I Love Star Wars!

In order for any industry to survive there needs to be both a consumer and a producer and the film industry is no different. In addition to the consumption of a product or good there are always individuals who are trying to get the goods for cheaper and again the film industry cannot escape this. In the world of ever converging media the film industry has hit a wall when it comes to amateur film makers/fans wanting to take their creative energy a step further and immerse themselves in the world of what they are a fan of. Not only do they want to stifle the piracy and copyright infringement on the one hand but on the other they encourage the fans to continue to be fans. It cannot be said better than, “Marketers have turned our children into walking, talking billboards who wear logos on their T-shirts, sew patches on their backpacks, plaster stickers on their lockers, hang posters on their walls, but they must not, under any penalty of law, post them on their home pages” (p. 138).

This piracy and copyright infringement has become more of an issue due to mass media convergence. Within this convergence culture, “everyone’s a participant – although participants may have different degrees of status and influence” (p. 132). Although individuals may participate there is a distinction between this and interactivity. “Interactivity refers to the ways that new technologies have been designed to be more responsive to consumer feedback” (p. 133). This participation and interactivity would not have become such and issue if it was not for the Web. The Web, “has become a site of consumer participation that includes many unauthorized and unanticipated ways of relating to media content” (p. 133).
Overall all the concepts in this reading were well thought out and explained thoroughly but the one issue I could not seem to grasp was that of the role the film companies play in all of this. On the one hand they say they want the fans to participate and be creative but at the same time the fans have to tread lightly as to how they actually portray their creativeness. I understand the issue with the piracy and copyright infringement but how can the film companies then state they want the full following of all their fans?
Are the film companies being too strict with their policies? Are the film companies too confusing to the fans? What is a better way to deal with this media convergence to make both sides of the fence happy?
The idea of fan clubs for different causes coming together online via the internet is a type of social networking group. This type of tie can either be considered strong or weak depending on the individuals who maintain the tie and how closely or how much distance they would like to keep from the other fans. In addition these ties whether they be weak or strong have a great significance in the formation of the group and how it is maintained through the individuals.