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Oct. 11th, 2008 01:40 pmMost of you are probably following Henry Jenkins's blog on your feed readers, but if you're anything like me, you've taken to scrolling past the big chunks of text so you can catch up with your flist more quickly.
But I took a minute to look through the latest entry, and some of what the guest he was interviewing had to say really resonated with my recent experience and discussions.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jlh and I have been talking about market demographics and hasty characterizations, and look:
What's interesting about that is that I think that sometimes, as fans, we do the same thing to other fen. It's why recommendations from fans carry so much weight and are so frustrating when they go awry. Like, god, don't you even know me?
And this reminded me SO MUCH of why so many people are willing to write off Sci-Fi and any new properties in the Stargate franchise:
I mean, really, how is this so hard?
At any rate, not a lot that's particularly new here, but there's a lot that's articulated well enough to leave me with a "yes, THAT, thank you!"
This is all from the second part of the interview; you can read it in context and follow back the link for the first part of the interview, all available here.
But I took a minute to look through the latest entry, and some of what the guest he was interviewing had to say really resonated with my recent experience and discussions.
jlh and I have been talking about market demographics and hasty characterizations, and look:Often the industry (especially at the network level) thinks of their viewers in simple, market-research oriented terms. Executives often forget that viewers are complex human beings who come to any given program with a plethora of expectations that can defy what a survey reveals or what a PR professional assumes about a given audience for a show. Networks are so very much driven still by numbers and trends--the business elements demand this--and people more often fall outside the norm than within it.
NOTHING is more irritating as a person than having someone make assumptions about you--we don't like it in everyday social circumstances, so why would we like it in storytelling? This is why the industry has to work harder (with writers and producers especially) to communicate with their viewers--"you can mess up, if you fess up" is how I see it. Admit when something misfires, be willing to take risks but explain why.
What's interesting about that is that I think that sometimes, as fans, we do the same thing to other fen. It's why recommendations from fans carry so much weight and are so frustrating when they go awry. Like, god, don't you even know me?
And this reminded me SO MUCH of why so many people are willing to write off Sci-Fi and any new properties in the Stargate franchise:
The real value comes in brand loyalty, I think. When viewers think a network will go to bat for their creatives and their viewers, they are more likely to commit to a new project the network offers.
I mean, really, how is this so hard?
At any rate, not a lot that's particularly new here, but there's a lot that's articulated well enough to leave me with a "yes, THAT, thank you!"
This is all from the second part of the interview; you can read it in context and follow back the link for the first part of the interview, all available here.