advanced new media - e-Gyanagar

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in

Journalism & Mass Communication

BJMC-13

ADVANCED NEW MEDIA

Block - 4

Participatory Culture

UNIT-1: Convergence Culture

UNIT-2: Digital fandom and Online Communities’ Identity

UNIT-3: Gender and New Media

UNIT-4: Social Media Marketing and Publicity

Course Writer Course Editor

Ms Ashwini Kamble Mr Sujit Kumar Mohanty

Assistant Professor Assistant Professor, Dept. of JMC

IIMC Amarawati, Maharastra Central University of Odisha

Programme Coordinator

Samanta Biswabhusan Dhir

Academic Consultant

Odisha State Open University,

Sambalpur

Material Production

Dr. Manas Ranjan Pujari

Registrar

Odisha State Open University, Sambalpur

(CC) OSOU, May, 2022. Participatory Culture is made available under a

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0

Printed by:

The Course follows the UGC prescribed syllabus for BA (Honours)

Journalism and Mass Communication under Choice Based Credit

System (CBCS).

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Odisha State Open University, Sambalpur Page 1

Unit-1: Convergence Culture

Unit Structure:

1.1.Learning Objectives

1.2.Introduction

1.3 What is Convergence Culture?

1.3.1 Types of Convergence

1.3.2 Effects of Convergence Culture

1.3.3 Examples of Convergence Culture

1.4 Participatory Culture

1.4.1 Characteristics of Participatory Culture

1.4.2 Forms of participatory Culture

1.4.3 Advantages of Participatory Culture

1.5 Community Participation

1.6 Check your progress

1.1 Learning Objectives

After completion of this unit, learner will able to understand;

the concept of convergence

the impact of convergence culture

the role of social media in convergence culture

to study participatory culture

1.2: Introduction

Time and technology have changed and also the way we consume content. There was

a time when your father and mother used to read newspapers while having their

morning tea, watch television programs while having dinner and go for movies

together during the weekend. The songs on Akashvani had its charisma. Watching a

new movie at the cinema hall was considered as a treat or a way of celebration.

How do you feel when you listen to this?

Because today, you do the same things but the device is new. It is no more celebration

to watch movie. It is available on demand. You read news; you watch television for

sports or for other programs, you also watch new released movies but you no more use

different platforms. Everything is available on your laptop and even more

conveniently on your smart phone. All that you require is a stable and high speed


internet connection and everything becomes available at your fingertips. This has

become possible due to media convergence.

In this unit we are going to get more information about media and culture of

convergence and its impact on various other issues.

How many of you watch YouTube and inspired to have your own channel on the

platform? From cooking to cinema, from technology and travel to traditions, from

sports to fashion, from healthcare to current affairs - for everything there is a YouTube

channel. In case of Indian YouTuber community, many YouTubers have subscribers

in millions. This is just an example to understand that content creation is no more

monopoly of few selected powerful people. Internet has truly democratized the

content creation. This has pushed the participation of a lay person in content creation.

One may not be an expert but still can have voice and now there is a platform for

him/her to express. Common people may feel powerful to have a platform to voice

their feelings and thoughts and connect with more members of the society through

social media platforms. There is rise of participatory culture in content creation.

In this unit we are going to focus on participatory culture and its impact on content

creation and content consumption.

1.3 What is Convergence Culture?

We use laptop or smart phone to consume content - be it in the form of news, image,

video, audio or animation or any other form. It is possible because of convergence.

This has given birth to the concept of convergence culture.

Media scholar and subject expert Henry Jenkins is considered as a father of this

concept. He has introduced this concept in his book ‘Convergence Culture: Where Old

and New Media Collide’. Convergence culture is all about the content available in

various formats and its distribution and control of content.

It can be defined as the flow of content across multiple media platforms. It is also

connected with the migratory behavior of media audiences across different media

platforms.


Convergence culture deals with the change in technology, participation of audience

and collective intelligence. Consumers are not just consuming content passively but

are creating, sharing, interacting, commenting and extending their participation which

is significantly different from older media experience.

History of convergence:

If we look at history, then we can say electronic media developed convergence in

terms of technology. It had its existence since then. Like earlier, only an audio

medium (radio) was available. The camera was there to capture a moving image as a

still. Later, the technology to capture moving images developed, and films were made.

Later the audio was added to it. Then it became colorful. The advancement of

technology led to the invention of the television. And what we used to watch in the

theater on the big screen we started to enjoy that in our home. Television and cinema

are good examples of the mixing of various art forms.

From 1980s media became digitized. Use of electronic technology increased and

information and communication changed its dynamics again. That was the

convergence in modern time. During 1990s media became like a huge industry like

never before. This was the time of big media business and integration of industries

began. Along with this there was rise in need of regulation and concern over

convergence because it involved many other issues. In the 2000, culture convergence

became popular. Participation of audiences increased and scholars started to study the

cultural convergence and its impact. So, in terms of convergence, the shift was from

technology to economy to culture.

Subject expert Henry Jenkins says that ‘convergence is the study about how content on

various media platforms is produced and consumed.’

1.3.1 Types of Convergence:

Henry Jenkins has explained it into five categories:

1. Economic convergence: Famous media group Bennett and Coleman has many

interests across many media platform. They have the largest circulated English


newspapers i.e. Times of India; private radio FM station - Radio Mirchi; many

regional language newspapers. They have television news channel Times Now.

They have popular magazine Filmfare, Sportstar and so on. This is known as

economic convergence. It happens when one big company controls several

media services. We can also talk about biggest media conglomerate Rupert

Murdoch’s News Corporation.

2. Organic convergence: According to Jenkins, this type of convergence happens

when someone watches any program online, at the same time chatting on instant

messaging app and listening to the music at the background. Multiple tasks at

the same time mostly managed by today’s youngsters. Many call it as the

“natural” outcome of a diverse media world.

3. Cultural convergence: It happens when same stories have been told on various

platforms. Chhota Bheem is a popular Indian comic character but there are toys

available in the market. So many novels become movies. Indian culture is full of

mythological stories and literature and they have been used to make television

serials, movies, plays and even cartoons for kids (Ramayan, Mahabharat and

characters like Krishna and Hanuman). It happens in all cultures. The character

Harry Potter exists in books, films, toys, and amusement park rides. Another

aspect of cultural convergence is participatory culture but we will see in later

part of the unit.

4. Global convergence: It is all about vanishing geographical distance and talking

about impactful stories irrespective of the location. Taking inspiration from

American film industry also known as Hollywood, Indian film industry is

known as Bollywood and now Telugu and Tamil film industry is known as

Tollywood. This is an impact of different cultures. Cartoon made on Arabian

Nights was extremely popular in India like American cartoon show Tom and

Jerry. Many American shows were adapted for Indian audiences and are now

further being made in regional languages. (Example: Who will be Millionaire?

Became Kaun Banega Karodpati? And now it is available in Marathi, Bengali,

Telugu, Kannada and many other languages. Similarly we can talk about


English reality movies which are often made and remade across the cultures.

There are advantages and disadvantages of this. The major advantage is there is

no boundary and there is access to various cultures and other benefits. And the

major disadvantage is it may cause the dominance of a few powerful cultures.

Cultural imperialism can be a formal policy or can happen more subtly, as with

the spread of outside influence through television, movies, and other cultural

projects.

5. Technological convergence: This is what we have discussed earlier. Single

platform used for variety of content is technological convergence. The advanced

technology and internet has opened variety of possibilities like watching

television and reading newspaper can be done on smartphone. Smartphone is

used to make a call, to send instant messages, to click, to shoot, to edit, to share

with wider audience and to pay your bills, to sell, to buy, to learn, to study and

many more activities. When more and more different kinds of media are

transformed into digital content, it will certainly expand the potential

relationships between them and make them suitable to flow across the platforms.

1.3.2 Effects of Convergence culture:

The major effect of convergence culture is the ability to multitask. The younger

generation who has grown up with the new media (along with social media platforms)

they have greater ability to multitask. They are not passively receiving the content like

earlier audience of newspaper, television or cinema. Rather today everyone has a

chance to produce content, participate, edit, post, comment, like, share and discuss the

content with others. This transformation of role is one of the biggest advantages of

convergence culture.

Convergence culture has increased the engagement level of the participants with the

content. The involvement is active, intense and helps them to increase their

imagination and problem solving capacity. Most of the realities and television shows,

audience do guess the next twist and they share it on social media. Many Hindi

movies are simply copy-paste of South Indian or Hollywood movies but earlier the


audiences were not aware of this. But today, in the new media age, audiences are

smart enough to guess the entire plot of the movie just by watching its trailer and if it

is copy or ‘inspired’ version of any movie that also gets revealed in the discussion on

social media. It has happened with movies like Simba, Badla, Haseena Dilruba and

many more in recent days. The video games or other visual content act as a stimulus

and audience absorb more information. These are some other benefits of convergence.

This has been explained in more details by Steven Johnson in his 2005

book Everything Bad Is Good for You.

But not everything is good with the convergence. Many argue that the bombarding of

information through various platforms may cause confusion and lead to distraction.

Loads of information is easily available through internet which decreases the attention

span of users. Hence excessive use of new media may lead to disability in engaging

with real issues and complex ideas. Too much information can distract or make

everything trivial for the audience. Nicholas Carr has written about this in his 2010

book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. He presents a

pessimistic view on convergence culture. He argues that multitasking makes us do a

greater number of things poorly. Whatever the ultimate cognitive, social, or

technological results, convergence is changing the way we relate to media today.

1.3.3 Some Examples of Convergence Culture:

1. Popular Hindi movies of 60s like Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Naya Daur,

made in colour for the younger audience in recent times. This was technological

convergence.

