CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland
Mediated emotions
Organisers: Tuija Modinos and Kaarina Nikunen
Borer, Michael Ian (Boston University,
USA) THE EMERGENCE OF AUTHENTICITY BETWEEN THE "I" AND THE
"ME": GEORGE HERBERT MEAD AND THE DIALECTIC OF MEDIA CULTURE
If contemporary American culture has been dominated by media images and if media
images are reproductions, and by their very nature they are representations of
physical reality, is it possible to experience media authentically? By adopting
Douglas Kellner's term "media culture" in order to pinpoint our
subject matter, we can avoid the reified distinctions between
"culture" and "communication," and begin to address the
emotional and intellectual impact of media discourse as the present-day dominant
mode of cultural production, transmission, and reception. Recognizing media
discourse as a cultural system, a system of symbols that are continuously
"encoded" and "decoded," we can begin to understand media
discourse as a dialectical process between the self (the individual social
actor) and the other (media imagery) and within the self (between George Herbert
Mead's analytical concepts of the "I" and the "me"), thereby
revealing the possibility for an emergent authentic experience within a
media(ted)culture.
Nikunen, Kaarina (University of Tampere,
Finland) MAILING EMOTIONS. FAN LETTERS, TELEVISION STARDOM AND THE CONSTRUCTION
OF EMOTIONS
Emotions of fandom are articulated in various cultural practices: in fanfiction,
fOlk music, web sites, fan discussions, clubs and fan letters. I will explore
the construction of emotions in fan letters written to A famous Finnish
television star, Marco Bjurström, host of a popular music quiz Bumtsibum. Fan
letters are private, intimate expressions of emotions. At the same time however,
they are part of a larger cultural practice, part of fan culture. I will read
these letters at the intersection of private and public discourses and focus on
the construction of star-fan relations, fandom and stardom in these expressions
of love and admiration. Fan letters can be seen as formations of fantasy and
utopia, which I consider essential dimensions in fandom. As such, they tell us
about the way emotions are culturally organised and regulated, nourished and
cherished.
Modinos, Tuija (University of
Jyväskylä, Finland) LARGER THAN LIFE; GENDERED ARTICULATIONS OF POPULAR MUSIC
FANDOM
In her critique of Euro-American cultures' gendered practices Sara Cohen (1997)
has pointed out that we tend to assume that "rock culture is male culture
comprising male activities and styles". Meanwhile, according to Cohen, we
"tend associate women with a marginal, decorative or less creative
role", which explains for example the common stereotype of "girls as
adoring fans who scream at male performers". By discussing Backstreet Boy's
1999 Millennium Tour concert in Helsinki, as well as the ways this boy band and
their "adoring" fans were constructed in/by Finnish media texts at the
time, the present paper will trace the gendered articulations of BSB fandom
circulated in Finnish media culture in August 1999.
Hirsjärvi, Irma (University of Jyväskylä,
Finland) FAN OF HIS FANS?
'Audience' is a complex term, as recent research on audiences has shown. The aim
of my paper is to take a closer look at this complexity by discussing an
interesting circle I found while writing an article about Star Trek fans I began
my article by writing a description of contemporary fan research and used Star
Trek- fandom as an example. However, after reading William Shatners book Get a
Life (1999) on Star Trek fans, I found out that not only had he been using the
latest fandom research (especially Henry Jenkins, Joli Jenson and Abercombie
& Longhurst) as a basic structure of his book, but also he himself had
transformed into a fan of Star Trek fandom.
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