The media companies need to have a collaborationists attitude, else creative culture will die because of the limitations of the prohibitionists.
As I’ve explained in my previous article, prohibitionists are of the past (Jenkins, 2006). Collaborationists are the future. A good example of this is the TV show Xena. It still has an active fan community that keeps the series alive. Throughout the making of the series the creators have collaborated with the fans and stimulated their fan fiction. That is why the community is still so active today.
Lucasfilm doesn't share this vision with the creators of Xena, it has a conservative policy and doesn't let fans “participate in the production and distribution of cultural goods – on their own terms” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 33). Jenkins stresses the importance of the internet as a public space. With the internet, the fans now have a platform for their fiction and they can no longer be ignored by the media industries. Or as Jenkins puts it: “We are witnessing the transformation of amateur film culture from a focus on home movies toward a focus on public movies, from a focus on local audiences toward a focus on a potential global audience” (Jenkins, n.d.). Fans get more publicity and more power, because they now know how to use “the powerful images and narratives that constitute contemporary popular culture” (Jenkins, n.d.).
There’s a danger to this collaborationists view. The media companies can use or even abuse their fan base to get more media exposure. This should not happen under any circumstance. True collaborationists should help to create a participatory culture wherein fans aren’t abused, but actively participate in the production process. In a way this is already happening, because fans are inspired by popular culture and in turn produce alternative subcultures that can eventually inspire popular culture. Jenkins (2006) gives many examples of writers or animators who get discovered because of their fan fiction.
Popular culture can inspire and fascinate. This is what collaborationists are about. Fans can draw inspiration from popular culture and then make it their own. This creativity is tremendously important for our cultural and creative development and it can lead to innovation. The filmmakers of tomorrow are the fans of today. The prohibitionists rule out any participation of the fans in the creative process. This has several consequences. For one, it will make fans less critical and reflective of popular culture. By involving them to participate in creating popular culture, they also reflect and give their vision on culture. This will lead the next generation to establish fundaments for their own culture. Prohibitionists also limit creativity to an extend that there isn’t any room for innovation. Prohibitionists are in someway trying to preserve their own culture by stopping the flow of innovation, which makes them severely conservative.
This leads to a very important point. The creative fan culture will only survive if “we recognize the rights of consumers to participate fully, actively, and creatively within their own culture” (Jenkins, n.d.). Jenkins (2006 & n.d.) is convinced that a clash between the old and the new culture is inevitable. The old culture can be seen as the prohibitionists who want full control over their intellectual property. The new culture is represented by the collaborationists who want consumers to be actively participants in the creation of culture.
It will be a loss to all culture if the prohibitionists will be the victors, because this will limit the possibilities for creative expression severely. As I’ve shown with Park Wars, there is a lot to be gained from the collaborationists attitude. The free publicity a company gets, for example. But also the inspiration and innovative ideas a subculture can produce. There are powerful examples of companies that already work this way. Like YouTube for example, which only provides a platform for fans and young filmmakers for their films. Or deviantART, a website where (according to its slogan) art meets application. Artists can post their work online and share it with the community and they can even sell their own products. (You can view fan fiction of 'deviant' artists in this article.) These are examples of platforms where the creativity of the fan rules and they are both tremendously popular. It shows that being a collaborationist pays.
Literature
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture. Where old and new media collide. New York: University Press.
Jenkins, H. (n.d.). Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture. Retrieved May 20, 2007.