Week 10 - Networking

The use of multiple platforms to engage viewers has become a popular means of engaging fans and keeping them interested in a text. Comic books and graphic novels, merchandise, interactive websites, games and more are often utilised by the makers of a text, such as a television show or film, to both raise revenue and keep interest levels high.

Paul Booth (2008), gives an example of fans of the television show ‘Gilmore Girls using technology that is familiar to them to give their own interpretations of the show and interact with other like-minded fans.
While many fans of a particular text or genre may not be inclined to create fan fiction or contribute their own creativity or interpretation of the text, occasionally particular pieces of fan work become successful themselves and gather a following of their own. An example of this is the widely popular ‘Potter Puppet Pals’ (Cicierega, 2005) which can be found on the website YouTube. The videos, which were made as a humorous take on the Harry Potter series of books (Rowling, 1997), have become so popular that selected videos have received over 100 million views and fan videos depicting scenes of the Potter Puppet Pals have even appeared online.

References
Booth P, 2008 'Rereading Fandom: MySpace Character Personas and Narrative Identification', Critical studies in media communication
Cicierega N, 2005 Potter Puppet Pals
Rowling J, 1997 Harry Potter series

Week 9 - Othering

One of the many 'othered' groups within current Australian society consists of refugees and asylum seekers, especially those who come by boat. Allen, 2005, writes that refugees are often scapegoated, accused of stealing the jobs of citizens who were born in the country where others are attempting to seek refuge. Likewise, the human stories of these individuals are often untold in an attempt to dehumanise, with the words 'illeagal' and 'bogus refugees' used to bring negative connotations to all refugees and asylum seekers, not only thoses who come to Australia though illeagal channels.
An expamle of the Australian government attemping to dehumanise refugees is the Children Overboard case which occured in 2002. The website safecom.org.au shows immages of individual children, adults and families swimming from a sinking overcrowed boat, as well as mothers and fathers recovering with their children during the aftermath of their experience. The writer states that the photographer was "given commands not to humanise the asylum seekers".

References
Allen, S 2005, 'Racialised othering' Journalism: Critical Issues
'The Unthown Kids' safecom.org.au/kids-overboard