#*especially* for users who are interacting with a larger segment of the fandom in the semi-regular

[thatswhatsushesaid]

mmmm

i just discovered that a person whose meta i occasionally enjoyed, even if i don’t necessarily agree with everything they’ve written, has blocked me, and i’m bummed because i really wanted to go back to their blog to find a piece they’d written about jiang cheng as a point of reference for something else i am working on atm. and now i can’t!

inb4 anyone decides to @ me on anon, yes obviously people can do whatever they want to ~curate their user experience~ and i know my vibe isn’t for everyone, but i reserve the right to be grumpy about information silos in fandom spaces, especially when it comes to silos created by users who write a lot of meta and seem to make a point of interacting with the fandom more broadly.

i just. mmmph. i don’t block people! 🤷‍♀️ unless they are aggressive towards me personally, rather than my ideas, or they ask me to block them. i don’t block because of disagreements and my hot take is that it actually isn’t a good thing that this has become such a fandom norm. i want to read words written by people i disagree with, i don’t want to be surrounded only by people who share my opinions on everything. i want to read stuff that makes me uncomfortable and makes me challenge my ideas about the text.

anyway, along these same lines, shoutout to the one or two jgy antis i know don’t like me but still haven’t blocked me and have interacted with me constructively in the recent past, you’re extremely valid for that and i appreciate being able to read what you write on your blogs, even if we agree on next to nothing.

[lostinthewinterwood]

Worldbuilding Exchange 2020

Hey there, friend! So, first of all, an apology: this letter is very late and I’m sorry to have left it as a placeholder for so long.  If you’ve already started on something, that’s great—feel free to ignore this.  But if, like me, you’re still not sure what exactly to do for your assignment—this will hopefully be of some help.

Other exchange letters can be found here.

Some of the segments of this letter are longer than others.  Please don’t feel bad if we matched on a shorter one, or hemmed in if we matched on a longer one; I like them all differently but equally and as always, optional details are optional.

  General DNW

Rape/non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; smut/graphic sex scenes; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; graphic depictions of deliberate and methodical self-harm*; graphic depictions of suicide; gore; heavy gender dysphoria; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; full setting AUs (canon-divergence is fine); graphic eye trauma; graphic and/or permanent hand trauma (unless the setting can provide a more-or-less fully functional prosthetic or equivalent); issuefic.

*I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated.

    General Likes

·        Magic systems

·        Family, found or otherwise

·        Friendship

·        Secrets

·        Disguises

·        Spies, spy networks, spycraft

·        Secret agents

·        Undercover missions

·        How Does This [world thing] Work

·        How Did This [world thing] Come To Be

  Fandom-Specific prompts/comments

  Tortall – Tamora Pierce

·        WB: Healing gift vs learned magical healing (Tortall)

·        WB: kitchen magic (Tortall)

·        WB: spies & spy networks & spycraft (Tortall)

·        WB: the Sight (Tortall)

  ·        Alianne of Pirate's Swoop (Tortall)

·        Any or No Characters (Tortall)

·        Myles of Olau (Tortall)

·        Numair Salmalín (Tortall)

·        Original Character(s) (Tortall)

·        Varice Kingsford (Tortall)

·        George Cooper (Tortall)

·        Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau (Tortall)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

Summary

  Generally I’d prefer not to have a heavy focus on ships, but if they’re going to be there I’d rather they be canon.

In Wolf Speaker, it’s a bit of a plot point that Numair can’t heal at all; but in Tempests and Slaughter he’s got considerable talent as a user of learned healing magic.  Alanna has a healing gift, and doesn’t need to learn detailed information about the workings of the human body in order to use it; or at least we aren’t shown such things.  I’m interested in the similarities and differences there, including whatever it is about learned healing magic that makes it so a person can just completely lose the ability to use it—personally I suspect it has to do with power, and having too much of it, but who knows?

Kitchen magic!  How does that work?  What does Varice do, exactly, to food that changes it/the process of creating it?  Is it commonly looked down upon, or is it unusual that Varice’s family doesn’t really want her to pursue it?

I’ve always been rather fond of the spies and subterfuge of the Tortall world, and anything about any of the spy characters I’ve asked for—or about any of their underlings—would be great here.

The Sight is relatively weird, imo, as Tortall magic goes; it’s got its own particular rules and restrictions, and I think it would be interesting to see it further explored.

