International relation

We could define participatory culture as one with:

1. Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement,

2. Strong support for creating and sharing creations with others,

3. Some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most Experienced is passed along to novices,

4. Members who believe that their contributions matter, and

5. Members who feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least, they care what other people think about what they have created).

“Fan” is an abbreviated form of the word “fanatic,” which has its roots In the Latin word “fanaticus.” It assumed more negative connotations, “Of Persons inspired by orgiastic rites and enthusiastic frenzy”

For Jenkins, following Pierre Bourdieu: good taste, appropriate conduct, or aesthetic merit

• Are not natural or universal but are rooted in social experience and reflect particular class interests.

• They may seem natural but are shaped by the dominant class and are

reinforced by experiences in higher education and ‘other basic institutions that reward appropriate conduct and proper tastes’.

For Bourdieu, taste is ‘one of the important means by which social Distinctions are maintained and class identities are forged. Those who “naturally” Possess appropriate

tastes “deserve” a privileged position within the institutional Hierarchy and reap the greatest benefits from the educational system, while the tastes of Others are seen as “uncouth” and underdeveloped’.

For Certeau, people are not just passive consumers but ‘users’; adapters And can be very creative and active in their forms of consumption and behaviour.

• Certeau distinguished between ‘strategies’ and ‘tactics’:

- Strategies are associated with the repression associated with Political institutions, corporations and other institutional bodies and are linked To structures of power and control

- Tactics are associated with what people do in everyday life; how they use and adapt (or poach) things. This is a form of creative resistance which does not rely on well organized official strategies; it is more Like how a poacher takes advantage of a moment to steal from a land owner or master by using tricks to get away with what is stolen.  What is significant about fans in relation to de Certeau’s model is that They constitute a particularly active and vocal community of consumers whose activities direct attention onto this process of cultural appropriation.