Title: Fandom as a mode of second production: active audienceship of the rising shadow

Authors: Saara L. Taalas; Irma Hirsjärvi

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, SE-351 95 Växjö, Sweden ' The School of Communication, Media and Theatre, University of Tampere, Kekkolantie 23 as 15, 40520 Jyväskylä, Finland

Abstract: Looking and visuality imply an audience. The aim of this paper is to open audience's passive role as a communicative receiver for discussion. The paper will focus on the productive practices of a digital fandom network of science fiction and fantasy genre literature. It connects Walter Benjamin's notions of the afterlife of texts and the translator's task (1924, 1936) to fandom as a productive network (Fiske, 1992; Jenkins, 1992). The empirical analysis draws from an ethnographic study of a Finnish science fiction and fantasy literature fandom Rising Shadow digital network, www.risingshadow.net. The analysis illuminates how networked exchanges produce translation zones and loving closeness as a form of afterlife of genre texts facilitating learning, accumulation of expertise within fandom network, and even professional development that is linked to commercial publishing and fan production in media.

Keywords: audience participation; science fiction; fandom; literature; organisation; digital production networks; consumption; innovation; consumer culture; fantasy fiction; afterlife of texts; translator's task; ethnography; Rising Shadow; learning; expertise; professional development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2013.056503

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2013 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.245 - 262

Published online: 24 Sep 2013 *

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