2. ‘Hamlet’ ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Othello’ are popular plays written by world famous

writer Shakespeare. Many English movies and play are based on them. These

stories were adapted by Indian film maker Vishal Bhardwaj for Indian audience.

He came up with Haidar, Maqbool and Omkara, all critically acclaimed movies

respectively.


3. Pygmalian is a popular play originally written in English by Gorge Bernard

Shaw. The play inspired many creations all over the world. It was adapted for big

screen in English as ‘My Fair Lady’ and the popular Marathi play ‘Ti Fulrani’

was based on the same. This is global convergence.

One can find many such examples in all cultures and in all languages.

1.4 Participatory Culture

What will you do if you want to tell a story to larger audience? Earlier it was a big

challenge considering the limitation of sources. Now, you have many choices. Today,

most probably you will start your own channel on YouTube or create your page on

Facebook or Instagram. You may tweet about it. This is the way you will connect with

the larger audience. These new platforms give you opportunity to participate in larger

communication and content creation.

Participatory culture can be defined as the culture of active participation of audience

not in consumption of the content but also in production and distribution of the

content.

Henry Jenkins defines participatory culture as culture “in which fans and other

consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new

content.” It also involves “participants who interact with each other”.

YouTube is a prime example of participatory culture.

Many common people became ‘influencers’ with their unique content. There are

YouTubers who have subscribers in millions and billions and are genuine followers. It

is a shift from passive consumers to more active audience within new media ecology.

New technology has provided the facilities to produce, share, distribute and consume

various type of content. Thus, there is a rise of participatory culture. Watching cricket

match live on television is an experience but today, you can watch it on mobile phone

wherever you are and also you can record the entire match and watch it whenever you

want. You like to watch television serial and if you miss any episode, you are sure you


will get to watch it some or the other platform on internet. Because today, there is a

possibility to download, upload, stream those episodes on other platforms. This is

participation culture.

This emerging participatory culture has made media industries truly democratic, open

for all. It is no more top-to-down corporate driven industry. While companies are

looking to extend their content across platforms and enter new realms, consumers in

this converged ecology have also gained control in aspects of the process such as

where, how and when they want to consume. Content creators with an ordinary

background have huge followers and hence they have become powerful. Be it a

middle aged, middle-class housewife who has a cooking channel

(nishamadhulika.com) or a performer-writer-singer college going young boy who

produces short videos and plays many characters, all by himself (BB ki Vines). They

have billions of subscribers. It is a huge achievement, if we consider their background.

There are many such examples we can talk about. This is participatory culture.

1.4.1 Characteristics of Participatory Culture:

Now, you must have understood what participation and convergence culture is all

about. Just to get some more details, let’s check the basic characteristics of

participatory culture:

1. Fewer restrictions: As compared to traditional old media, it has minimum

restrictions to freedom of expression. In films you cannot use abusive language

but you can use it in your own video. The censorship issues are not complex

like traditional media.

2. Less cost: You can produce your content and you have means to market it with

minimum cost or no cost at all. There are multiple platforms available for

creating and sharing content.

3. No need of formal education: No formal education or training is needed to use

these new platforms to tell and share your stories. One should know how to use


smartphone especially camera and another thing is about uploading that video

on appropriate platform.

4. Connection: In participatory culture, the members of the community feel

connected even if there is nobody around them physically. Like-mined people

from different cultures and societies get to interact with each other.

5. Confidence: Participatory culture has given the confidence to all the content

creators from all strata of the society so that they can share their stories and

they will be heard. Their opinions matter.

6. No extra-ordinary stories: There is no need of great, unique, extra-ordinary

stories to share. Participatory culture has encouraged ordinary but honest

stories and most of the times these stories get attention from audience.

These characteristics make participatory culture different from other concepts. It is

about empowering common people and communities by providing space to express.

1.4.2 Forms of participatory Culture:

New technology has provided many opportunities to participate in content driven

media industry. The participation can be of many forms. One can participate by:

1. Creating content in the form of text, images, audio, video, audio-visual,

animation, slides, graphics, charts and so on

2. Being part of any group or activity and sharing their information on various

platforms

3. Being a member of a team to complete any given task or plan to develop new

knowledge

4. Expressing opinions, thoughts on any available information in any form

5. Being part of any online community

6. Collaborating with other individuals or teams to do any task

7. Circulating content which suits your opinions

8. Making spoof videos, satire or comic strips on any social-political-cultural

issue


1.4.3 Advantages of Participatory Culture:

Once you start participating in content driven media industry then you will realize

how important it is! It has many advantages. Some of them as follow:

1. Participation gives you confidence to express yourself

2. It gives your opportunities to learn and develop your skills

3. This may change your attitude towards intellectual properties

4. This kind of participation leads to more diversified cultural expression

5. The citizens will become more empowered

6. Youth may become more productive and their competencies may increase

7. Ignored sections of the societies and minorities may get their voice

8. It helps to improve your skills and this may improve your quality of work

9. Socialization of unpopular ideas and concepts

10. Participation in communication leads to cooperation, collaboration, cohesion

and broadens the communication within different cultures

All these advantages underline the importance of participation culture.

Issues with Participatory Culture:

At the same time, some experts show some concern over participation. There are

place where technology is still not accessible and affordable due various reasons.

People still lack the confidence and attitude to express them. This creates

participation gap. Together, we should try to minimize this gap, experts suggest.

Another issue is about transparency. Many young content creators face problems

due to the perceptions developed by unfair, biased media. They do not get freedom

to be very honest about their thoughts, feelings and opinions. They find it difficult

to put their opinions straight.

There is ethical challenge involved in participatory culture. Due to new

technology, the traditional forms of learning and training are changing. But policy

makers should make sure that the technology and knowledge should not be limited


to only a few people. It should be accessible to all. Everyone should get a chance

to participate and perform public roles as media makers and community

participants.

Educators must work together to ensure that every young person has access to the

skills and experiences needed to become a full participant, can articulate their

understanding of how media shapes perceptions, and has been socialized into the

emerging ethical standards that should shape their practices as media makers and

participants in online communities.

1.5 Community Participation

Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression

to community involvement. This will help communities to empower themselves.

The new literacy’s almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration

and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy,

research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom.

The new skills include:

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-

solving

Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of

improvisation and discovery

Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world

processes

Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to

salient details.


Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that

expand mental capacities

Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with

others toward a common goal

Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different

information sources

Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and

information across multiple modalities

Networking— the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and

respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Fostering such social skills and cultural competencies requires a more systemic

approach to media education. Everyone involved in preparing young people to go

out into the world has contributions to make in helping students acquire the skills

they need to become full participants in our society. Schools, afterschool

programs, and parents have distinctive roles to play as they do what they can in

their own spaces to encourage and nurture these skills.



1. Define convergence as it relates to mass media and provide some

examples of convergence you’ve observed in your life.

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2. Give three examples your favourite content creators.

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3. Why participatory culture is important?

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Unit-2: Digital Fandom and Online Communities’ Identity

Unit Structure:


2.2 Introduction

2.3 What is Fandom?

2.3.1 History of Fandom

2.3.2 Forms of Fandom

2.4 Online Communities and Identity

2.5 List of Notable Fandoms:

2.6 Effects of Fandoms




To understand the concept of fan culture

To get the reason of emergence of fan culture

To find out how social media has helped to evolved fan culture

To check the concept of online identity and community identity

2.2 Introduction

Have you ever heard the stories of crazy fans of movie stars? Dev Anand used to

get letters written by blood from his female fans and Rajesh Khanna used to get

hundreds of proposals for marriage everyday through letters from his fans. Many

south Indian popular film stars have their temples made by their fan clubs. They

do not miss first day of the release of the film of their worshiped film star. Every

year thousands of fans gather just to get the glimpse and wish on their birthday of

their favorite star, be it Amitabh Bachhan or Shah Rukh Khan. Aren’t these stories

crazy?

Don’t assume that such things happened in the past and now nobody does these

silly things. The form of expression has definitely changed but madness of fans for

their loved personalities is still there. Do you remember what has happened after


the unfortunate suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput, a popular film actor? Entire web

world took it as a storm. His fans appealed to boycott films of star kids. Popular

personalities like Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor got

mercilessly trolled by the fans of Rajput. All kind of text, images, videos and

memes were created, shared and discussed on social media handles. Many

conspiracy theories were debated. The influence was so much that mainstream

news channels covered and debated on the same issue for weeks.

This is not true only about film stars. It is equally applicable to popular political

leaders and sportsmen too. You may search for a crazy fan of tennis player Steffi

Graf who stabbed her opponent player Monica Seles in the ongoing match in

1993. Along with this, the madness is applicable to the popular culture too. There

are dedicated followers of certain brand, be it service or product. Music band or

football team, the genuine fans are ready to do anything and everything. Fans

always do some unusual, unimagined things for their personalities, films, bands,

teams, products and so on.

It is the necessity of all these public figures to be connected with their fans and

followers and hence they also use new media very smartly. Therefore all these

fans get to know about every move of their personalities. But there are crazy fans

of popular films (Avengers, Star Wars and Fast and Furious or any movie of

superstar Rajanikanth), bands (BTS) teams (Manchester United or Indian cricket

team). Fans are always dedicated and passionate towards their things. They spend

ample amount of their time and energy on their interest and often get support from

other like-minded fans.

Fan’s craziness has even increased in the era of new media. In this digital era, the

activities of the fans are available on various platforms. In this chapter we are

going to discuss more about this.


2.3 What is Fandom?

You must be a fan of some actor or actress, or cricketer or businessman or any

media personality. What do you do to show your love? What you do as a fan has a

name and now it is one of the major force and social-cultural phenomenon. That is

known as fandom.

