This is one of those "first-world issues", but we're dealing primarily in such things so stay with me here.
We now live in a world where film and television is truly global in scope. Several of my favorite shows are produced and originally aired out of the United Kingdom. One of the most earnest of action movies I've seen in years was a Russian film about Soviet snipers during World War II. Comic books out of Japan can be (legally) read online, and novels written by authors France (for example) can reach a global audience within days.
While there have been international media sensations and darlings for generations now, it remained the case that the majority of fandom-derived aspects of identity built far more upon domestic media than foreign media. Hollywood--and U.S. media in general--long enjoyed a global presence, and a dominant position.
What changed in recent years is that the technologies and techniques once solely in the domain of a specific regional media form--such as Hong Kong/Taiwan and its "wire-fu" technigues for creating supernatural martial arts movies--are now cross-polinating at rapid rates and being assimilated just as fast in other hubs of entertainment business activity around the world. One of the signifiers was 1999's The Matrix
Today, right now, you can order a Japanese "light novel", then its comic adaptation, and then it's film or television adaptation from Amazon and have it delivered to your door and this is not weird or unusual anymore. (e.g. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit)
In particular, it is no longer weird or unusual--especially amongst the young adult and succeeding cohorts--to be a fan of entertainment media (book, film, TV, etc.) that originates in a foreign state or region, especially a non-Anglophonic creation such as Japanese and Chinese action movies of various genres.
Neither is it hard to watch shows or films from outside one's state of residence, as (with difficulty; this is "illegal"--as in some blowhard with a title spilled some ink or spewed some blather saying so--due to copyright bullshit) social media sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc. do have users that upload new episodes within hours of original airing. (This is how I watch a lot of my favorite U.K. shows.) Streams and torrents also account for a lot of global sharing of entertainment media, filling gaps that the big sites like YouTube leave due to legbreakers in suits demanding this or that lest accidents happen.
You can "like" the official fan pages on Facebook, add them to your Circles on Google+, add them to your RSS feeds, or otherwise easily find and engage directly with those foreign media now- and, as a result, it is easier to become engaged in the fan communities surrounding a film or an actor other than that of one's state and culture of origin. What was once seen only with major label music acts, and then rarely, is now increasingly commonplace and diverse.
The most obvious example now is the explosion of Doctor Who fandom in the last seven years; what was once a moribund thing, even in its U.K. home, is now a massive thing in the international realm of genre entertainment- and in the U.S. this really took off when actor David Tennant took the title role in 2006. (The man in the role as of this date is Matt Smith.) The themes and ethics expressed--sometimes blatantly so--resonate so much with so many young adults, many of which are geeks and nerds, that it becomes part of their identity and they derive satisfaction from it much as fans of Star Wars, Star Trek, NFL football, NASCAR, etc. do.
This globalization of fandom, accelerated by the ease through which social media lets media producers engage with fans as well as fans engaging with each other, casts down barriers of space with ease. (Barriers of time and language take a little longer, but only a little.) The tribalist-lite identities that fandom generates are now in a position to work around governments and corporations who seek to keep this network from working.
(Actors and other entertainment professionals that catch on to this are benefiting greatly from it, such as John Barrowman.)
This is another aspect of Castells's concept of the Network Society at work.
Good points. I suppose I never stopped to consider fandom as a community creator--and yet, how could I now, knowing as I do of Comicon, Trekkies, and many things nerdy (being one myself). I think another outlet of this is music. Music seems to cross barriers even "better" than sci-fi fan stuff. Granted, there are niches for it, too.
ReplyDeleteIf a person likes a band, links to site about it (official or otherwise), one can meet a host of people interested in that band and, more to the point, learn about other bands that may be similar in genre or feel. And, of course, you have that naughty site: The Pirate Bay--bane of copyrighting...
(that should read: how could I NOT...)
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