The arrival of MySpace and Facebook online, along with podcasting, Twitter, YouTube, Google Video, blogging, and other means of streaming, instantly downloading, and viewing interactive media has partially disrupted the traditional structures of the media industry. Henry Jenkins (2006) describes this phenomenon as Media Convergence. For Jenkins, convergence is about how single messages flow through multiple forms of media simultaneously. For example, when someone watches their favorite tv show, often they post about it on a discussion board, or in a chat room, or tweet about it; and then the message from the original show has been reframed and re-sent out almost immediately. Think about how quickly people learned about Osama bin Laden’s death—it was tweeted about, reposted on Facebook, and then discussed in the major media outlets before the formal announcement was released.
From Simulacra to Convergence
In a sense, this echoes Baudrillard’s (1981/1994) discussion of Simulacra. Jenkins’ convergence goes further, however, and describes how the technologies themselves, including media consumer practices, are being manipulated and re-conceived by both the industry and the consumer.
This process of convergence opens the doorway for consumers to reshape their realities: consumers utilize that process by sharing their own opinions, reworking pre-existent or corporate media forms, and presenting original materials to a growing public audience. Consumers become an active audience and act as producers of media as well as consumers (Bird, 2011; Sundet & Ytreberg, 2009). This audience counters the perceived audience control by corporate media structures, and in some senses threatens the traditionally understood means of media control. Media convergence is moving culture toward “ever more complex relations between top-down” media and “bottom-up participatory culture” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 243).
Some users and consumers of digital media today perceive social media as a site that provides the basis of a technological media revolution and the overthrow of media tyranny. While television choices for consumers are far more vast than in the past, and the ability for individual consumers to act as producers and provide news materials and alternative entertainments, institutional controls and demands remain active in mediating what ultimately reaches a general public. We now use digital media to pick and choose when and where to watch television, films, and Internet video. It gives consumers a sense of ownership of media products that has become problematic in recent years. For example, fanfiction can be appreciated as an “alternative” or simulacrum (Baudrillard, 1994) of the original, with the new producer putting part of themselves and their opinions into the original piece.
Consider the following video. How does the author of the imager re-create the stories in this mashup of two different popular culture phenomena?
Should a fan have the right and ability to re-create the media artifacts that inspire them in this way? How would you describe this as an example of convergence?
The "End" of Media Canon?
Take for example fan cultures that adapt corporate media works and change them to better reflect fan values. Fan fiction, YouTube fan videos, and fan films utilize characters, storylines, and settings “borrowed” from corporate popular culture and alter the stories as a consumer re-creation. Henry Jenkins (1992) and Michel De Certeau (1988) refers to this effort as textual poaching, which is a process that has both increased and spread more rapidly to wider audiences through recent communication technologies such as YouTube.Jenkins states that the first contemporary fanfiction stories were published in the 1930s pulp magazine, Fanzines (Jenkins, 1992). Jenkins further argues that certain media texts engender such dramatic fan followings that they can create resurgences of fan fiction, as in the 1960s with Star Trek fandom (Jenkins, 1992; Thomas, 2006).
Some culture industry professionals encourage and welcome these fan efforts: George Lucas, for example, and Lucasfilm host an annual Star Wars fan film competition ("Annoucing the Star Wars fan film awards 2016," 2015; Philippe, 2011; Tryon, 2012). "Official” social media sites such as fanfiction.net (FFN) and Archive of Our Own (AO3) (Berman, 2001; Black, 2007), and the publication and eventual success of books and films based on fanfiction have also occurred—most notably E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Gray (Brennan & Large, 2014; Harman & Jones, 2013). However, financial income based on fan-made media is restricted and, in some cases, illegal.
Consider the following image. This tee represents fan re-creation of a re-created media narrative.
If George Lucas is the creator of Star Wars, how can his interpretation of the text of Star Wars be wrong? If Lucas is supporting fan films, even those that attack his work, is he encouraging the debate? What might this mean in terms of actual control being in the hands of fans or Lucas? Did Han Solo shoot first?
Now consider JJ Abrams' reboots of Star Wars and Star Trek. Aren't they also fanfiction? The legitimacy of fanfiction, fan films, and other fan-media as unique media and art forms is debated because of issues related to copyright and originality. Yet, with Disney’s rejection of George Lucas’s ideas for the latest Star Wars film, in favor of reported Fan J.J. Abram’s approach (Faraci, 2015; Owen, 2015), has fanfiction been legitimized? Given recent “reboots” of popular culture phenomena such as Doctor Who, Star Trek, a variety of updated and re-visioned Sherlock Holmes films and television shows, revisioning of multiple fairy tale properties in an un-Disneyfied manner, Star Wars itself, and the seemingly never-ending rebooting of superhero properties, is there a perceived dedication to “Canon” in the media entertainment industry itself, or do we now “view fandom as a prerequisite to the role of franchise architect” (Monagle, 2015).