    Frozen (Disney Movies)

·        WB: Arendellian mathematical understanding given that they have the concept of fractals (Frozen)

·        WB: extent and limitations of Elsa's powers (Frozen)

·        WB: Magic elsewhere in the world (Frozen)

·        WB: Life in the Enchanted Forest while cut off (Frozen)

·        WB: Geopolitical implications of magical royalty (Frozen)

  ·        Any or No Characters (Frozen)

·        Honeymaren (Frozen)

·        Original Character(s) (Frozen)

·        Anna (Frozen)

·        Elsa (Frozen)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  So, if you offered the Arendellian mathematical understanding, I’m somewhat presuming that you had something in mind for it already, and I’m interested to see what that is!

Otherwise, I really like the magic systems in the films and their interactions with the characters and the world’s other nonmagical elements, and I’d really enjoy an exploration of that.

As a side note: I’d rather not have a story focused on non-canon ships here.  I know that Elsa/Honeymaren is fairly popular, and of course it’s not in my dnws and this letter is incredibly late, but while I don’t particularly dislike the ship I’m also not at all invested in it.

  Harry Potter – Books 1-7

·        WB: Folklore and Literature (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Grindelwald's War (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Magical Medicine (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Ministry Legislative Process (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Music (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Spells Research and Development (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Wards - How Do They Work (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        WB: Wizarding Higher Education (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

  ·        Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Any or No Characters (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Bill Weasley (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Harry Potter (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Merlin (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Original Character(s) (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Original Non-UK Wizard (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

·        Original Witch Academic (Harry Potter Books 1-7)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  One of the things I like most about the Harry Potter books is how they give the impression of being set in a larger world; sometimes, it’s a bit of a whimsical world that doesn’t make perfect sense, but it doesn’t seem like the world the stories are set in is just a bubble; it feels like a small part of a bigger world, and I’d really enjoy something expanding into that—I mean.  Obviously.  I’m participating in this exchange, after all.

I don’t really have any broader things to say here; I think the worldbuilding areas are all enough of prompts in and of themselves.

As a side note: for the character tags which specify “wizard” and “witch”, I don’t care what gender a character of that type might be.

    Valdemar Series – Mercedes Lackey – 750-900 AF  

Tags

·        WB: spies & spy networks & spycraft (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        WB: Loss of the Herald-Mages (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        WB: loss of magic from Valdemar (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        WB: creation of the Herald’s Collegium (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        WB: Artificers (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

  ·        Any or No Characters (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Stefen (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Original Herald Character(s) (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Original Character(s) (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Nikolas (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Mags (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

·        Abidela (Valdemar – 750-900 AF)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  Honestly, I put the time limitations in because this is the era I’ve read the most in; it’s a suggestion, not a hard and fast rule, especially since some of the prompts I’ve given could easily spill outside of its bounds.

But it just seems like a time of such intense change—the old system of Herald-Mages more or less collapses and everything changes there, and not long after the Heralds switch to the Collegium system, and all the while there are non-Herald non-mages just going about their lives as they always have.

    Original Work – Fantasy/Sci-Fi

·        WB: Chosen Ones (OW - F/SF)

·        WB: in-universe fictional narratives (OW - F/SF)

·        WB: Magical education (OW - F/SF)

·        WB: original magic system (OW - F/SF)

·        WB: spies & spy networks & spycraft (OW - F/SF)

  ·        Any or No Characters (OW - F/SF)

·        The Chosen One (OW - F/SF)

·        Female Magician in Tower (OW - F/SF)

·        Female Magician's Apprentice (OW - F/SF)

·        Original Character(s) (Original Work - F/SF)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  I don’t really have much to say here; I like fantasy! …obviously, given my uh choice of requests.  And I like sci-fi!  And all these tags are more or less prompts in and of themselves.

    Original Work – Urban Fantasy

·        WB: Avoiding witch hunters in modern society (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Folklore that is more life-changing than expected (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Function of Practical Magic in Public Infrastructure (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Laws And Law Enforcement Relating To Magic (OW-Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Libraries that include magical works (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Magic & Murder Trials (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Unexpected animal encounters of a useful nature (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        WB: Use of Magic in Special Effects and Theater (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

  ·        Academic studying the field of magic (Original work - Urban Fantasy)

·        Any or No Characters (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        Engineer (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        Original Character(s) (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        Person Accused Of Murdering With Magic (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

·        Witch learning her magic (Original Work - Urban Fantasy)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  Honestly this is more or less the same as the above.  They are all Good Prompts and I would enjoy any of them.

