Plan of PIP

Probably should have put this up earlier

• Log: talk about the role of television and film in my life, myself as a fan, friends as fans, the day we went to JB-HI-FI and went through the whole television section and we didn't find one shelf that we couldn't talk about
• Introduction: Investigating fandoms socialisation impact, particularly cyberfandom and how it blurs the lines of hyperreality and the "real" reality for a fan. Explain my research (primary and secondary). Cross cultural study is gender. Continuity of devotion and community but change in the process and outcome of fandom/ fan behaviour. 

1. Chapter 1: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...”

• Definition of fan and fandom
• Tracing history of television and film fandom through studies of others
• 3 generations of study as suggested by Betsy Gooch
• Early fandom was unstructured small amount. Mainly male dominated. Lots of fanzines, physical fan clubs and some conventions. Memorabilia and fan letters. Restricted to maybe local interaction
• Next generation gave way to even more fans, rise of female population in fan activity, more authority and power given to fans. Local - national interaction
• Cyber fandom generation = explosion in numbers. Interactive globally. Cheaper, more accessible. More ways of participating in fandom. More ways to attract attention or to communicate with producers of television and film. Female dominated culture

     2.  Chapter 2: "Louise, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

• Explaining the separation of real life and fandom life. Low on cultural hierarchy, "shame" factor. Secret life/hobby
• The appeal of fandom life. The community, sense of belonging, understanding and interaction between fans.
• Fandom addiction. The lengths of devotion displayed by the average fan. Hours on the internet, ridiculous amounts of money for merchandise or tickets, tremendous expenses and time and effort watching, analysing and researching shows and films.
• Fan activity. Fan fiction, fan art, fan videos, filk songs, costuming, conventions, interacting with other fans and producers. Creating and admiring and participation

     3.  Chapter 3: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."
    Jean Baudrillard meets Joss Whedon

• Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality
• How it applies to fandom today
• Burring the lines between real life and hyperreality for fans
• FIAWOL vs RL (Fandom Is A Way Of Life vs. Real Life) It's a lifestyle
• C: Would you prefer real life or fandom online life?
  All [Unison]: Fandom life
  
  L: Real life sucks
• It's a desired lifestyle. It becomes integrated into their lives in a major way. 
• Impacts

• Conclusion
• (a hopefully) Kick-ass annotated bibliography

List of books to track down and borrow

State library most likely:

• Theorizing Fandom: Subculture and Identity by Cheryl Drake Harris
• Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins
• The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media by Lisa A. Lewis
• Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth by Camille Bacon-Smith

Update

I haven't made a post in a while but that in no way means that I've been neglecting my PIP. I've actually completed 2 processes of primary research which I'll post more on later. I am also going to be a participating observer at SupaNova on upcoming Sunday and so I'm pretty excited. I'll do another post for that too.

I've just been lacking in the secondary research department and I need to find a specialist of some kind. I'm thinking of trying to contact Henry Jenkins, one of the famous scholars, specialists, professors of fandoms in our time. He has a website http://www.henryjenkins.org/ which is highly informative and contains amazing sources such as interviews with other scholars of people he considers to be contributors to fandom studies and culture. Read some of his works first before I actually attempt contact so I don't look like an ass in front of him by asking stupid questions he's probably already answered in his thorough works of studies. I JUST WANT A LENGTHY FRIENDLY CHAT WITH THE MAN. FOR A WHOLE DAY. AT LEAST.

Andddddd when excitement all caps comes on, it's my cue to sleep. 

Jon Kortajarena - The Pilot

So I sort of piloted a section of my survey. I Facebook asked Mila to help judge the images from the Jon Kortajarena post I did. Here's how it went (copy and pasted Facebook Chat messages and edited to keep this short, not to exclude information)

Me: Ok so I''m going to send you a link with pictures of the same guy. I need you to tell me what emotion/vibe you get from him, rate each picture out of 10 (10 being best) and tell me which one you like best

 

 

Mila: What do you want me to say about vibe? Like the emotion he makes me feel or how he feels?

 

 

Me Both :D

Mila: I give the first one a 9 and I think he feels like excited and he makes me feel his adorableness seeping through the photo.

 

 

The second one 7 and it's just sexy. Or like suggestive of something more.

The third one I think 8 cause he looks intrigued and it makes me like him cause he looks nerdy and cute and is reading and I like that.

 

 

The next one 10 cause it makes him look approachable and nice and I like it alot better when he's smiling and being natural then when he's all brooding.