Fandom is the new phenomenon of new media ecology. It is about fans and their

expression of appreciation and love. Fandom is a powerful tool and has a

significant impact on social-cultural events.

A fandom is a sub-culture developed by fans. They have empathy and passion

with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in each and

every details of their loved object. Earlier when there was no means to get

connected with larger group of like-minded people, the community of fans was

limited but today there are ways to connect with larger group and form bigger

social network of fandom. So, what exactly is fandom?

According to the American Library Association, a fandom is “a community of

people who are passionate about something, whether it’s a film, a band, a

television show, a book, or a sports team”

Fandom can also be defined as ‘creating online content and has access to the

content created via online technologies’

Fandom is the concept which describes communities built around and shared

enjoyment of an aspect of popular culture such as books, movies, TV shows,

music bands, sports or sports teams etc.

Fans are dedicated and creating fan text and other material is one way of

showing love and affection to the fan base. This is known as fandom.

Fandom is a reflection of new age media, communication tools, popular mass

culture and an example of participatory culture. It gives a reason for hundreds

of people with similar interest to come together and arrange some activities

or programs to show their love and power.


Members take pride to be associated with their fandom. You talk with M.S. Dhoni

or Virat Kohli fan and the way he/she talks will give you an idea, how fans are

emotionally engaged.

Social media has changed the dynamics of fandom dramatically. It has blurred the

lines between producers and consumers and has developed symbiotic relationship

between big content creating corporations and powerful individual fans. The

combination has great potential to give rise to new cultural production with great

content created and disseminated by them. Social networking sites have created

an opportunity to connect directly with the favorite celebrities. Social media has

facilitated communication and increased the scope of activities. New media made

it easy for all the fans to form online communities which share common interests

in music, actors, and films and so on. These online communities work as powerful

sources of inclusion, validation and expression of identity.

Fandom has become integral part and important characteristic of modern, new age

life. It directly affects global patterns of consumption, communication,

identification and content creation.

2.3.1 History of Fandom:

Today, a fan study is a popular academic discipline. It studies the fans, fandoms,

fan culture and fan activities, says Wikipedia. During the years of 1980s and

1990s fan studies got the momentum and became an independent branch of study,

earlier it was interdisciplinary field. Stuart Hall, John Fiske, Diane Veith and

Francesca Coppa are prominent scholars well known for their study of mass

Korean music band BTS is truly international and has global fan base. It has reached

international superstardom, amassing a fan following of millions. The seven members –

RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook – are not only known for their

elaborate performances and meaningful music, but also for their connections with their

fan base, popularly known as ARMY, through social media. The band’s social media

presence has allowed for the unprecedented formation of an interconnected fandom

network comprised of fans from all over the world.

(https://fandomascommunity.wordpress.com/

)

https://fandomascommunity.wordpress.com/


culture and fan studies. Earlier the focus of fan studies was only on activities

done by the fans but later it has expanded. Many books were written by the

scholars and detailed information about fan activities and fan culture is made

available.

Fans were originally portrayed as abnormal people who were heavily stereotyped

as pathological individuals with mental illness. And hence their creation was

never considered as serious work. According to Jensen (1992), fans were

constantly characterized as “potential fanatics.” The fans are ready to do crazy

things for their beloved ones. In case of popular Hindi film stars, their fans used

to write letters with their blood to show their love.

Anime and manga fandom began in 1970s in Japan. It began in America as an

offshoot of science fiction fandom where fans imported copied of Japanese

manga to conventions. Fans were so fascinated with the work that they used to

get leak copies of Anime moives and subtitle them to exchange with the friends

in the community. This was the beginning of fansubs. This was late 70s.

The first wave of fan studies during 80-90s focused on all of the positives of

fandom, celebrating it as the resistant movement of the disempowered. The

second wave 90s to early 2000s explored how fan hierarchies mirrored those in

the larger social and cultural world. The third wave, which we are now in, post

2010, chooses to examine fandom through the lens of modernity to capture

“fundamental insights into modern life”. Fandom is no more just an act of fun but

it is way more serious and it is to show the collective power to have influence on

social, political and cultural issues.

As mentioned above Michael de Careau, John Fiske and Lisa Lewis did the very

pioneering work in the field of fan studies. But Henry Jenkins work on fan studies

and fandom is considered as the first systematic exploration in the form of book.

The book which was published in 1992 Textual Poachers still has heavy

influences on fan studies research which examine fan communities and fan text


production. This wave is referred to as “Fandom is Beautiful” by the scholars

Gray J, Sandvoss C and Harrington CL.

However, after the power of mainstream media has been reduced by the invention

of the Internet, fandom has been re-interpreted as something more positive.

Today, with the evolution of technology, new media has altered the

circumstances of producers and consumers to a great extent. We are now in an era

where old and new media meet, or what Jenkins refers to as “convergence

culture.”

Fandom is a love story of three major motivations like self-care, social

connection and identity. As the activities of fans are increasing day by day,

thanks to the rise of internet, fan studies have become more significant.

2.3.2 Forms of Fandom:

Fans do arrange some activities to show their love and association. It gives them

power. Sometimes they are extraordinarily creative and add some value to their

engagement. They arrange blood donation camps, distribute food to poor and

arrange medical camps to the needy ones and so on. Henry Jenkins has written a

book named ‘Fans, Bloggers and Games: Exploring Participatory Culture’. In this

In an article written by Roberta Pearson titled as ‘Fandom in Digital Era’ the

researcher writes that ‘On October 14, 2004, the UK channel Sky One

showed Battlestar Galactica's premiere episode, “33,” several weeks ahead of

its scheduled US debut on January 14. British fans quickly uploaded the

episode to the peer-to-peer file server Bit-Torrent and would-be US fans just

as quickly downloaded it. Did this heinous violation of the producers'

intellectual property rights decrease their revenue streams? Media

analyst Mark Pesce (2005) argues that this collective piracy actually had the

reverse effect: The series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people

who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14

and see for themselves.

(https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405700903502346)

)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405700903502346

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15405700903502346


book he has used the term ‘collective intelligence’. It is about how fans put

together the knowledge and resources they have, to work for their favorite object.

Fans create videos, edit them, write articles, take pictures, upload on social media,

share it with others, morph pictures, make spoofs, animation, cartoons and do a

variety of other things. They use new media wisely. They prefer a particular

platform for particular reason. For example, if they want to share images, they will

use Instagram, if they want to discuss on an issue, they will use Facebook, and for

videos they will definitely use YouTube and so on. There are fans who edit the

original video and add music to it or play another song at the background. There

are also sites dedicated to specific creative genres, such

as AnimeMusicVideos.org (a hub for fan editors who combine clips from anime

with music). YouTube is filled with such videos. There are political spoofs made

by users, music videos and many more. New media has created various such

platforms which are being used by fans.

Following are some of the popular forms of fandom:

i. Fan fiction:

Fan Fiction is literature developed by fans. It is defined as fiction written by a

fan and featuring characters from a particular TV series or film. It is a very

popular form of fandom in western world. In India, it is not that popular, not

yet. Fan fiction is a space for fans to self-reflect and explore issues of identity

and empowerment. This statement holds true, especially for the slash fan

fiction genre.

Suppose, you write an imaginary story about your favorite character from a

movie then that will be known as fan fiction. For example we can talk about a

story written about what happens to Murad or how M C. Sher became popular

rapper (both the characters from the movie Gully Boy) will be a fan fiction.

We can talk about many such examples. Here, you are exploring your ability

(as a fan and as a creator) to expand the loved character and what happens to it


after movie ends. As per the article published in the Guadian.com, dedicated

fans of author Jane Austen call themselves as Janeites and the novel Old

Friends and New Fancies-an imaginary sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by

Sybil Brinton, published in 1913 was the first published work of Austen fan

fiction. This is kind of continuation of certain characters and creation of

storylines with the same characters to elaborate and to create new episodes.

After almost more than a century later, there are almost 242 published books of

fan fiction derived only from Austen. It is a huge business. Earlier during 50-

60s fan fiction were considered as amateurish, badly written, naive, unoriginal,

sycophantic and celebrity obsessed. In 1952 first book of fan fiction about fans

appeared, titled ‘The Enchanted Duplicator by Walt Willis and Bob Shaw. A

popular example in modern times is of movie Fifty Shades of Gray, which

originated as a piece of fan fiction based on the Twilight series.

Some of the popular AU (Alternate Universe) fan fiction are as follows: AU

fanfic means when one or several elements of the story or characters or settings

or situations are changed but the work still remains faithful and close to

authentic source material.

a. Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary: Pride and Prejudice

is a popular novel written by Jane Austen. It is a beautiful love story of middle

class Elizabeth and rich upper class Darcy. Author Helen Fielding wanted to

expand both these characters further. So Fielding made it happen in the form of

a Prejudice AU in which Bridget and Mark (based on Elizabeth and Darcy

respectively) come together and fall in love all over again in a modern setting.

b. Emma and Clueless: Cult hit Clueless is based on yet another Austen

novel, ‘Emma’. This 1996 flick revolves around a high school going girl who

considered herself as much more sophisticated and sensible than actually she

is.

c. Baby and Mera Naam Shabana: Hindi movie Baby has a small

character called Shabana played by Tapsee Pannu. It became so popular that

the prequel was made on the character by developing her life as independent

movie. It was named ‘My name Shabana’


All this is possible because of the rise

of internet. Fans are one of the best

illustrations and creators of new media

users and convergence culture.

ii. Fan Art:

Fan art is created by fans of a particular

work of fiction. It is mainly about

developing characters visually. Fans

use their imagination to draw, paint,

illustrate, and caricature their favorite characters. This fan art is normally not

endorsed or commissioned by the original creators. In Western world, most of

the fan art began with the science-fiction stories. There are also low or non-

paying publications such as fanzines. Fanzine is an amateur magazine

published by science-fiction fandom since 1930. Prizes and awards are also

given to the best Fan Artist like Hugo Award since 1967.