Because social media spaces are virtual, and because within social media contexts the rules surrounding ownership, asset use, and production itself are perceived as fluid, the ability for constant re-interpretation of control of intellectual properties, how they can be managed, and by whom, is constantly changing. Further complicating the changing patterns of media product controls due to new communication technologies, digital media are, by nature, intertextual; they refer to and cite each other and themselves constantly, much like a hyperactive form of pastiche (Annesley, 2013; Stein & Busse, 2009). Media artifacts are no longer limited to one particular form of media, and often are created based on the success of another media product. Therefore, as news programs, entertainments, and other media forms bleed into each other, understandings of where one set of controls ceases to exist so another can begin are vague and uncertain.
For many consumers, the process of re-creation of popular culture material is a type of homage to the original work. For others, posting media, especially unaltered media, to be shared is a form of protesting the control and perceived financial manipulation of the culture industry. For still others, fan usage of media is to correct or address issues with the corporate owned media texts. Ironically, while George Lucas is one of the strongest supporters of fan use of his media creations, he has also become a focal point for some of the strongest tensions between himself as a corporate media icon and disappointed fans.
Lost in Translation?
Convergent media are not contained to any particular geographic region. Producers of mass media artifacts frame their products to cross cultural boundaries, and address multiple audience groups in various nations, using retail strategies to market their products (De Mooij & Hofstede, 2002; Jenkins, 2004). Multiple forms or versions of a cultural product can also exist, both in official and unofficial capacity. Consider, for example, all the versions of Superman available for consumption.
Add to this literal translation and the impact of re-production of media on canonicity multiplies. Let us consider the fandoms associated with international multi-media phenomenon Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon was a phenomenon in Japan in the 1990s, and products and media expanding the original manga and anime continually been developed and sold. The first version of the series was a manga created by Takeuchi Naoko. This series was then re-created as an anime series in Japan. Notably, the anime series was produced in parallel with the manga, and did not use the same core storyline consistently. This is common in the production of Japanese anime and manga products (Leong, 2010; Newsom, 2004; Newsom & Inuzuka, 2005). These products made their way to North American (NA) audiences in a variety of forms, and with a variety of translations. When the original Toei anime series was purchased by DIC for presentation to North American audiences beginning in 1995, the producers at DIC chose to create multiple differences between the Japanese and North American versions, a decision that would be clearly recognized by fans (Cubbison, 2005; Leong, 2010; Newsom, 2004; Newsom & Inuzuka, 2005). Leong (2010) explains, “The English dubs of Sailor Moon incorporated familiar domesticating strategies to minimize the foreignness of the original Japanese version” (p. 164).
The shift from manga to anime was one form of translation. The literal translation into an English language subtitled version another. The further shift to the DIC dubbed version is a type of translation referred to as localization.
While many Japanese manga and anime products were and in some cases continue to be subject to localization, the sheer numbers of "official" or "canon" versions of Sailor Moon further complicates how the series can be understood and interpreted by worldwide audiences. In the late 1990s and 2000s a series of live musicals and a later live-action television series remake retold and added to the story with a variety of differences in narrative and characterizations (Leong, 2010; Newsom & Inuzuka, 2005). In contrast, the 2015 official Toei reboot of the Anime series, as Sailor Moon Crystal, was constructed to be more “true” to the Manga Canon, yet surprisingly to many fans echoed some of the themes associated with Fan-Canon. Most notably, the male villains from the original series outlived their predecessor selves in both the original manga and the original anime, surviving until the end of the first story arc. Additionally, a new official re-dubbing of the original anime without the censorship and translation irregularities of the original dub was released for North American audiences.
Along with the lack of complete dubbing, official subtitled versions were also scarce and incomplete. Many fans in North America therefore relied on “fansubs”, versions of the anime with fan-written subtitles, and “fandubs”, or versions of the anime with fan-made dubbing. These fan-translations encompassed the entire series as well as the associated films, and the live-action musicals and television series that followed. Fan-translations are not unique to Sailor Moon, as they can be traced to 1980s anime and manga (Nord & Khoshsaligheh, 2015; O’Hagan, 2009). Fan-translation has been critiqued as a labor issue, a problem of copyright and ownership, as well as an issue of translation error (Cronin, 2012; Hatcher, 2005). “Both fanned translation and amateur translation share the same idea of unpaid translations by non-experts…[but] fans have played a crucial role in exchanging economic and cultural assets among national throughout history” (Nord & Khoshsaligheh, 2015, p. 2).
