Week 10 & 11

How does Hill define reality TV?


Reality TV is very different to normal TV, it is a genre created in the modern times and is growing ever so popular. There are more and more reality television being aired, so now you can almost watch anything on a TV show, whether it is home building, cooking, restaraunt managing, beauty shows and much more. One of the main factors of reality TV's success is that the reality adds more tension and realness in the things that are happening on the show, therefore viewers can feel more involved and pulled in to the TV show. According to Hill, (2005) “there is no one definition of reality programming, but many competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre. The reality genre is made of a number of distinctive and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or documentary. These television genres have merged with each other to create a number of hybrid genres that we now call reality TV, or popular factual television.”


Reference

Hill A. (2005). The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge

Week 9 & 10

 

What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

Hill (2004), mentioned that cult TV does not require fans’ special devotion, but their existence is very essential part of cult TV.  Cult TV represents a dedicated group of fans of a television show, who get together and do specific activities related to the television show. Obiviously this can't happen without the fans and their love for that particular show, so fans are an essential factor for the success of cult TV. According to Hill (2004), cult TV is centrally important to cult fans' 'lifestyle and identities' that such fans are so keen to legitimate defend and analyses their own consumption of cult TV. From these fans, appreciation societies are born. Appreciation societies are a society made up of fans and they meet up to have meetings, plan events, and have discussions about the TV show. For example Buffy the Vampire Salyer is a well known exmaple of cult TV, becuase of its huge success, number of fans were enormous, and so were the appreciation societies. People would have Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marathons, theme based parties, they would wear Buffy the Vampire Slayer clothing, and much more. And with the improvement of techonologies nowadays such meetings and events can be planned and held much easier.
I remember when I was young and Buffy would play on television night after night, I was never a huge fan but I do remeber going to school and my classmates were always talking about the show.  

Reference

Hill, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter- texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.

Week 7 & 8

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?


Speculative fiction can be made story-line by “what if?” background (Brown, 2001). When starting the idea of a story with a thought like 'what if?' the possibilities and potential are endless. What if this? What if that? This is why the genres that speculative fiction covers are very broad. Fantasy, horror, mystery, myth, fairy tale, supernatural, superhero, utopian and dystopian, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic and alternate history are all recognised as sub-genres of speculative fiction. Science fiction is also among these genres as it is also recognised as a sub-genre of speculative fiction. According to Robert,(2000) science fiction is "a genre or division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds to one degree to another from the world in which we actually live." This shows me that The Man in the High Castle is more likely to be categorised as a science fiction story, as the world the story is built around is set in the future, and it is very different to our's. But then at the same time the plot of the story is based on the 'what if?' of what it would be like if the outcome of world war 2 was different, so it pushes it back to speculative fiction. My conclusion is that The Man in the High Castle is a story that falls under both science fiction and speculative fiction.


Reference

Roberts, A. (2000). Science Fiction. London : Routledge.

Brown, E. (2001).Introduction. In Dick, P.K.,The Man in the High Castle(p.v-xii). London: Penguin.

Anime- Location

Looking at Napier and Cavallaro, (2006) discuss how anime is culturally 'located'- in the East or West or somewhere else?

The heart of Anime is still clearly based in Japan, however as the secondary text discusses, Animes popularity has grown to be world wide. Anime is still regarded as a subculture in the West of the world, however the Eastern world regard it as a growing phenomenon and rightly so. Anime is far more than a cartoon, and the comparison some have made to Disney is laughable. Anime is an art in terms of the visual drawings and its content. I believe Anime will always survive most strongly in Japan because as the secondary text describes, Anime is uncompromising. And why should it? Anime is honest, complex, entertaining, engaging and beautiful. Anime has proven it does not need the support of American pop culture so that readers can relate. I believe this is mostly because what makes Anime so engaging to Western viewers is that it is something the West has never experienced- quite original.

I think Anime is very important in popular genre because it represents current Japan. The west has had a hard time letting go of world war two (an idea also in "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick). Anime is intelligent and although some may disagree with me, I find it can have a very peaceful nature to it.

Week 7&8

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?

 Science fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction. Robert(2000) mentions that science fiction is "a genre or division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds to one degree to another from the world in which we actually live."