As per Wikipedia, fan art can be available in many forms. Traditional painting

and drawing to digital art, fan artists can come up with anything. They may

create conceptual sculpture, video art, livestreams, web banners, graphic

designs, animation, photo collages, posters and many more. There is no end to

the creativity in digital world. Fan art is mostly done for fun or to show love

and not mainly for commercial purpose.

iii. Fan vids:

These are the most common fan work available in the form of videos. Fan vid

is a fan made video consisting of clips from a film or television series, usually

set to music. It is also known as Vidding. The practices were structured by the

relationship of Star Trek’s female fans to that particular televisual text.

It is an encouragement to film-making at the very grass-roots level. There are

tools available where you can put visuals wherever you want to and add music

at the background to make new story in an interesting format.

Fan art of the film star Shah Rukh Khan


To get more examples of this, you may search for fan made videos of

celebrities of films, television couples of popular daily soaps, political leaders

or sportsmen.

iv. Cosplay:

This is a very popular practice in western world. Cosplay is the practice of

wearing costumes or other clothing and accessories in an attempt to portray a

fictional character.

v. Fan clubs:

There are groups of fans and they come together to perform various activities.

Fans conduct festivals, exhibitions, health check-up camps, blood donation

camps, they distribute food and clothes to needy people and they together

show their crazy fandom. The way fans support South Indian films stars is

good example of fan clubs. Fans have built temples in the name of film stars to

show their love and affection. Often fan clubs book the tickets in bulk of their

favorites’ be it a music band or concert of singer or show of film star or match

of a sport player.

Hence fan clubs boosts the economy in its own way.

Fandom encourages the collective intelligence by being more creative. They try to

be creative to show their love. They try to be creative with some new activity. Their

expressions of love often come in the form of a funny meme, an emotional video or

unique costume - just to name a few manifestations. Fans are always dedicated and

they come up with customized content for themselves to develop deep and

meaningful connections with works.

2.4 Online Communities and Identity

As the fan culture is developing, many media scholars, media academicians have

started to study the characteristics of the fan culture. The studies show that the fan

culture and various fandoms have given rise to different identities to the fans.

Many studies (in western world) have shown that there are online communities

with different identities. Identity formation in the age of new media involves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay


around constructing a self in online space. This means the same space which is

used by commercial media is now available and accessible to individuals. Young

users are more into new media and for this most of them use smart phones and

laptops. Consumption of television and newspapers among young users is

decreasing all over the world. This helps them to give some kind of stable identity.

Identity gained through exploration, commitment and use of social networking

site. Online and offline self-presentation depends upon use of social media,

pressure of peers and interactions with others.

Most of the users want to have ‘desirable’ and ‘appealing’ identity. Hence, the

activities be it offline or online are designed in that way. Social networking site

are mostly used to develop desired identity by the users. This can be proved by

what kind of photos, videos and posts are shared on social networking sites and

what kind of response is expected. Social media is helping the youth to construct

their own identity by providing space and tools to express themselves.

In case of identity of fans, the vast majority of fan-fiction writers are women and

collecting merchandise of favorite band or player is generally associated with male

fans. This proves that this fandom also have their other identities active. It does

not necessarily mean that fandom is depending upon gender identities. People of

all genders engage in any given form of activity. But there is a gender factor in

some cases. Scholar who has written a lot about participatory culture Henry

Jenkins mentioned in his book that there is clear distinction within the science

fiction fan community; earlier it was male dominated and now the newer writers

are more of feminine style in media fandom.

Many assume that a particular content is liked by particular gender. This gives

separate identity to the content as well as the consumers of the content. Whenever

the word ‘fanboy’ is used most of the times it is associated with urban, white,

heterosexual, and middle-class male. This is stereotyped identity given to the

participants of certain fandoms. These identities are developed with the time and

because of certain characteristics associated with some activities of fandom.


Many a times fandom is viewed as a safe way to experiment with a new identity

while still having the opportunity to return to previous identity. This is possible

because of increased use of new media. In addition, fandom studies tend to

increasingly focus on fan culture as a space to explore fans’ gender and sexual

identities.

2.5 List of Notable Fandoms

Fandom has unique identities and they are normally proud of being part of group.

Following are some such examples of fandoms.

Beatlemaniacs (fans of band the Beatles)

Bondians (fans of James Bond)

Potterheads (fans of Harry Potter)

Sherlockians (fans of Sherlock Holmes)

Star War Fandom

Trekkies (fans of Star Trek)

BTS Army (fans of popular South Korean music band BTS)

Beliebers (fans of popular singer and performer Justin Bieber)

Thronies (fans of popular series Games of Thrones)

SRKians (fans of film star Shah Rukh Khan)

Salmaniacs (fans of film star Salman Khan)

True Believers (fans of Marvel Entertainment, production house)

Wannabes or Madonna Wannabes (fans of Madonna)

Dumdums (fans of Indian You Tuber Prajakta Koli)

2.6 Effects of Fandom:

Fandom is a powerful tool in the new media ecology. And as applicable to any

powerful tool it can be used for good and evil purposes. Fandom is a kind of social

network which can be used for more meaningful activities or it can be destructive

and toxic depending upon your motives.

South Korean boy band, BTS, has achieved global success. BTS has enjoyed great success

in the music industry and won many people’s hearts. As a result, BTS’ fandom ARMY

has become one of the biggest fandoms in the world, especially in the K-pop (popular

Korean culture) entertainment arena. There are over 90 million fans for BTS worldwide.

The fandom can make or break any situation facing their icons. For instance, they can shut

down trolls and boost sales for BTS products.

Read more: https://www.tuko.co.ke/421974-15-biggest-fandoms-world-check.html

https://www.tuko.co.ke/421974-15-biggest-fandoms-world-check.html


The good effect:

1. Fandom helps to boost the economy as they buy the things and

accessories to which their favorites are endorsing.

2. Fandom connects larger groups whose interests are similar and hence

like-minded people can come up with more creative ideas to connect with the

other groups.

3. It has given rise to new culture. Fans are now connected with each

other as well as with their favorite ones. There is new branch of study which is

known as fan studies.

4. There are almost no boundaries to anything in the new age. Hence one

can become truly a global star like BTS Army.

The bad effect:

1. The fandom can be very dangerous and toxic. They can send troll or

threaten the rivals or competitors. This can be real toxic. Some fans believe in

bullying also. It may lead to criminal activities. It may encourage online

harassment.

Fans have become important to work in media sociology and cultural studies

for a variety of reasons: they can be taken to represent a dedicated, active

audience; they are consumers who are often also official or unofficial media

producers.

So, why should we take fandom seriously? Because, though the fandom community

has online presence which is getting bigger and bigger day by day, the participation in

fandom often translate into offline world. Today, there are so many ways where the

difference between online and offline is getting blurred. The involvement in a fandom

online has the ability to encourage activities offline. This is high time we should

understand this. In India, the trend is not as huge as in the western world but the time

will come and we should be ready to adopt it.



1. What do you understand by fandom? Explain with examples.

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2. Write a note about various activities of fans in India.

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3. How online communities help to give you identity?

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Unit-3: Gender and New Media Unit Structure:


3.2 Introduction

3.3 Gender and New Media

3.4 Digital Media and Identity

3.5 New Media Campaigns




To understand the role of new media in gender identity

To check how new media is helping to create identities

To study various issues related to online identity

To get information about new media campaigns

3.2 Introduction

Do you have any idea about women representation in news business? Here we are

talking about women on camera and behind the camera, women who have the power

to make decisions. The scene is better than past but still not very bright. Studies have

found that although the number of women working in the media has been increasing

globally, the top positions (producers, executives, chief editors and publishers) are still

very male dominated. Just take examples of faces of news and you will get the

difference. If we look at the male number then we will realize how less the female

number is globally! Also, it is not just about numbers. There is gender gap in decision

making in news field. This is equally applicable to print and electronic media.

Let’s talk about films and the difference is pretty much very clear. Think about female

directors, editors, script writers, cameraperson and you realize who dominates the

business!

In other words, the information field very much needs gender equality and gender

sensitivity. In this chapter we are going to talk about this.


We have been discussing about various advantages of social media and how it is

changing the narratives and providing space to develop your identity.

The kind of posts, images, videos and thoughts you are sharing with others on various

online platforms is creating your identity. Your posts about cooking and food, creates

your identity as food lover or someone who is interested in food or cooking. Someone

shares posts about fitness or travel, will have identity as fitness freak or travel lover.

You are choosing what kind of image you want to have on social media. Sometimes it

creates illusion but people like these kinds of illusions. Reality is harsh and hence,

many like to believe this illusionary virtual world.

By creating the ‘appealing’ or ‘desirable’ image, you are asking for their acceptance

or approval. Social media fulfills the need of social acceptance, which we all want.

Social media has given you platforms for self-involvement and self-indulgence. Social

networking sites do allow youth to experiment with various aspects of themselves

online.

Along with this social media is being wisely used to create awareness about social

issues. Social media platforms have developed ways to start campaigns. There are

many such successful examples. Online campaigns have raised the voice and created a

buzz about socially important but still ignored topics.

In this chapter we are going to talk about all these various issues. Here we will discuss

about how social media is helping us to have identities, especially gender identity and

new media is coming up with successful campaigns on various important issues.