    Star Wars Section

The quintessential space opera; I love this universe and its characters and ugh it is great.  I’m generally less fond of TLJ than the movies that came before it (though I am… far less salty about it than I was two years ago) and I enjoyed TRoS more although it’s still a bit of a mess.  But that should by no means stop you from integrating elements into your fic from those films.

Generally, about Star Wars, I’m going to say that I’d like for writings to fit into one of the three categories; that being said, feel free to bring in ideas from other sections, especially when there’s similar ideas across subcategories!

  Movies Only

·        WB: Ahch-To (SW Movies)

·        WB: Exegol (SW Movies)

·        WB: Force Dyad (SW Movies)

·        WB: Living on a Rebel Base (SW Movies)

·        WB: Living on a Resistance Base (SW Movies)

·        WB: Luke Skywalker's Jedi Training Temple (SW Movies)

  ·        Any or No Characters (SW Movies)

·        Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SW Movies)

·        Leia Organa (SW Movies)

·        Luke Skywalker (SW Movies)

·        Rose Tico (SW Movies)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  I’m afraid I haven’t much to say here, since as is so often the case the tags seem to be prompts in and of themselves.

But if I must say something, I’m especially curious about Ahch-To and Exegol, their histories, and if there’s any connection between the two of them.

  Sequel Trilogy

·        WB: Confusion/Curiosity/Fear about The Force (SWST)

·        WB: Fathier racing (SWST)

·        WB: Relationship between Force and Science (SWST)

·        WB: The New Government Now That The Resistance Has Won (SWST)

·        WB: The New School of The Jedi (SWST)

·        WB: Using Force To Bring The Dead (Exploring The Force Ghost Phenomenon) (SWST)

  ·        Any or No Characters (SWST)

·        Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SWST)

·        Boy at fathier racetrack (SWST)

·        Finn (SWST)

·        Original Character(s) (SWST)

·        Poe Dameron (SWST)

·        Rey (SWST)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  I still am at a bit of a loss for what to say here, honestly.  I will say that I’m not the one who nominated “Boy at fathier racetrack”.  I interpreted that as being the Force-sensitive child we saw at the end of the film, but of course it could be any of the children we see.

  New EU

·        WB: Different ways of knowing the Force (SW New EU)

·        WB: Force ghosts (Star Wars - New EU)

·        WB: Jedi Culture (Star Wars - New EU)

·        WB: Knights of Ren (Star Wars New EU)

·        WB: Legends and Folklore about the Jedi Order (SW New EU)

·        WB: Sith Lore Regarding Rule of Two and Force Dyads (Star Wars New EU)

·        WB: The World Between Worlds (SW New EU)

  ·        Ahsoka Tano (SW New EU)

·        Anakin Skywalker (SW New EU)

·        Any or No Characters (SW New EU)

·        Asajj Ventress (Star Wars - New EU)

·        Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SW New EU)

·        Hera Syndulla (Star Wars New EU)

·        Obi-Wan Kenobi (SW New EU)

·        Original Character(s) (SW New EU)

  ·        Fanfiction

·        In-Universe Meta

  Obviously, this is the New EU as a whole, but I will say that my greatest familiarity lies with the animated series: I’ve seen all of The Clone Wars and Rebels by now (and I hadn’t seen all of Rebels when I signed up; feel free to include other Rebels characters, I can’t be spoiled anymore since I’ve uh seen it all).

Which isn’t to say don’t include other things!  Include whatever you want.  But if it’s not at all related to the animated series or the movies, you should know that I may be lacking some context.

…for possibly the One And Only specific prompt I have in this entire letter, and this shouldn’t be taken as an indication that I like the idea better than anything you may come up with; it’s just all that’s coming to mind right now and this letter desperately needs to be finished—I’d definitely be interested in combining Hera with legends and folklore about the Jedi Order, and have something set around the time of A New Dawn, and how that colors her interactions with Kanan.  That would be nice.  But like I said it’s just one idea please do not feel bound by it.

    Thank you ever so much for writing for me!

[danielcommblog-blog]

Audience Studies Blog Post #3

News and other current media content travel across a multitude of platforms to reach us as audience members within our contemporary society. Over the last decade, and in connection towards shifts in technological abilities, it has been seen that individuals have slowly shifted from physical media such as newspapers, towards more digital platforms like television. Mover, and most recently, another shift has been noticeably altering audience viewings of news and current events, with a direction towards social media platforms such as twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Within my third and final audience experience blog, I will be speaking on behalf of my audience experience recognizing this shift in media consumption, and its understanding in our modern society.