 Speculative fiction is the fiction of 'what if?' It means that speculative fiction implies the what-if-type questions. Also, Speculative fiction can consist alternation of history.

“Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.” (Speculative Fiction, Wikipedia)

 

 I think It is not easy to classify the genres of literature.The story of The Man in the High Castle is about an alternative world where the power of Axis won in Second World War. The Man in the High Castle can be seen as both science fiction and speculative fiction. The Man in the High Castle has an element of Science fiction like future time setting, however, this novel also has Speculative fiction category which is "What if?" condition.

 

Reference

Roberts, A. (2000). Science Fiction. London : Routledge.
Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.
Wikipedia. (n.d). Speculative fiction. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

Week11&12

How does Hill define reality TV?
 

  I really love to watch reality TV like American's Next Top Model, Hell's kitchen and so on because reality TV is lifelike and create an unexpected sensation unlike programs which have scripts.

 Hill states that "reality TV is commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming. There are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non-professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand-held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of the camera(p.41)."

 Hill (2005) “there is no one definition of reality programming, but many competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre. The reality genre is made of a number of distinctive and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or documentary.  These television genres have merged with each other to create a number of hybrid genres that we now call reality TV, or popular factual television.”

 

 Cathy Come Home was first broadcast on November 16, 1966 and it had a great impact on reality TV. Cathy Come Home is realistic drama documentary style. Ken Loache expressed the real-life situation of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and the rights of mothers. He did use techniques which are non-professional actors in order to ensure reality, a hand held camera that had followed Cathy and Reg all the time, and careful narrative construction. Narrative of Cathy reminded me a common technique which is interview of cast members in many reality shows.  

reference
Hill A. (2005). The rise of reality TV. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 15 – 40). Oxon: Routledge

Wikipedia. (n.d).Cathy Come Home. Retrieved October 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Come_Home

Week 11&12

Q. How does Hills define reality TV?

 Hill (2005, p.41) mentioned that “The category of reality TV is commonly used to describe a range of popular factual programming. There are a variety of styles and techniques associated with reality TV, such as non professional actors, unscripted dialogue, surveillance footage, hand held cameras, seeing events unfold as they are happening in front of camera.”

 Reality TV belongs to factual entertainment, which range not only from formatted programmes but also to non-formatted programmes. The BBC divided categories of reality TV into six categories in 2003 (Hill, 2005). There are six categories that Hill (2005, p.42) mentioned: “documentaries and contemporary factual; specialist factual; current affairs and investigations; arts and culture; life skills; and new media.” On the other hand, compared with categorises of reality TV in U.K, categorises in the U.S.A are slightly different. U.S.A defines that reality TV programmes are contemporary reality game shows and talent shows.

I can compare reality TV shows with cult TV shows. Cult TV shows are made interaction between audience and the shows. The audience participate in interaction thought various methods to discuss their interests. But, the audience cannot be one of characters in the shows. On the other hand, reality TV shows require the audience’s attendance by the different methods. The reality shows want audience to be one of characters, like ‘The X factor’ of channel three.

Reference

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television (pp.14 - 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Weeks 5-6: Anime

In these last few weeks, fantastic fiction or fantasy has been the main focus from the many genres explored in pop culture. On the surface, the notion of the quest, archetypal characters and the rites of passage draws massive attention from people of all ages, as it reflects the transitional yet pivotal periods in life within a medieval, mythical setting. On the other hand, a bit more can actually be said for what lies beneath. Escapism is what comes to mind, in other words, an escape from reality or a reflection of reality. In a world where we are bombarded with demands, pressure, propaganda, technology and what not, it is fair to say that a much needed head space for clarity is a good excuse to turn to fantasy for relief or leisure. Now switching focus to anime or "animation produced in Japan" (Mountfort, n.d, Slide 2), comprising of Japanese high-brow, traditional and common art forms in creating a theoretically-rare visually-appealing atmosphere (Napier, 2005), the pull towards escapism becomes a struggle of change and hardship - something that we can relate to in our own lives. This is explanatory in the complex, challenging plots and the saddening though sexual tones imposed on the anime world (Napier, 2005) - a far cry from the conventional style of animation, particularly that of American pop culture where the fairy tale, familial thematic structures may embrace both the dreamlike and the moral, but perhaps clinching too much on the former and less emphasis on the latter (Edsall, n.d).