3.3 Gender and New Media

Participation of women in media is very important as they constitute half of the

population. Their needs, aspirations, emotions, thoughts and perspectives should

reflect in media content. Gender disparity is a huge issue in mainstream mass media

across all the countries. ‘Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media’

published in 2011 tells you that men occupy the vast majority of governance and top

management jobs and news-gathering positions in most nations. The report focuses on

gender equality in staffing, salaries and policies of the news houses. The Global Media


Monitoring Project finds that women are more likely than men to be featured as

victims in news stories. Women are also far less likely than men to be featured in the

world’s news headlines and to be relied upon as ‘spokespeople’ or as ‘experts’.

Certain categories of women, such as the poor, older women or those belonging to

ethnic minorities, are even less visible. But this does not mean that men are well

presented here. Men are also subjected to stereotyping in the media. They are typically

characterized as powerful and dominant. There is little room for alternative visions of

masculinity.

This is how mainstream mass media present and promote an unbalanced vision of the

roles of women and men in the society.

The rise of new media with internet has created many platforms where men and

women are not dependent on other to make their image or identity. They can represent

themselves as they are. Off course the availability of internet could be an issue but

those who have it, may develop their own identity and they are no more dependent on

mass media. The kinds of content they are creating on new media platforms are

developing their identity. But is there any difference between what men and women

share on new media platforms? Let’s get more details about it.

The change in technology has brought many changes in the use of new media. The

way media shapes the identity of masculinity and femininity and their relationship is

important topic to study. Many such studies have shown that new media has been used

differently by men and women. If we look at the history of communication

technologies, it was assumed that women use telephone more and men use computers

more than women. This could be real or perceived differences in how men and women

use different media. The study conducted in 2007 to examine the race, gender and

other differences between undergraduate college student users of social networking

sites found that women have used social networking sites more than men. Facebook,

MySpace, Pinterest attract more women than men.


The gender-wise difference between the uses of social media:

Many studies have been conducted to understand the use of new media by different

genders across the globe. Following observations are not limited to India only.

According to available research material, depending upon the accessibility here are

more male user of social media than female but there is significant difference in why

do they use social media. Gender may affect the way that people share information on

social media and the way they use it to make their decisions on various issues.

Following is a chart published by stastica.com. It is about ‘Gender distribution of

social media audiences worldwide as of January 2022, by platform’. This shows,

except Snapchat, all other social media platforms are used by men more than women.

Accessibility could be major factor here. But if you go by states, USA has more

female users of social networking sites than men.

A study conducted in 2017 by Pew research centers ‘Men catch up with women on

overall social media’ found that women were more users of social media. Also the

reasons of the use of social media are different for men and women. Pew research


center’s study also says that though the number of men and women who use social

media are available, ‘there are still some gender differences on specific platforms.

Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram have a larger female user base, while online

discussion forums like Reddit, Digg or Slashdot attract a greater share of male users.

Gender differences on Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn are not significant.’

Women use social media especially Facebook for social connections and sharing their

photographs. It is mainly to get social acceptance. In case of blogging, younger

females are more into it than males. Women do write frequently about family, health

care and relationships on blogs. Women use social media to express and to show their

emotions. This could be the reason they share more photos of their family and friends

and romantic relationships. Men use social media to show their social connections and

to show their heterosexuality; hence it is more than just emotions. In case of profile

photo, women use more recent and updated photos. They choose a photo which is

more attractive and happy. Men are less concerned about their profile picture than

women. In case of personal details, both the sexes share their personal details, men do


it directly and women indirectly, without even realizing it. Women are more

protective about their personal details and reputation but sometimes they reveal such

information unintentionally through their photos and other posts indirectly. Women

limit access to strangers.

Both genders are vulnerable to cybercrime, but women could be easy target. In case of

online bullying, men/boys commit more cyber verbal bullying with hidden identity.

Women face more online harassment through comments of body shaming, racists and

sexists’ and in general negative comments than men. It does not mean that men do not

face any negativity. Cyber stalking (chasing someone online without consent) happens

with women more as compared with men. In case of cyber-forgery men are likely to

commit this more than women.

While planning any activity or function or any kind of celebration both the genders do

search for more information. Women get influenced by photos and opinions rather

than ratings and reviews.

Other than men and women, all types of gender and sexuality (the community of

lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals ) find new media as a

boon. There was almost no representation in mainstream media and no platform was


available to them to express their thoughts and emotions with open or hidden identity.

But thanks to social media, they have platforms and tools where they can share their

thoughts, emotions, perspective and opinions on various issues like any other

individual without being judged with or without disclosing their identity. These

platforms help them to unite and discuss their common issues virtually.

We may argue on what purpose the social media is being used for and how effective it

has been but we cannot deny the fact that social media has significant importance in

many lives. It has brought the much needed change in media and what it produces as

content. It has created an opportunity to the members of ignored, oppressed, poor,

voiceless and minority communities to express themselves. Hence we can conclude on

the note that social media is being used by all but the motivation could be different for

different gender.

Use of new media to break the gender stereotypes:

Both the genders are using new media to break the gender stereotypes all over the

world. Various kinds of posts, photos, videos, experiences are being shared and it is

helping to break the glass ceiling.

Women are no more considered as soft, ambitionless, and passive. Women are

sharing the posts about their unusual, not-so-traditional jobs and experiences

which are helping to generate the awareness.

Men are no more considered macho and emotionless. Through photos, videos,

advertisements men are shown as caring father, loving husband, dutiful son and

other emotions of a man.

The idea of beauty of women has changed. All type of skin tones and shapes are

now welcome. It is even reflected into cartoons, toys and magazine covers.

LGBTQ community has larger acceptance as compared to the past. At least we

are ready to discuss it. There are online communities and support groups. And

these activities are not limited to online anymore. They physically meet and

celebrate their existence.


Home making, parenting is no more just woman’s job. And highly paid, reputed

corporate jobs are not restricted to men only.

This list can go on and on. Complete elimination of stereotypes would take time. The

point is the ideas of gender, its identity and its roles are slowing but steadily changing.

Media personalities, producers, content creators and audience should actively involve

and work to reduce the gender disparities. New media technology and its users are

working towards this. Together we need to create awareness on the issue. This is

happening with the effective use of new media by all its users irrespective of gender

across the world.

3.4 New media and Identity

Your behavior when you are alone will be different than with your friends and it is

dramatically different when you are with your relatives at any family function. When

we say this, we know that in front of others we behave different and we do care for

our image. Honestly we all do care about what other people say about us. Today we

live in the world of images. We all want to be loved (or at least liked) by others. We

want to have an image of ‘accepted’ or ‘desired’ one. In real world it could be difficult

but in virtual world by using new media effectively you can shape your identity the

way you want.

But then what is identity?

There are many definitions. Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality traits,

appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group. Identity is the

distinguishing character or personality of an individual. The definition of identity is

who you are, the way you think about yourself, the way you are viewed by the world

and the characteristics that define you. These are some of the common definitions you

get after searching for it. In other words, the elements which define you, is your

identity. It is not limited to your physical appearance. It is more about what you think,

you feel and you believe.


As we live in a society, our social connections are important and our social identity is

very crucial. What other people think about you is your social identity. As we all are

social animal, we seek acceptance from the society. Hence we follow the social

norms. We get our emotional needs satisfied through societal acceptance. And in

modern times, new media is an effective way to develop our online social identity.

What is online identity?

Is it just about having social networking profile? Or having account on micro-

blogging site? The answer is NO. It is not just limited to this. Online identity is any

activity you are doing it using internet. Your online identity includes your online

shopping of goods or books, browsing, logins, online game, online transaction and

each and every thing which is done through internet. That makes your online identity.

In simple language, any bit of information irrespective of its size or importance which

can be found about an individual on the internet is his/her identity.

Factors affecting online identity:

There are many factors which affect our online identity. The total time you spend on

new media, your peer group, social and financial background, the kind of response

you get and what you share on new media platforms are some of the deciding factors.

The amount of social interactions takes place on these platforms and help in

developing your own identity. Your online friends, followers and their relationship

with you are important factors. Social networking plays an important role not only in

broadening social connections but also affecting users’ decisions. Some users develop

their identity with their real and true information and some with fake and unreal

information. There are agencies and tools which can identify the real profiles with real

information.

In this millennial age, more and more youth are growing up with social media. Social

media play important role in their self-expression in social connectivity as compared

to previous generation.


Indeed, an intergenerational study of MySpace showed that adolescents (13–19 years)

compared to older users (over 60 years old) disclose more emotions in their self-

descriptions and broadcast

those self-expressions to larger networks. This is also about their peer group and

accessibility.

Why online identity is important?

1. Online activities give you confidence; it strengthens your character and help to

improve social engagement and relationship.

2. Through online identity we become more aware of our immediate environment

and our place in it and also get much needed social acceptance for our actions and

thoughts.

3. Online identity helps you to grow your business tremendously. New media has

the potential to change the dynamics of your financial activities.

4. In these days, employers are keeping an eye on social media profiles of the

candidates and prospective employees. They normally check for the previous job,

salary, life style, value you believe in and family. This information is useful for

the employer to analyze you as a person with your online identity.

5. Encourage self-esteem: Social media identity helps you to increase your

confidence and self-esteem. The kind of posts, photos, videos you share and kind

of feedback you receive help you to build your confidence and self-esteem.

Social media have both positive and negative impacts on our identity. It can affect the

psychology, behavior and overall social structure of the individual.

How online identity is constructed?

Once we understand the importance of online identity then we will be more careful

about our online behavior. Also we will be more aware about our personal identity.

There are so many tips you will get online to construct your online identity.

You should have strategy to promote a positive online identity which will help you to

enhance your personal as well as professional career. There are various tools available

online which can be used to promote yourself.


If you are interested in developing strong online identity, you must have handles on

various social networking sites. You should be member of all the online communities

in which you are interested in and you think that will create your positive image. You

should participate in all possible online activities to create your positive impression.

