“Information
super highways are being constructed that will enable a vast increase in the
flow of communications” (Poster, 443). This statement immediately struck me
while reading Mark Poster’s Postmodern
Virtualities. Relating it straight to the media, we can see how the web has
connected viewers all over the world. Electronic communications has allowed
people to share their ideas and stories with the public, while also having
access to others thoughts.
Blogs are
so prominent in our Internet crazed society, and has opened up a whole new way
for amateur critics to share their independent opinions to the public. In Henry Jenkins reading, Quentin Tarentino's Star Wars?, it is stated that “Technology and the new media
facilitate the articulation and exchange of ideas in ways never before imagined”(460).
I conducted some of my own research, and came across discussion boards,
designed for fans, within the web pages for multiple shows on ABC. People who
wrote on these boards shared theories and interacted with each other by
commenting on one another’s posts, each relating back to the show. I have
included screen shots from the ABC show, Revenge website, so that you can see how interactive the media is
with its viewers.
I continued
to think of how much fans in this era contribute to the media, and realized how
much importance the public is to current reality television. ABC has recently
come out with a reality show called The Glass House involving direct input from its fans. In this show,
strangers are living in a house together with cameras recording them at all
times. At selected times viewers are able to watch a live feed into the house
and the public actually gets to decide who gets evicted each week, dictates
what the contestants wear, where they sleep and what they eat. We see this use
of viewer participations in many of these recent reality shows such as American
Idol, and other talent focused shows where the pubic is heard through their
votes.
Overall
it is clear to me how much “electronic communications technologies
significantly enhance these postmodern possibilities” (Poster, 443).
| Discussion Board for fans |
| Fan recap videos offering discussion and theory |
| Fan Blogs |
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