As much as I enjoyed watching Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons as a child, I quickly got caught up in the various anime shows that screened in the mid-late 1990s/early 2000s such as Pokémon and Sailor Moon. I honestly can't remember why or how I came to enjoy these shows everyday after school but thinking about it now, the fantasy action-filled adventure and the sense of closeness and the attentive, warm and entertaining interaction between characters and also with their surroundings were probably what attracted me to watching anime television. The direction of Hayao Miyazaki, Japan's top animator and anime film director, undertaken in his work similarly drives towards the appeal of the emotional connection and compassion felt by the characters, where behavioural norms of the Japanese culture, values of respect and understanding, are applicable to the distinctive make-up of anime (Cavallaro, 2006). The humanity aspect of anime characters speaks of that distinctiveness, that individualised trait which sets itself apart from many of the beloved cartoon figures we know - Miyazaki's creation of unconventional roles exhibits both good and weak qualities, regardless of gender and age; therefore, this has problematised the naturalised construction of the traditional gender and age-defined roles we've come to know and accept, given the patriarch-dominated society and culture we live in. Princess Mononoke (1997) exemplifies this real life-like characterisation in San, a girl raised in the forest by the Forest Gods and the Wolf Goddess, whose animosity towards the humans have long consumed her to the point of not only using her anger and resentment as ammunition in combating Iron Town intruders but also fighting or acting on the evil within herself that has somehow possessed her; Miyazaki further paints the humans - the residents of Iron Town who are responsible for the evil imposed on the Forest spirits - in a positive light, choosing to portray them as decent, hard-working, family/community-oriented people (Young, 2012).

The mixed, complex nature of Miyazaki's characters comes to emblematise the struggle of the changes they experience and the hardships they endure in the process of those changes. Anime somehow provides that space for freedom in which people can use their life experiences to make a difference in others and in their environment, for the better; it also provides the perfect escape route from the staticness, the conformities you find in images, texts and media.

Reference(s):

Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company.

Edsall, T. (n.d). Anime versus Disney [Web log post]. Retrieved from  http://blog.ledsoul.com/?page_id=63

Mountfort, P. (n.d). 166104 Popular Genres - Week 5: Anime I [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://www.autonline.aut.ac.nz/

Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle (pp. 3-14). Hampshire, United Kingdom: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Young, R. (2012). Hayao Miyazaki: An animation legend. Retrieved September 10, 2012, from http://robwrite.hubpages.com/hub/Hayao-Miyazaki-An-animation-legend

Week 9&10

Q. What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

Fans play important roles in Cult TV. If there is not any fan of cult TV, the word ‘cult’ cannot be called. Hill (2004) mentioned that cult TV does not require fans’ special devotion, but their existence is very essential part of cult TV.

Fans’ enthusiasm begins to make their societies, ‘Appreciation Societies.’ Through this, they meet each other face to face and talk about their interest in programmes or shows. Even they organise conventions where they can meet each other, discuss on the themes and share their thoughts.

Nowadays, media has been extended, which has been helpful to extend appreciation societies. Fans do not regard the shows that they love as only one of TV shows. They can enjoy the shows that they love by using various methods. Their societies can be divided into three parts. Firstly, by increasing fans who love the programmes, cult TV programmes make props memorabilia, merchandise and props that related with the programmes (Hill, 2004). Secondly, fans can read the shows because a series of cult TV shows are published as book series. Moreover, DVD and video series are also made to watch it whenever they want. Finally, there is internet, which is the strongest method now. Most fans have written commentaries, guidance and explanations online. Moreover, they post their opinions on their blogs. Even they write fan fiction, which is that they imagine what it goes like writers. In addition, they can buy products which are related with the shows through online shopping without visiting to shops. It there were not media, the status of cult TV would not be popular as now.

 Audience of TV programmes was very passive before. However, now people who want to express their opinions about the shows have been increased. Not only the audience but also the programmes want to interact with the audience. For this interaction, media has played an effective role.