Traditional media consumption practices have been slowly becoming obsolete in the light of a new era of technological media and news consumption within our contemporary society. With individuals becoming more and more impatient and eager towards being updated with the latest news on current events, social media platforms has been viewed as revolutionary in giving strong coverage and quick updates towards media and news. These platforms are on a new level in comparison to newspapers and news television. Social media corporations have also been seen to market news to millennia's through social media, as the outdated traditional practices of news and media coverage has seen to not appeal to that age demographic anymore. As a 20 year old, I’ve never had a strong reach with television news, but due to my millennial habits of social media use, I've almost been forced to subscribe to world news through the mediums of Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram.

Media has seemed to have found a path directed to convergence, where media content can be displayed on any number of different devices (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.217). Moreover, convergence, “represents a cultural shader as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content” (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.217). Our society has been provided the ability to interact with news on a massively wide range of platforms to subscribe to whichever best suits their interest. The factor of someone waiting to watch the 8 O'clock news, to be updated on current events, has since vanished from or schedules.

There have been two noticeable shifting trends in relation to audiences and their media consumption, and it has to do with audience fragmentation and audience autonomy (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.217). Audience fragmentation refers to audiences being fragmented into smaller groups from dramatic expansion in media channels and platforms, resulting in making traditional forms of audience measurement obsolete, scattering audiences across many different media channels (Sullivan, J.L., Pg. 217). With my experience as a audience member to this ideology, Platforms such as Snapchat provide a discover page where they provide endless news and media sources, both official and unofficial. Snapchat slowly narrows down what media I prefer to look at based on what I click on. Some media I ascribe to include Barstool Sports, CNN and NFL Sunday night football. I am apart of a audience group that views more sports related news, and with everyone having such different preferences of media, the fragmentation of different groups is massive. Audience autonomy is describes as, “how contemporary characteristics of the media environment… serve to enhance the extent to which audiences have control over the process of media consumption”(Sullivan, J.L., Pg.217). Audiences have been seen to have much more of a stake in how news is consumed and portrayed on different platforms today. Especially with social media, as a goal of reaching a certain number of audience members is crucial, meaning some media platforms will do almost anything to appeal to the millennial segment. An example could be providing more exciting or relatable news to this audience segment to attract a larger reach, opposed to traditional reported news. As an audience member participating in this revolution, I've seen this within my own social media. Snapchat is a great example, as they provide exciting ‘click bait’ and titles on the discover page, in order to get more clicks and reaching a quota of audience members.

The internet has empowered audiences to create a new participatory culture, and people are now invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new media content (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.219). This has something to do with the idea of crossovers, where there is a blurring of boundaries between distinct media texts, and introducing traits from one media narrative into another (Good, J. 2018). The concept of participatory culture has two noticeable trends associated, which relate towards the ways audiences correspond with media and news. First off, new technology enables audiences to, “archive, annotate, appropriate, recirculate media content” (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.219). We have much more of an interactive state with news media now than ever, and relating to Twitter for example, we have the ability to connect with, retweet to recirculate, and give personal opinions towards news coming from creditable sources such as CNN and NBC News. These factors gives us, as an audience, a higher status of power towards what we are provided as news on social media, more so than before. 

The rise of subcultures towards ‘do-it-yourself’, DIY media production are also relatable towards participatory culture of media (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.219). Providing the examples of Instagram and Twitter, we as an audience have now been granted the ability to create our own media, or provide opinions towards certain world news issues, which in turn give us the ability to become viral, providing that individual has enough audience and reach. Though we are still audience members ascribing to certain media content and news on such platforms, individuals can have a audience following of their own, labelled as ‘followers’ or ‘friends’. These followers scribe to such content, providing the audience, an audience of their own, and in turn demonstrating the multi-level practice that consists within media consumption.

Fandom and loyalty plays a key role when finding reasoning behind audiences and their subscription towards viewing news and media on new platforms as spoken about previously. Fandom is associated with, “the cultural taste of subordinated formations of people, particularly those disempowered by any combination of gender, age, class and race” (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.193). Fandom has the ability to alter and create new cultural experiences out of popular media texts, where in this scenario, the new and easily accessible platforms to view media and current events established a new experience for audience members, creating a euphoria of fan culture around social media’s (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.191). 