The last one an 9 too cause I dunno it makes him look vulnerable and like he needs and hug and it makes me wanna give him a hug and be nice and have a nice deep conversation.

 

 

So I found this very helpful and interesting especially from all my research pointing out that women are more physically attracted to cocky or brooding guys.

 

 

The first image, I classified as the cocky/confident image. She gave it a 9, got excited and loved his "adorableness"

Second image, I classified as the angry/intense/brooding image. She gave it a 7, calling it "sexy" and "suggestive"

Third image, I classified as semi-brooding/thoughtful image. She gave that one an 8 saying that his thoughtful expression and that the newpaper reading was a nice "nerdy" touch.

Fourth image, I classfied as the happy/cheerful/smiling picture.This got her highest rating of 10. The smile made his "approachable" and "natural". I liked it in particular when she said:

"I like it alot better when he's smiling and being natural then when he's all brooding."

Fifth image, I classified it as the more sad/pensive/melancholy-type of brooding than number 2 and 3. The vulnerability of the image appealed to her maternal-like instincts, to try and help and comfort him. A sense of sort of approachableness comes through as she felt they could "have a nice deep conversation."

Overall, very helpful and hopefully I can clean up and distribute the survey by tomorrow night.

Picture Survey

Thinking about doing a survey. Here is how it would go. The first few questions would be based on franchises and fandoms. E.g. First question would be:

Out of these characters from the television series Gossip Girl, who would you choose and why?
a) Dan Humphries, (Penn Badgely)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

b) Nate Archibald, (Chace Crawford)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

c) Chuck Bass, (Ed Westwick)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

Then later on the questions would go, "Which image do you like better and why?" Following would be images of a random male model but each image his face is displaying different emotions: Happy/cheerful, angry/brooding/sad/pensive, cocky/confident/relaxed.

e.g (post below)

Jon Kortajarena - EXPERIMENT RANDOM

**EDIT NOTE** I have posted these images in relation to the next two posts. I sent this link to a friend to ask her a couple of questions about it. I asked her to give me the emotion she think's the model is trying to convey andwhat she feels when she looks at each of them, then rate them out of 10 (10 being the best) and which one she likes best and why.

Experiment

I'd like to perform an "experiment" (not sure if that's the right term), on a controlled focus group.
The plan is to get 3 different males, photograph each one 3 times. One photo the guy will be happy, another of him neutral, the last one of him "brooding" (so looking down, pouty, shameful, depressed, deep in thought. Something like that).

The girl has to rate each picture on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the least and 10 being the most attractive). This is to see if the brooding boy really is what females prefer today.

This experiment is based on/ is a simplified version of a scientific study

That link I just shared is one of many articles that say exactly the same thing (sometimes the wording is exactly the same as well). That women are attracted to prideful or brooding men more than the happy one. I chose that website specifically because it includes these quotes:

"The study also adds fuel to the notion that women are attracted to bad boys.

"Women are attracted to guys like James Dean, Edward the vampire. The guys who are flawed, but who know it and are tortured by it," Tracy said.(Jessica Tracy, a University of British Columbia psychology professor who directed the study.)

A slightly downcast expression of shame is an appeasement gesture that hints at a need for sympathy.

...

"When people want a long-term relationship they take much more into account than sexual attractiveness. How nice a person is, is a big thing," Tracy said.

"So we're not saying, don't be a nice guy," she said."

My PIP

The Title: The ideal man, The female ideals: The Tall, Dark, Handsome and BROODING.


The rising popularity of the tortured soul and it's appeal to women. 
Some kind of study on the angsty fictional men that females seem to love these days. E.g. Edward Cullen (Twilight) , Angel (from Buffy), Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) etc.
The need females have to "fix" or save a man from himself. The maternal instinct and the possible result in a co-dependent relationship. 


I made Mila do the "pick-one-hand-and-that's-what-you'll-do" technique. It's the Ideal Man for girls: Tall, Dark, Handsome and BROODING.

NOW COMMIT COURTNEY!

An Introduction:

Welcome to PIProject.

I am a society and culture student in Year 12 and have to do a Personal Interest Project which requires me to do extensive research and produce a 4000-7000 word report about the subject of my choice. I am already 2 Terms in and I still haven't come up with a subject or question. So basically I'm a little freaked out.

In order to record my process in a way that I can easily keep track of things, I have created this blog. I will post ideas, secondary research findings, plans to help develop this PIP, content from my tutorials with my society and culture teacher, results from methodologies, and of course: my stress rants about this.

Hopefully I stick to this and it helps me out.