Reference

Hill, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter- texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge.

week9&10

What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

 

 Cult TV is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of culture by doing mutual activities. Fans play important roles constructing cult TV. Hills (2004) states that cult TV is centrally important to cult fans' 'lifestyle and identities' that such fans are so keen to legitimate defend and analyses their own consumption of cult TV. Cult TV cannot grow without fans. For example, Buffy the vampire slayer which is one of the biggest cult TV show, has a large groups of fans around the world. Fans make their intertextual network by creating many websites and they share their opinions, ideas, and information. Also, Fans can create fan fiction, commentaries and analyze characters.

 

 According to Hills, cult TV expresses dedicated fans' fandom. Hills(2004) mentions that "This type of argument position cult TV, as a 'grassroots' phenomenon, assuming that it is created by fans rather than by media producers (p.510).”

 

  New media increases the activities of fans and the Internet has had a big impact on fans. Nowadays most fans’ activities take place internet. Fans can meet each other easily in a virtual space and discuss their thought about Cult show. Also, they are able to propagated fandom. Hills(2004) also states that “by making it easier for fans to contact other like-minded devotees, the web increases the possibility of small-scale organised fandoms emerging around a wider variety of TV shows(p.519).”

Referece
Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-texts and Fan Audiences, the Television

Studies Reader. London and New York: Routledge.

Week 7&8

Q. What does Dick (1995) himself theories about the I Ching?

Philip. K. Dick regarded I Ching as synchronicity, which means every event happens now without a pattern that an event happens not only yesterday but also today and tomorrow. Because it is not connected, individual connections with other people cannot exist.

 “I Ching has been around for three thousand years and still being used.” (Dick, 1995) Although it has been used for long time, proposes for using it are different. Firstly, China and Richard Wilhelm used for a prediction for future. Contrast with this, Dick’s opinion is totally different and he (1965) mentioned “the book is analytical and diagnostic, not predicted.” He also pointed out that we can use the book for any purpose and he suggested its examples. John Cage, one of American composers and music therapists, has used I Ching for his music chord. In case of Dick, he used it to “develop the direction of a novel.” Moreover, we can find that he mentioned “I speak from experience. The Oracle- the I Ching- told me to write this piece” through ‘Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes (1965).’

Dick followed what I Ching gave advices to him, and he further regarded himself as a schizoid person. And, he theorised that a schizoid-effective people are imprisoned in their own world which there are the things they want. As a result, they cannot get out of there. As he mentioned, he also put himself in the world.

Other people might think that he is crazy and abnormal, but I differently think about him. Even though what he mentioned is unreasonable, he is not crazy because his novels that he wrote through I Ching have been recognised as the best novels. His thoughts and eyes that looked at the world are just different from us. I believe that it was possible that his novels are involved in the best novels because he is just different.

 

Reference

Dick, P.K. (1995). Schizophrenia and the I Ching. In Sutin, L. (Ed.), The shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.175-182). New York:Vintage.

 

week5&6

Is it a high or low cultural genre, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?

Japanese refer to animation as anime but this is not a terminology which passes just within Japan. This is in common use all over the world.

 Anime is a high culture genre. Napier mentioned that anime is a popular cultural form that clearly builds on previous high cultural traditions. (P, 4) Anime is influenced by the woodblock print, cinema, and Kabuki which is a classical Japanese dance-drama. So anime can be considered to have relation to high culture. Napier also states that many of the issues which explores in anime are familiar to high culture literature.  For example, Princess Mononoke from Miyazaki is a work which break the stereotype that anime is just children’s cartoon. It means that anime often portraying important social and cultural themes which can appeal even to young people or adult.  

 

 Anime has many subgenres. Some of genres include children’s cartoon like Pokémon and Hello Kitty, science fiction like Astro Boy, sex and crime like lchi the killer. According to Napier (2005), to define anime simply as Japanese cartoons gives no sense of the depth and variety that make up the medium. Essentially, anime works include everything that Western audiences are accustomed to seeing in live-action films-romance, comedy, tragedy, adventure, and even psychological probing of a kind seldom attempted in recent mess-culture Western film or television (p, 6)

 

 

 

Refereces

Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle (pp. 3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

 

Week12

How has the documentary genre influenced reality TV and how it presents the ‘real’?