Social media’s popularization around audience viewership towards news can connect towards two aspects of media fandom. Social aspect is categorized as media fan’s banding together in either informal or more formally structured groups for the purpose of sharing their mutual interests with one anther (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.195). Instagram can be an example of this fandom, where audience members ascribe to certain people, corporations and other groups on this platform to mutually be continuously updated with regards towards that user. This phenomenon creates follower loyalty, and a certain relationship that is hard to unsubscribe to on Instagram. Interpretive aspect of media fandom constitutes fans that act as interpreters and producers of media content (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.195). Fans can create content that relates or adheres to certain media provided to them on social media platforms such as Twitter. We as audience members can post about media we are fans of, and are very credited towards, such as news on Equal rights movements, or Black Lives Matter. We have an ability to participate in movements, and be fans of such through social media. This demonstrates social media’s continuous communication pattern. Fan audiences, “may feel so connected to the narrative that they…develop a sense of ownership over the text”, providing the aspect of fandom within social media (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.198).

To narrow it down to one of the most influential and revolutionary news platforms, Twitter has seen to be a growing source of current events for especially younger people within our modern age media society. Twitter is, “a real time information network that connects [users] to the latest series, ideas, opinions and news about what [they] find interesting” (Wasike,B. Pg.8). Twitter is factually the most popular microblogging site available, with an estimate of 200 to 500 million active users, tweeting average 400 million tweets daily (Wasike,B. Pg.8). Within the social media platform, users can follow any other user, including those apart of the cannon, which includes users with texts considered significant or valuable, and information deemed worthy from a respected source or user (Sullivan, J.L., Pg.200). Examples include official news twitter accounts, credible politicians and so on and so fourth. Another example points towards social media editors, who can be defined as tech savvy journalists appointed by certain news agencies to act as newsroom intermediaries towards the digital world, or as others know it by, the social media-sphere (Wasike,B. Pg.6). Their main functions are to monitor social media for latest trends, procure important information for editors, maintain the organizations online presence and interact with readers and post news articles online (Wasike, B. Pg.6). With my experience with SME’s on twitter, they provide information thats up to date, current and for the most part, accurate towards the credited source I follow. I use twitter as its not as time consuming compared to watching traditional television news. Moreover, SME’s are useful in getting to the point in 140 characters of less, providing an efficient platform to display news for savvy younger audience members interested in news.

Finally, three reasons justify why twitter is worth associating with social media editors, and its impact on the audience sector towards media usage. First off, Twitter has uniqueness and suitability for audience interaction (Wasike, B. Pg.6). Twitter is most likely the best suited platform for interaction purposes, and with SME’s being involved, they have the ability to reach large numbers of dedicated ‘readers’ in a short period of time with small bursts of information (Wasike, B. Pg.6). They create quick and effective messages, and guarantees a long lasting audience, as, “consistent and sustained rate of communication gives twitter a clear edge over competing social media tools, and even traditional modes of news delivery” (Wasike, B. Pg.6). Moreover, “there are millions of audience members that want to be engaged as well as informed, entertained, and outraged by their media today”, proving SME’s a job that’s been cut out for them (Sullivan, J. L., Pg.225). 

The second reason consists towards Twitter’s skill as an expert news breaking tool (Wasike, B. Pg.7). This meaning Twitter has the capability to deliver up to date breaking news at revolutionary speed, with continuous updates by not only official users, but credible audience members as well (Wasike, B. Pg.7). Twitter is ahead of the curve, way ahead of any media source with official sources being able to report news at such a fast rate for audience members. The third and final factor is the overall dwindling news readership within our society (Wasike, B. Pg.8). There has been increasing public distrust of media agencies, and an increase in online news readership (Wasike, B. Pg.8). SME’s are seen as the faces of the media agencies in the digital world, having a position to control how news flows into the social media sphere (Wasike, B. Pg.8). They play a massive factor in delivering creditable media and news towards audience members on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Our contemporary society is past the brink of new age news and media consumption, providing the tactics and factors consisting of the social media apps we use. Through understanding social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter, is has become apparent how strong of a factor we as an audience play in todays world of media consumption.

Works cited;

Good, J., (2018, November 8). Lecture presented at Brock University.

Sullivan, J. L. (2013). Media audiences: Effects, users, institutions, and power. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Wasike, B. (2013). Framing news in 140 Characters: How social media editors frame the news and interact with audiences via Twitter. Global Media Journal - Canadian Edition, 6(1), 5-23.