Dot, 3/6

I really enjoyed yesterdays class and thought it was great to learn about Jenkins from a totally new perspective. I liked hearing Claire's story and especially enjoyed meeting someone who actually turned what they love into a profession. I was excited to meet one of the pioneers of our major and it really made me realize how fortunate CMC majors now really are. I am glad we have a major that we are all so interested in and that we can all take different things from. In listening to Claire, I realized that it is possible to study what you want and to turn that passion into a career. Her talk also further proved that popular culture is something you can study and live off, now all I have to do is convince my parents.

In Claire's presentation, she brought up the question, "what is a fan?". She went on to say that a real fan is one who goes to conventions and posts on message boards and reads fan sites. I do not fully agree with this notion. Although I do believe people that do these things are definitely fans, I think that there are others ways to be a fan of something without doing these things. I would call myself a huge Grey's Anatomy fan, however I have never entered into the virtual world of Grey's fandom and I could not even tell you if one exists. I do watch all of the episodes, have lengthy conversations with my friends about what went on in each episodes and I know pretty much everything about each character. I think most people would consider me a pretty avid fan, but am I even though I don't play into the virtual fandom?

I have never been one to be too obsessed with computers or technology and rarely used the internet before Facebook, yet I am a fan. I do not believe that I be a fan one needs to necessarily be a devout follower of conventions or internet sites. I am sure there are many other people in the world who are obsessed with certain TV shows, but who are not involved with them online.

Maybe now I will check out the Grey's Anatomy fan sites to see if people there are better fans than I am.