The differences between the manga and the original anime are also debated in the fandom. The Japanese anime itself is also known for being very different in content, tone, and overall storyline from the original manga. The culmination of these translations through media form and internationalization created a significant layer of complication for the fandom, especially fans in North America and other English-speaking regions. What is the “real” canon? Is it the manga itself authored by Takeuchi Naoko as the work of the “original” author? Because of the inconsistencies between "manga canon", "anime canon", "DIC NA dub canon", "Sailor Moon Crystal canon", "musicals canon", "live-action canon", and the "new dub canon", as well as the many varieties of fan-translations, the challenge of analyzing Sailor Moon "fanon" in relationship to "canon" is complex.
References
Annesley, J. (2013). Being spike Jonze: Intertextuality and convergence in film, music video and advertising. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 11(1), 23-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/ncin.11.1.23_1
Annoucing the Star Wars fan film awards 2016: The official celebration of fan-made videos — Ranging from comedy to drama and animation to poppetry — Returns! (2015, December 7). Retrieved from http://www.starwars.com/news/announc...lm-awards-2016
Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation (S.F. Glaser, Trans.). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Original work published 1981.
Black, R. W. (2007). Fanfiction writing and the construction of space. e-learning and digital media. E-Learning and Digital Media, 4(4), 384-397. doi: https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2007.4.4.384
Brennan, J., & Large, D. (2014). ‘Let’s get a bit of context’: Fifty Shades and the phenomenon of ‘pulling to publish’ in Twilight fan fiction. Media International Australia, 152(1), 27-39. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X1415200105
Cronin, M. (2012). The translation age: Translation, technology, and the new instrumentalism. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 469-482). London: Routledge.
Cubbison, L. (2005). Anime fans, DVDs, and the authentic text. The Velvet Light Trap, 56(1), 45-57. doi: 10.1353/vlt.2006.0004
De Mooij, M., & Hofstede, G. (2002). Convergence and divergence in consumer behavior: implications for international retailing. Journal of retailing, 78(1), 61-69. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(01)00067-7
Faraci, D. (2015, December 24). Will Star Wars just be fanfic from now on? The Force Awakens was. Can future Star Wars break free? Birth. Movies. Death. Retrieved from http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2015/12/...ic-from-now-on
Harman, S., & Jones, B. (2013). Fifty shades of ghey: Snark fandom and the figure of the anti-fan. Sexualities, 16(8), 951-968. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713508887
Hatcher, J. S. (2005). Of Otakus and fansubs: A critical look at anime online in light of current issues in copyright law. SCRIPT-ed, 2(4), 514-542.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
Jenkins, H. (2004). Mapping cultural flows in an age of media convergence. In M.M. Suárez-Orozoco, & D.B. Qin-Hilliard, (Eds.). Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium (pp. 114-140). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Leong, J. Y. Y. (2010). Selling the sweatdrop: The translation of ‘Japaneseness’ in manga and anime fan fiction. (PhD Thesis), University of Western Australia, Retrieved from http://research-repository.uwa.edu.a...Yieng_2010.pdf Research Repository University of Western Australia database.
Newsom, V. A. (2004). Young females as Super Heroes: Superheroines in the animated Sailor Moon. Femspec, 5(2), 57-81.
Newsom, V. A., & Inuzuka, A. (2005). Creation, recreation and re-creating identities: Performance and interculturality in a global context. In L. Lengel (Ed.), Intercultural communication and creative practice (pp. 61-76). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Nord, C., & Khoshsaligheh, M. (2015). Socio-cultural and technical issues in non-expert dubbing: A case study. International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, 3(2), 1-16.
O’Hagan, M. (2009). Evolution of user-generated translation: Fansubs, translation hacking and crowdsourcing. The journal of internationalization and localization, 1(1), 94-121. doi:10.1075/jial.1.04hag
Philippe, A. O. (Writer). (2011). The people vs. George Lucas [Motion Picture]. In A. Higgs, R. Muratore, V. Philippe, & K. D. Roy (Producer). Denver, CO: Exhibit A Pictures/Wrekin Hill Entertainment.
Stein, L., & Busse, K. (2009). Limit play: Fan authorship between source text, intertext, and context. Popular Communication, 7(4), 192-207.
Sundet, V. S., & Ytreberg, E. (2009). Working notions of active audiences: Further research on the active participant in convergent media industries. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 15(4), 383-390.
Tryon, C. (2012). Fan films, adaptation, and media literacy. In J. P. Telotte & G. Duchovnay (Eds.), Science fiction film, television, and adaptation: Across the screens (pp. 176-189). New York: Routledge.
