thinking, "and Adam said I should read this?" Suffice to say it's the overall package which I loved, not necessarily all the parts. If nothing else, this book serves as a fantastic launchpad for discussion, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a conversation about media, its power, and the people who obsess over it.

[Elisabet Roselló · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Jenkins lo conocí hace años por su blog y sus ensayos por web. Este blog no me ha decepcionado para nada, todo lo contrario. Es un libro recopilatorio de diversos ensayos cortos de Jenkins de su carrera, que no habían sido incluídos en otros de sus libros a lo largo de su carrera hasta 2002 aproximadamente, relacionados con los fandoms y la reinterpretación de los textos mediáticos y la relación con los productores y los canales de emisión, la cultura popular, la homosexualidad representada en los fandoms, la relación del fandom como importante papel en la historia de Internet,los blogs, e incluso sobre metodología etnográfica y de estudios mediáticos y culturales muy interesante.

Con este libro, personalmente, he aprendido en estas dimensiones que comentaba, me ha sido útil para asegurar algunas metodologías así como algunas perspectivas con las que coincido, y para aprender nuevos enfoques, información. De mayor quiero ser como Henry Jenkins :)

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you haven't read Henry Jenkins, this book provides a good overview, including essays that were later developed into his most influential books, Textual Poachers and Convergence Culture. The section on video-gaming documents his participation in national debates about video-game violence following the Columbine shootings in 1999. At that point, I began to notice fallacies and misrepresentations in his depiction of his ideological opponents. The representation of the Columbine shooters does not benefit from research done by those who studied the shootings and shooters in depth only to find that they were not victims of school bullying, but especially in Harris's case, bullies. The concluding essays include some really speculative comments that associate Klebold and Harris with a kind of "revenge of the nerds" narrative that has since been debunked.

[Andy Oram · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Jenkins's more significant book "Convergence Culture" and found this one a useful follow-up. I don't find any single, overarching point in Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers (it's a collection of distinct essays spanning several years) but as I went along, I felt that I got a deeper understanding of some interesting topics in culture, and media. For instance, what drives people to reinterpret TV shows and movies through fan fiction? Do gamers take the violence in games seriously? How can media makers create better shows by involving their audiences?

The politics around violence in video games are still active. So what Jenkins wrote about these games and Columbine massacre are worth reading, although I thought he was a bit defensive and didn't weight both sides' arguments fairly.

[KJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting cross-section of articles on fan communities and fan culture. Some of these were dense academic papers while others were written for a more popular audience; all were interesting, but I had a definite preference for the shorter, more accessible pieces. Most were written before the explosion of fandom on the Web, but the scenarios and behaviors he describes will still seem familiar -- technology may change, but people don't. My favorite pieces were those on the relationship between video games and culture, with lots of thoughtful perspectives on Columbine and its aftermath. Recommended to anyone with an interest in media and society.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles from Henry Jenkins, over the span of his career as a media academic. Some of the articles are good, others are less impressive, but overall he provides the reader some for thought about the evolution of pop culture studies and pop culture in general. This is a useful book for exploring some of what pop culture studies is about and providing some context as to how the academic study of pop culture has evolved as pop culture and technology have involved. It's limitation beyond the fact that it's a collection of articles, is that some of the material can already be found in the author's other works in a more comprehensive form.

[Becca Edney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of my research for a Masters dissertation on fanfiction and it was a very interesting look at the early days of wider recognition of fan involvement and participatory culture. Jenkins clearly lays out defences of the fan, blogger, and gamer cultures listed in the title and gives a very clear description of how they work from the inside. I paid most attention to the fan and fanfiction parts, since that was the focus of my research, and I appreciated the focus he put on the role of women in fandom. It was also an interesting view into pre-internet fandom and how it worked as a matter of logistics.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published just after the release of Convergence Culture (which I loved) last year, this book is a compilation of Professor Jenkins' articles on participatory & fan culture written over the past 15 years. The language is a bit dry and academic for my tastes, but the subject matter is fascinating - especially when we see how drastically the internet has changed how fan communities emerge, grow and interact. Also interesting, in a "I-had-no-idea-this-even-existed" kind of way, is his article on fan "slash writing" which is...um... just google it.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’re any kind of fannish, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers will appeal to you, since some essays feel like a old fandom veteran telling you stories about what it was like back in the day when you had to tape your shows on VHS—which it is, since Jenkins is one of us. For the non-fannish, this collection asks and explores important issues, like the conflict between the old consumption of media and the new, fannish consumption of media. A worthy read.

[Casey Browne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays he's done for various publications since his seminal work Textual Poachers came out in the early '90s.

If you want to understand fandoms and how modern communications technologies have brought geeks out of our basements and onto the front pages (Comic-Con, anybody?), then give this man a read. His is also a voice of sense and reason against the ignorant and puritanical among us.

The revolution may not be televised, but it may be blogged or even gamed.

[Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the lame title, the cringe-worthy cover photo, or the numerous explanations of the word "blog." This is actually a very intelligent, well-written, and loving look at fan culture on- and offline. Of special note is "Monsters Next Door," a father-son dialogue about portrayals of adulthood, adolescence, and adult-adolescent relationships in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and diverse look into the world of Fandom Culture. It was interesting not only to see the history of how fandom developed and grew, but also learning of the roll the internet played in growing fan culture as well.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed this one - interesting stuff if you are interested in uncovering relationships between individuals, groups, and technology/media.

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the articles on women liking slash being co-written by a male seems really forced to me, but the other articles are So interesting

[Anne Bollmann (Annelise Lestrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I strongly agreed with a lot in this book. It was amazing :)

[Yasmin Halliwell Fraser Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is like reading about myself. Perfect.

[Catiris]

El capítulo de Buffy era el más entretenido

[Jernika U. Nababan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explained well. It somehow mentions the comparison of the past, the present, and the future. A book for those wants to know more about digital age.