Your activities should be visible. You should share as much information as possible,

which you believe will help you to have positive identity. You should involve yourself

in the events, programs and activities which will enhance your image and build your

reputation, the way you want. This is for any user who wants to have strong, positive

and desirable online identity.

If you are self-employed and want to reach out to your external and internal public

then it is essential to use new media wisely and effectively. It has to be an integral part

of your self-marketing. Self-Google, participating in social networking groups, having

social media handles, sharing as much as information in various forms, having your

own website will help you to grow.

Don’t involve yourself into destructive, unnecessary and inappropriate activities, post

or any such event. That will ruin your efforts to build positive identity. Don’t post

anything casually and things which you do not believe. Keep your account and

activities safe and secure.

This is an effective way to build your positive online identity.

Issues of online identity:

The major problem with online identity is that it has the ability to affect your life

positively as well as negatively.

Making identity is a big issue with the virtual world. The user is hiding his or her

identity and providing fake information about him/her. There are thousands of fake

profiles on Facebook and Twitter with false name, false information about gender,

photos, and address and so on. This can be serious threat to the teenagers and

adolescents. They might take thing too seriously and get trapped.

Experts say as we use new media to shape our identity, new media also uses us to

achieve its targets. It is market oriented. Your private information is used for

commercial purposes without even your realization. This is like entering in your living


room, dining room, bedroom even in your bathroom. New media can have all your

personal information (data) without your consent and it is sold to the big corporate

companies, producers and manufacturers. Government agencies and other surveillance

agencies may monitor your online movement. In this case, you are free but still

someone is always following you virtually. Hackers may track your financial

activities. All kinds of websites use cookies to track your online activities to get more

information about you. This information can be used against you to sell goods and

services to you. Even your emails are being monitored.

We rely on new media for social acceptance and validation. This may damage your

self-confidence. One has to be careful about this fact.

Therefore, one has to learn how to be safe and secure while engaging in online

activities to have clean identity.

3.5 New Media Campaigns

In a world that’s increasingly online, it’s becoming much easier to connect for a cause

online. Initially it could be online and later checking the potential one can go for

offline, physical gathering. It is much easier to get support from like-minded people

on social media platforms. Following are some of the examples of successful online

campaigns which started with a cause:

1. Gillette: The best a man can be:

Gillette launched a campaign #thebestamancanbe in response to the #metoo

movement (again an example of online campaign against sexual harassment of

women by men at work place)

The ad took a stand against perceived image of a masculinity of a man. While some

complained about it, others applauded Gillette for taking a firm social stance. It

was mentioned over a million times within the first 24 hours of its release! The

success of this campaign approached a tough social matter and highlighted

the brand values of Gillette.


2. Spotify:

When the year 2019 ended, Spotify launched an online campaign called as:

#2019Wrapped. It sent a personalized video wrap of its listeners year of listening,

showing you, your most played artists of the year, and the decade. The video

shared by Spotify was personalized, comparable and sharable, it provided a way for

their users to relate and connect with their audience, with a sneak peek into their

real life.

3. Powerless Queen by NGO in India:

On the International Women’s day 2021, Nanhi Kali, an NGO in association with

some international agencies launched a social media campaign called

PowerlessQueen. The basic objective was to raise the donation for the project

Nanhi Kali. It is to educate underprivileged girls and spreading awareness about the

game of chess. “Queen” is the most powerful piece in the game of Chess, which

was originated in India during the 6th Century. The campaign highlights how this

powerful queen turned powerless, violated and underestimated in 21st century

India. The campaign features, Tania Sachdev, an Indian Chess Player. She urges to

take up a challenge by playing a digital version of chess on their microsite wherein

the first player’s queen is “powerless” (doesn’t move) and the second player has

full power. People can take up the challenge and donate to Project Nanhi Kali. The

campaign grabbed the attention of many renowned chess players including Anna

Rudolf, Viswanathan Anand, Jennifer Shahede, Anish Giri and many others.

Within a couple of days, the campaign managed to collect good donation for

education and 32k games played.

4. GoodNewsIsGenderFree By Prega News

Prega News is the one of the well-known brands of pregnancy detection kit. It

came up with social media campaign titled #GoodNewsIsGenderFree on the

International Mother’s day. The campaign focuses on breaking the issue of gender

inequality, which is a pertinent issue across the world. The issue is far more

complex in India, wherein the choice of having a boy over a girl is hindering the


nation’s growth. Conceptualized by ADK Fortune, this campaign hopes to bring

change in people’s outlook. The campaign urges people to wish for a healthy child,

irrespective of the child’s gender. The brand is also requesting people to take up the

poll “what’s important when it comes to your baby” – Gender or Health? and join

the conversation.

Internet is full of such examples. New media campaigns are easy to conduct and help

to get the attention of the audience/users. They are useful and effective for commercial

as well as social purposes. New media users always love to take stand on various

issues at least in virtual world on various platforms. If they like the cause they also

come up with various types of content. They share photos, memes, videos and their

own experiences.

In a world that’s increasingly online, it’s becoming much harder for humans to feel

connected to each other. If you are looking for a better way to plan out and create your

campaign then you can think about new media platforms.

With new media you can schedule out and pre-plan your entire content, right from

captions, user-generated content. This is going to be our future.


3.6 Check you progress

1. What is online identity? What kind of online identity do you want to develop?

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2. What are your observations in case of use of new media by men and women?

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3. Give any two examples of new media campaigns which you think were

unique.

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Unit-4: Social Media Marketing and Publicity Unit Structure:


4.2 Introduction

4.3 Scripting Production Online

4.4 Social Media Marketing

4.5 Publicity, Exhibitions and Screening




To learn about script writing

To understand online scripting production

To study the role of social media marketing

To get information about various marketing activities

4.2 Introduction

Films, plays, television serials, advertisements, short films, news, docudrama and

documentaries all these are various visual formats of story-telling. In all these formats,

visuals are important. You have to think visually to make your story more interesting.

So, it is not enough to have an idea or story. One has to develop the story only then it

can have an expected impact. To develop the story one has to think about characters,

sub-plots, dialogues, location, actors and so on.

Imagine a story-line (one-liner): An old rich man from a village calls two young men

from a city to deal with a gang of robbers and the main ‘daaku’ to rescue the poor

villagers. Does it sound familiar? Have you watched something similar to this one

liner? Yes, this is one-line story of blockbuster movie Sholay, directed by Ramesh

Sippy. The sub-plots, characters, dialogues became extremely popular of this movie.

The one-liner became almost three-hour full-fledged feature film with the screenplay.

This is where screenplay becomes important. We need good stories but to make an

impact we need to have strong screenplay.


In this unit we are going to discuss script writing, script production and some issues

related to screenplay and production.

Striker is a 2010 released Hindi movie, directed by Chandan Arora. It was the first

Indian movie to premiere on YouTube internationally on the same day as its domestic

theatrical released. This was an example how cinema and related issues started to

change with time. Earlier movies were made to release on big screens only but now

there are over-the-top (OTT) platforms which is boon for socially driven, small budget

and real story based films. No big press conferences, press releases and some big

event is necessary to create a buzz around any content, movie, service. Social media

marketing is new key to success. We have been discussing the importance of social

media and its advantages and disadvantages. Social media is a boon for any producer,

be it content or any good or service.

We will be talking about social media marketing with some details.

We are going to end this unit with some brief information about effective, useful

various marketing activities which can be used by any content producer.

4.3 What is Script Writing?

Before talking about scripting production online, let’s get some information about

scripting. If we look at the movies, radio-drama, plays, video games, web series or

television serials we will realize that development of the story is very important. It is a

form of writing and developing a story with details. It is about the movement, actions,

expression and dialogue of the characters. It is completely different than literary

writing like poem, novel or an essay. While writing a screenplay, we have to think

about screen, means visuals. It is a format used to express story visually. It is a skilled

job. One needs to understand that the story has to be developed on paper first with

effective writing, which is screenplay.

If it goes well then there will be good impact on audience. A good movie or play or

web series or video will have a good script. It will help to focus on the scenes. With a

properly written script everyone who is involved in the production will understand

what is going to happen next. It is a detailed written visual presentation. Script or

screenplay is known as blueprint of the plot and character development before the


actual filming (of any visual format) starts. Hence screenplay plays crucial role. Same

thing is also known as script writing.

Let’s check how to develop a script.

The definition is not enough to understand how to write a good script. It needs a

creative eye to give a life to a single-liner story. It takes time and consistent efforts,

dedication to write a compelling script. Following are some steps:

1. Study: Understand how a well-written script looks like. Understand what producer

and director wants to show and what is the theme. Learn how characters, plots,

dialogues and relations are developed. To do that try to study the best available

scripts first before actual writing. Develop your writing skills and imagination.

Understand the craft of strong and compelling script. You have to think about

production probability of actual selling your script.

2. Develop your world: You should write what you believe in, what is interesting for

you. Then only you can work on it with dedication and passion. While writing you

have to think about themes, characters, their graph, their geographical locations, time

period of the movie and every other detail. You have to develop believable world,

first for you and then for your audience.

3. Develop your characters: You have to decide who the protagonist is in your story.

Identify the main characters and their features, strengths, weaknesses, goals and their

struggles. For the rest of the characters you have to pen down their equation and

interaction with the main lead. While thinking about antagonist, you have to write

down why that person behaves or thinks in a certain way, what is his/her

background. The connection or confrontation should be very clear but visually it

should be dramatic.


4. Sequence of the writing: Though there is no fix formula for writing a good script

and no one can assure you the success with a certain kind of scripting, but still in

general there is a sequence to develop your story.