Reality TV is genre of programs promote realism which are not base on script, self-camera, blunt dialogue (slang) and casting ordinary people instead of professional actors for making sense of realistic. (Hill, 2005) It is became trend worldwide, variety of genre such as contest programs follows, borrows and has been created the concept of reality TV.

Documentary genre has great impact in reality TV. As characteristic of documentary, it is more likely propensity of nonfiction that reality TV reproduces the actual incident or experience in faithfully.

Biressi and Nunn (2005) said, “Fiction film’s convention has become so established as to become naturalized and accepted by audiences as a ‘realistic’ mode of representation.” And they added “they are accepted, not only because of these embedded conventions, but also because the films broadly conform to audience’s assumptions about ‘what life is like’ (Ellis 1982:63); assumptions which are a socially informed radical documentary practice.”

In the documentary style of reality TV “Cathy Come Home”, story about a couple who had lost their child to social services which was written to convey information on event, the fact that, taken directly from the experience of reality of the past.

Recent reality show seems not a real. While producing programs, there must have a set and the script. The problem can be arise in Reality TV that the programs are pretending to tell the truth, as shown in the documentary broadcast and video media or advertise something else through the media or broadcast form a deterioration of Realism.

Reality TV like “Survivor”, this program is broadcast reality TV game show. Participants will live apart from society and will compete for prizes and other goods. As you progress through the game by the program being eliminated by participants during voting structure with the last person who will receive the title of "Sole Survivor". “Survivor” is successful and can be a role model in reality show. It has focus on worldwide, selecting participants from all over the world and showing audiences of realism how difficult to be a “Sole Survivor” for everyone in the universe although, anyone can be the one of them. However, this program is focusing on reality and entertainment, it may cover and conceal the fact that may edit to show only one sided between relationship of each people. That will be entertaining however it is deceiving audience as well as the participants. I think this is one of factor to improve in making good quality of a program which has obtained elements from documentary genre.





Reference

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Week 5&6

 Q. What is the ‘Shoujo’ and how does it often function in anime?

 I like Japanese anime, and I often watch that. Whenever I watch anime, I could think there are many young woman heroines in Japanese animes. Young woman and girls are called “Shoujo” in Japanese, aged between 12 and 13. These girls are generally passive and powerless in Japan. Shoujo metaphorically is expressed as the admixture of both childhood and adulthood. According to Tamae Prindle, “What fascinates the Japanese is that the shoujo nestle in a shallow lacuna between adulthood and childhood, power and powerlessness, awareness and innocence as well as masculinity and femininity.” (1998, as cited in Cavallaro, 2006)

Anime stories by shoujo are different from anime stories which deal with science fiction and war because the worlds by shoujo are dreamy and magical like fairy stories.

Heroines in Miyazaki’s films are active, brave, heroic and curious unlike typical Japanese girls, shoujo. Moreover, Miyazaki has avoided depicting the heroines as typically attractive woman characters as pets and dolls. For example, there is San, Princess Mononoke. Her face is bloodstained and she tried to bleed out from Wolf God’s body by using her mouth. We can know that she has lived unlike other human to viewers thought her appearance and her action. Like San, Miyazaki depicted heroine in Princess Mononoke as a wild warrior girl who has grown by wolves, not by human.

Miyazaki has dealt not only with a various stories of anime but also ambivalent heroines who we cannot meet in reality.

Reference

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.

Week3-4 How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn

According to Le Guin, science fiction and fantasy have similarities but they are different. Most science fictions have future time frame. It pretends that future is the present or the past, and then tells us what happened in it. Science fiction is the outcomes of imagination; but so is fantasy.

 However, fantasy bases on fictiveness more than realism, compared to science fiction. Fantasy commonly uses magic and supernatural phenomena. Fantasy does not impose a limit on the imagination. Fantasy, there are heroes who act heroic deeds by using magic or special talents. But in science fiction shows heroes who use modern technology like duplication, modern weapons and so on but no magic. I think the differences between fantasy and science fiction are existence of heroes. Science fiction’s heroes are just heroes and they cannot be super-heroes.

