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.