First the introduction of the main characters and their surroundings, then some

incidents to take the story forward, then major events or turning points of the story in

the form of challenge or conflict, the action of the main leads, then the struggle of

the main lead to handle the situation, more conflict, more action and more emotions

and then climax to show how protagonists handle the situation and win it and then

end of the story.

Most of the times stories develop like this. But this is the most explored way of

story-telling. There is always a scope for experiment and sometimes it is necessary

not to choose the most travelled path.

5. Write the first draft: After thinking about the above mentioned points, you need to

sit and start writing your first draft. Everything which you want to see on big or

small screen, it should be on paper (or in todays’ time on laptop). Whatever you have

imagined as your story, write it down. Write out scenes that create conflicts and

challenges for your characters and also develop detailed scenes about how they

overcome in those situations. For every script, there has to be a one-liners (or

logline) which can summarize the entire plot or story.

6. Reading and Rewriting of the draft: After developing the story with its characters

and their scenes, read your draft carefully. Delete the irrelevant and unnecessary

part. Make it interesting, relatable and entertaining. Edit it wherever you feel like.

Weak plots, irrelevant portions, confusing parts and untrue information should be

deleted. Instead, try to write to the point scenes and dialogue which will take the

story forward. Add scenes to make an impact on audience wherever necessary. Make

your story more credible. The motives of the characters should be clear and credible.

You have to re-write your draft with some addition and some editing to suit the

script, if required.


7. Final draft: Your script is almost ready. Check the plot for the last time. Correct if

there are any errors. Check all the characters, their positions, their dialogue and their

objective or the motive in their lives carefully. Many experts believe that your script

should be so well-written that any director should be able to shoot a film or any

video episode based on it.

Script writing is a creative but tedious job. It needs ample amount of time, discipline,

creativity and motivation. It is one of the most significant jobs in the complete

process of film making.

4.3.1. Elements of a Script:

Once we understand about script and how to develop that then it is easy to check the

basic elements any script will have. Many film production programs teach students

how to properly format script. This will help the entire production unit (filmmaker,

actors and others) to work in sync. Any production company receives new scripts

every day, therefore they may discard a script which is poorly formatted. Many

software are developed to do this work. Following is the list of the elements almost all

script will have:

Half-inch margins: The right, bottom, and top margins should all be one inch.

Additionally, your left margin should be 1.5 inches to leave plenty of space to

bind your script.

Fade in/fade out: In the upper right-hand corner, your script should always

start with “Fade in:” to signify the beginning of the film. The end of the script

should have the words “fade out” or “fade to black.”

Scene heading: Also known as a slug-line, write the time of day and scene

location in capital letters, like “EXT. LILLY’S HOUSE – DAY” which means

it is day scene and exterior of the Lilly’s house. or “INT. GROCERY STORE –

NIGHT” which means it is a night scene and happens inside the grocery shop.


Action lines: Using present tense, include brief visual descriptions of physical

actions occurring in a scene. An example could be, “Raj’s phone buzzes. He

picks it up to find a message from Anjali.”

Character dialogue: The names of your characters should be in uppercase

letters and centered to identify the person speaking. Place the character’s lines

underneath their name in the script, also centered.

Parenthetical: If a character has a specific mood or action while speaking,

include a parenthetical phrase under their name, above the line. For instance, to

show the seriousness of a character, you can write “(straight-faced).”

Extension: This is a parenthetical direction used for character dialogue that is

off-screen. For characters who are in-scene but talking off-screen, use “(O.S.).”

For character dialogue that only the audience hears, use “(V.O.)” for voice over.

Mores and Continued: Use (MORE) and (CONT’D) between pages to show

the same character is speaking.

Transition: Film editing instructions like CUT TO, DISSOLVE TO, SMASH

CUT, QUICK CUT, FADE TO (only for production scripts)

Shot: Used when the scene has changed like ANGLE ON, EXTREME

CLOSE UP, PAN TO, POV (only for production scripts)

Intercut: Cut instructions between scene locations

All this information can be found on this website. https://www.nfi.edu/script-writing/

4.3.2. Online Scripting Production with some tools:

You have to meet the deadlines. One has to be skilled enough to write constantly. To

save your time and energy you can use various software. Writing script by using

various online tools is known as online script production. By making best use of

available technology you can write script faster and make fewer mistakes. One of the

most essential things that you need is screenwriting software – probably the best

screenwriting software. Online scripting production with some of the following

tools make your job easy to manage and less tedious. Here are some of them, not in

any particular sequence:

https://www.nfi.edu/extreme-close-up/

https://www.nfi.edu/extreme-close-up/

https://www.nfi.edu/intercut/

https://www.nfi.edu/script-writing/


1. Squibler: The writing app that writers choose to draft, edit and organize their

work. With an easy-to-use interface, Squibler helps you structure your

thoughts effortlessly. Structure your draft into headings, sub-headings, scenes,

and more. Use tools built to simplify the process for all writers.(for more

details visit: https://www.squibler.io/)

2. Final Draft: is professional scriptwriting software that’s specifically used in

the entertainment industry. It is a professional multi-purpose tool that works

for screenwriters, producers, and filmmakers. It comes with 300+ templates

for writers that make your writing job easier. It follows the industry standard

and format for screenwriting and scripts and converts your text into the right

format automatically. (For more details, visit: https://www.finaldraft.com)

3. Celtx: offers professional production tools for screenwriters and video

producers. It has Industry-standard script editors for film & TV, short-form

video, theatre, and interactive narratives backed up by a plethora of story

development tools. (For more details, visit: https://www.celtx.com/

4. Writer Duet: It is a simple yet professional screenwriting program that is

focused on real-time collaboration. It is best for teams and projects where

multiple screenwriters have to work on a single script simultaneously. It

supports text messages and video chat to make collaboration a piece of cake.

It is a cloud-based software that you can access on the go from any device

including mobile phones. .(For more details, visit:

https://www.writerduet.com/

5. Fade in: Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software is the most advanced

software used by professionals writing for motion pictures, television, video

games, the stage, radio, and more. It features support for multiple languages,

tools for outlining, organizing, and navigating, plus extensive screenplay

formatting and robust functionality for managing rewrites and revisions. And

https://www.squibler.io/

https://www.finaldraft.com/

https://www.celtx.com/

https://www.writerduet.com/


it’s available for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone/iPad, and Android. (For more

details, visit: https://www.fadeinpro.com/)

6. Trelby: It is open-source screenwriting software that’s free. It is developed

by Osku Salerma and Anil Gulecha and is available as computer software

for Windows and Linux. It is fully customizable which means you can add

new features and develop it the way you want. Of course, it is something

that a developer will do for you.

4.4 Social Media Marketing (SMM)

We have been reading about new media, its impact on our lives, its various usages

and its effectiveness. We live a life which is very much surrounded and affected

by social media. The importance and influence of social media has made it one of

the best marketing tools in high demand.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a type of marketing that targets social media

platforms for various purposes. Investopedia.com says, ‘it provides companies

with a way to engage with existing customers and reach new ones while allowing

them to promote their desired culture, mission, or tone. Social media marketing

has purpose-built data analytics tools that allow marketers to track the success of

their efforts’.

Social Media Marketing used for various purposes. It can be used to promote

your brand, to increase brand awareness, to increase sales and to drive more

traffic to your website.

SMM started with just publishing. Earlier there were platforms where you can

simply post your content most of the times in the form of text only. But now one

can engage, analyse, track responses, advertise and do many more thing with

social media for marketing.

Why SMM?

https://www.fadeinpro.com/


Social Media Platform Active users in India (2021)

Facebook 239.65 million

Twitter 23.6 million

Instagram 230 million

YouTube 459.23 million

Linkedin 87 million

Pinterest 67 million (in 2018)

1. Users: If we look at the number of active users of various social media

platform, then we will realize how big it is!

2. Free service: And importantly we can use these platforms for marketing

purposes for free. There are other services for which you need to pay, but

basic service is still free of cost.

3. Interactive: Social media platforms allow companies and producers to interact

directly with its audiences.

4. Formats: Social media has space to use different types of formats to talk about

your content, service or product. One can use various formats like images,

video, audio, text, animation, posters and more.

5. Through social media platforms one can increase brand awareness and also

boost the website traffic.

These basic reasons made SMM popular, useful and effective not only for

producers but also for consumers.

4.4.1 Pillars of SMM:

Buffer, a popular multi-purpose social media marketing software tool talks about 5

pillars of SMM, and they are as follows:

1. Strategy: This is the stage where you need to identify your goals, what do you

want to achieve, what type of content you want to share and which platforms you

want to use to achieve your goals.


2. Planning and Publishing: You need to plan what you want to share and in

which format. It is always better to plan your content ahead of the time instead of

creating and sharing it spontaneously. Publishing means posting on social media

platforms but you have to be smart to decide what and in which format you want

to post your content. The golden rule is keeping the consistency, is the golden

rule.

3. Listening and Engagement: The users are going to talk about your brand or

service, you need to listen to that. Monitoring what social media users are saying

about you is listening. People will comment on your posts and what you have

shared, this may happen directly or indirectly. You need to monitor all these

discussion on these platforms. If there are any positive feedback you should

acknowledge it and if is negative than you can offer support and correct a

situation before it gets worse. It can be done manually or you can use social

media engagement tools.

4. Analytics and Reporting: After posting the content and engaging with users

on social media you will want to know how your social media marketing

performs. Are you reaching more people, are you reaching to the right people,

and how many positive mentions do you get in a month? What hashtags are being

used for you? The social media platforms themselves provide a basic level of

such information. To get more in-depth analytics information or to easily

compare across social media platforms, you can use the wide range of social

media analytics tools available.

