Alex Mikolajko

February 8, 2015
In his article, Get a Life: Fans, Poachers and Nomads, from the book, Textual
Poachers, Henry Jenkins, an American media scholar and Professor of Communication,
Journalism and Cinematics Arts at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the
USC School of Cinematic Arts, argues that fandom is more popular than people realize
and that the power of fandom is often underestimated. While Jenkins uses the familiar
skit of Saturday Night Live about Star Trek fans to introduce his argument, he proceeds
by using familiar groups of fandom (Dallas, Beauty and the Beast, The Velveteen Rabbit
), to further show how texts and shows become real to their fans. That, in turn, often
inspires fans to create their own meta-fiction, in which fans create their own fiction
using characters from the stories they are fans of. While Jenkins initially describes most
fanatics as white and female (although there is a growing increase in male fandom), he
desires to inspire other fans to not be afraid to like texts or shows that are not
mainstream with the public and to encourage them to take a role in how they think the
stories should go by writing and blogging about them. As a self-proclaimed fan himself,
Jenkins is writing for an educated audience that is not necessarily familiar with the life of
a fan and for people who underestimate the power of fandom. Overall, Jenkins brings to
light to the fact that the fan community, sometimes in opposition to the creators, have
ownership in the stories they love and encourages fanatics to explore the many
options they can be fans of.