 

Reference

Plausibility Revisited Wha Hoppen and What Didn't Ursula K. Le Guin (2005). Retrieved October 19, 2012, fromhttp://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html.

 

Weeks 9-10: Cult TV

I watched The X-Files, Roswell and Veronica Mars when I was younger, and they were among the popular shows on TV at the time, tuning in almost every Friday night/Sunday afternoon. Today, these shows tend to come up every now and then in conversations, online, in mailers and even back on TV as reruns. And there’s a reason for this – these shows are considered cult television, given the complexity of the nature of its characters and narratives, which are influenced by the supernatural and the ordinary; and the mass fan following that these and other similar shows have reaped during and after production. Although both points make cult television unique and compelling, it is the latter in which fans are a major part of the construction and continual success of this variety of television. 

Cult TV comprises of a number of literary genres or texts – a mix of the popular and the canon, usually of the paranormal, science fiction, horror nature combined with the soap opera-ish, coming-of-age storyline; thus, it is difficult to pinpoint or singlehandedly label cult TV to a particular genre since the narratives are designed intricately and imaginatively (Hills, 2004). This ties with the broadcasting/distribution side of television where major networks/channels have a specific agenda of airing fitted, high-end shows that are significant to Western life socially, politically and economically; and for a series to showcase anything of “The Other” would not be positive, unacceptable for the majority of the public to see (Hills, 2004). 

The blend of genres contains conventional elements, the regularities of life that characterises our lives in the real world, from which it is assimilated into the rare, nonhuman-like being of the individual, so the viewers are able to follow a character’s journey, relating to them through the highs and lows, as well as his or her needs and wants e.g. even as a vampire slayer, Buffy still deals with problems like every other young adult, such as that of her relationship with Riley, who loses the mother figure in his life, Professor Walsh and ultimately, himself as he is unable to cope emotionally and physically (without the drugs to effect the herculean abilities) and accuses Buffy for Walsh’s murder out of his own insecurities (Petrie, 2005). Therefore, Buffy is regarded as “The Other” – a young woman from the suburbs with feminist tendencies and superhero abilities (Hatch, 2011). 

This sense of familiarity and fascination with these elaborate, extraordinary realms and characters heightens the fans’ participation, becoming knowledgeable and appreciative of the functions and features that the plot(s) are structured within (Hills, 2004). This resonates with me, and probably others also, as I find the distinctive and the unconventional intriguing and for shows that are not “prim and proper”, it is by interest that one would immerse themselves in learning about these inventive, illusory narrative worlds – as a way to figure what, how and why things are problematic and making attempts to fill in the gaps when it is impossible to do so - another common trait of cult TV which attributes to the unreal, unexplainable theme that the plot and characters are created in (Hills, 2004). 

The vast level of interest among fans in cult TV has exceeded beyond the couch and the television set – avid viewers cultivate activities to express their love for shows of this kind, enthusiastically and habitually engaging with and informing others of updates, facts, interviews etc. through print publication (independent sources/guides), live events/gatherings, discussions, markets etc. Hills (2004) points out to justify the fans’ actions as a way of connecting with the show, by keeping up-to-date or wanting to know specifics in advance in regards to the episode plots, production, characters and the cast. With the various communication platforms/channels available today, new or digital media is an essential part in fans building and maintaining support bases and networks for cult TV shows, after or in-production. Therefore, forms of new media such as the Internet and video games enable to enhance or fulfill the fan’s experience of their favourite TV show, out of educational or personal interest. 

References

Hatch, J. (2011). From Buffy Summers to Elena Gilbert: How Millennial Convergence Interacts with Third-Wave Feminism and Enlightened Sexism in the Vampire Television Show. Movable Type, E 3.1. Retrieved from http://www.movabletypemedia.com/2011/12/from-buffy-summers-to-elena-gilbert/

Hills, M. (2004). Defining Cult TV; Texts, Inter-Texts and Fan Audiences, The Television Studies Reader, in R. C. Allen & A. Hill. London and New York: Routledge

Petrie, D. (2005). BBC - Cult - Buffy - Doug Petrie, Buffy Producer's guide to season four - Goodbye, Iowa. Retrieved September 29, 2012, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/interviews/doug/iowa.shtml