5. Advertising: When you have more funds you can opt for social media

advertising. It can allow you to reach wider audience than those who are already

following you. You can create target audience bases on their demographics,

interests, behaviors and more. One can even think of social media advertising tool

to make bulk changes, automate processes in multiple campaigns at one go. You

can optimize your advertisements.

Advertising can be organic (unpaid), paid (sponsors) and earned (in the form of

shares, likes, comment).


Above mentioned social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram,

Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest are popular for SMM in India. There are a range of

social media management tools that are available (some paid, some free) to help your

businesses to grow. To get more advantages of SMM you have to use these platforms

wisely or choose application or tool smartly.

4.4.2 Tools for SMM

Social Media Marketing is becoming important and a game changer day by day. It is

user-friendly, cost effective and helps to grow, hence companies and producers are

ready to pay more time and money on it. They are aware of its immense potential.

However, to get more advantages of SMM one has to use right technology at the right

time. The effectiveness of a tool depends on its scalability, user-friendliness, and

value for money, and we incorporated these qualities into our list so that they are

ready to grow with your team, help you increase productivity, and save you time.

Following is the list of some of the popular Social Media Marketing tools which can

be helpful to reach your goals. For more details you may search for those tools. Most

of the tools give free demo about its features and how to use it. With practice one can

use it effectively.


Social Media Activity Tools

Social Media Networking: use for

connecting larger communities

Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

Social Media Scheduling Tools: used to

schedule your posts

SocialPilot, Buffer, Tailwind, Loomly,

Planable

Content Curation Tools: used for

manage your post and content

ShareIt, Feedly, Buzzsumo, Quuu, Curata

Designing Tools: used to designs,

templates

Instasize, Canva, Lumen5, Fotor,

Animoto

Image Sharing Tools: used to share

visuals, images, infographics

Instagram, Imgur, Snapchat

Video sharing sites: used to share audio-

visual content

YouTube is the biggest player, Daily

motion, Vimeo

Discussion Sites: used to discuss various

issues, answer to questions

Quora, Reddit

Community Blogs: used for bigger and

complex posts with the information not

everyone wants to read

Tumbler, Medium, Wordpress

Monitoring tools: used to check on

going conversations about your brand,

work or service

Awario, Mention, Brand Watch,

Talkwalker, Socailinsider

Analytics: tools used to analysis of your

performances on social media

Google Analytics, Buffer, SocialPilot,

Keyhole, Brandwatch

Social Media Influencer Marketing

tools: used for influence marketing

Buzzsumo, Upfluence, Tapinfluence,

NinaOutreach


These days irrespective of the budget and actors involved in the movie, SMM plays

huge role in success of any movie. The engagement of actors on various social media

platforms creates the necessary buzz around social media. There are innovative ways

to use SMM to promote the film.

4.4.3 Social Media Marketing for films:

Above mentioned tools and some customized posters, videos, images are used to

promote the films using social media. Below are some examples of Hindi movies

which have shown us how social media can be used to promote films on social media

with innovative marketing strategies.

1. Padman: The movie started with social media campaign with

#padmanchallege, where celebrities were asked to post their images with

holding a sanitary napkin. It was started by its lead actors Akshay Kumar and

Sonam Kapoor and the producer Twinkle Khanna. It became huge rage on

Instagram. Not only Bollywood actors, but also well-known sports person and

singers, and even fans took up the challenge on social media. It was successful

example of creating awareness about a social issue and attracting more and

more audience to watch the movie.

2. Phillauri: Producer-Actor Anushka Sharma started a campaign to promote her

movie. The protagonist of the movie was a friendly ghost who can reach

anywhere and be invisible. To drive excitement for her movie, Anushka started

a rather funny digital marketing strategy (#ShashiWasThere). The marketing


strategy revolved around the plot of the movie, which saw Shashi (Anushka's

character in the movie) present at some of the most iconic moments in the past

like Oscar Award Ceremony or a Cricket match.

3. 3 Idiots: Aamir Khan is always known for his innovative marketing strategies

to promote his films. For 3 Idiots he went on missing to promote his movie

while making disguised appearances at various places. The social media

campaign ‘Find Aamir’ went on viral.

4. Kahaani: To promote her movie actor Vidya Balan travelled by train with her

baby bump like her character in the film. Along with this the team also came

up with an idea using missing posters of Arnab Bagchi (her husband in the

film) and posts on social media. This created a great user-base for the movie as

the campaign used was connected to the story of the movie.


These days, fans don’t like spoon-fed content about the movie. They want to be able

to discover the content. Therefore, internet marketers need to optimize their content

better – better SEO for the website, and better descriptions and tagging of videos

uploaded to YouTube and blog posts. Serving content to a larger syndication of movie

blogs and publishers that release stories in a non-PR fashion also helps the movie

generate buzz faster in the initial days of its marketing activity.

4.5 Publicity Exhibitions Screening

Before going into details, let’s understand the definitions of above mentioned

concepts. We all know what publicity is!

Publicity:

According to Merriam-webster.com, publicity is the quality or state of being public

or an act to attract public interest, the dissemination of information or promotional

material is known as publicity. It could be paid or unpaid. It calls for public attention.

Anything which creates awareness about service, product or content is publicity.

Using social media platforms, appearing on television shows to promote their films

are some of the publicity activities the actors have to do. There are stages how you

create buzz around a movie.


In the social media era, first the news items are plant about the project and probable

actors. Then the release date is declared. Then the image of the actors will go out on

internet from the shooting location in the attire of the characters. This will be the

topic of the discussion. Then the teaser is launched, it is a mini trailer with

introduction of the artists involved in the film. The teaser is used to create the

excitement about the movie. The next step is trailer. It is very much the glimpse of

the movie and it is made separately. It is no more taking some random scenes from a

movie without any strategy. There are channels on YouTube which analyze the trailer

and decide the treatment of the movie. This creates first impression of the movie and

will influence the audience’s perception.

Meanwhile if there is any scope for controversies, then they are also planned, because

it is said that any publicity is a good publicity for a movie. In recent times, films like

Padmavat, Bajirao-Mastani, The Kashmir Files created a lot of controversies, which

ultimately help the film.

Screening:

It is generally referred to films. In case of movies, screening is the display of a

motion picture before its release for common audiences. It is considered as a part of

film’s production and promotion. It is meant for selected audience and not open for

all. Special screenings may take place in special, limited seats theaters or halls with

very high quality projection and sound equipment and can be accompanied by food

and drink and spoken remarks by producers, writers, or actors. Special screenings

typically occur outside normal theatrical showing hours.

In case of films, for common audience the film is shown but screening takes place for

selected viewers. Screening takes place before the official release of the film.

Therefore screening is more of a testing or examination of the treatment of the film.

Earlier the film screening was an intimate function within the industry. But now, it is

an occasion where media can meet the celebrities and an opportunity to talk about

your movie. Hence, it is taken more seriously than ever. Also the internet and social


media users always keep an eye on such events so that they can post videos on these

events for the fans and users.

Exhibitions:

Exhibition is applicable to art, museums and even films. In case of movies, it

involves not the production or the distribution of motion pictures, but their public

screening, usually for paying customers in a site devoted to such screenings and the

movie theater. So, exhibition of a movie simply means commercial release for

common audience who can pay and watch the movie in theaters and now on OTT

platforms.

The exhibitions of movies include the ownership, management and operation of

theaters. This can have same issues of any other sectors of commercial entertainment

industry like shifting market conditions, strong competition, efforts to achieve

monopolization of the field, government regulatory actions, and costly investment in

new technologies. Hence, exhibition of films is a big issue. Post lockdown after the

Covid pandemic when the theaters were closed for almost more than a year, the

equation of the business have completely and dramatically changed.

It is more complicated than it looks. One needs to study the issues of exhibitions

separately.

Use of Social Media:

Be it publicity, screening or exhibition, social media can be used effectively. It is

more about reaching out to maximum audience and convinces them to pay and watch

the movie in the theaters or on OTT platforms. There are companies who handle

social media marketing for films. Various tools and social media platforms can be

used to get more publicity; social media influencers can be hired to write about

screening and positive responses and thus can create a favorable environment around

the movie before its commercial release.


In this way social media marketing can be a game changer if used effectively. Social

media is a boon for small budget movies and small producers. They do not need to

spend extra money to promote their films. If the movie is good, social media users

will do their job. ‘Word of mouth’ on social media can push the envelope. Movies

like Hindi Medium, Stree, Badhaai Ho, Mulk, Shubh Mangal Savadhan and Newton

and many other movies have proved that small budget movies can perform well on

box office through social media buzz. If the content is good, social media users will

embrace it. On the other hand big budget movies, which have spent more money on

promotions, have miserably failed.


4.6 Check you progress

1. What do you understand by Script?

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2. What are the three necessary elements of any good script?

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3. Other than mentioned above, write about any two social media marketing

strategies of any two movies which you remember.

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4. Write about three independent (and individuals) You-Tubers who give review of

the movies, its trailers and other information related to movies only.

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References:

(https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-7/jenkins-on-participatory-culture)

Readings:

“New Media and New Technologies” by Lister Dovey, Giddings, Grant & Kelly.

(2003).

Rosen, J. “The People Formerly Known as the Audience” What video games have

to teach us about language and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bogost, Ian. Persuasive games: The expressive power of videogames. MIT Press,

2007.

Bosker, “Randi Zuckerberg: Anonymity online has to go away” Negroponte, N.

(1996). Being Digital, Part 3 [pp. 163-233]

Jenkins, Henry. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media

Collide. New York,NY: NYU Press.

May, Keenan & Peter Newcomb. (2008, July) How the Web was won. Vanity

Fair, retrieved from

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/07/internet200807

“Privacy vs. the Internet: Americans Should Not Be Forced to Choose” (ACLU

report, 2008) Nakamura, “Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial

Passing on the Internet”

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