TELEVISION; Oh, Grow Up, Mr. Ross - New York Times
Jacques Steinberg, October 22, 2006

In this article, Steinberg presents an inside look at the daily work of Mr. Rich Ross, president of Disney Channel Worldwide. He is at the head of the company responsible for what most children watch on television, not just in this country but all over the world. Mr. Ross often consults with an expert in the area of child audiences when making decisions about Disney’s television programming, that is, he has a family friend’s eleven year old daughter take a look at what Disney’s been working on and offer her opinion. But that anecdote is not meant to minimize his credibility. In fact, Mr. Ross has worked hard to keep up in the changing nature of children’s marketing, and he’s been quite successful. He was able to coordinate the publicity of “High School Musical” between Disney’s radio stations, magazines, and websites, which ended up as the perfect combination to create such a strong fan base. It’s nice once in a while to get a glimpse at what goes on in the boardrooms and the studios, and to see that the people running these major companies are just normal people who happen to love their jobs and be very good at them. But it may be fair to note that it seems Steinberg has gone a little far in praising what appear to be purely capitalist motives on the part of Mr. Ross, sugarcoated with idealism and altruism.
Mr. Ross seems to think a little more idealistically about the television shows than one would expect from the president of a huge moneymaking entertainment business. He values the fact that “High School Musical” and many of Disney’s other recent programs “share an unapologetic emphasis on traditional life lessons” just as the Disney programming of his childhood did. He wants music to be embedded within the storyline; he wants each episode to demonstrate strategies of problem solving when issues arise between friends or with parents. As an example of his desire not to condescend to his audience, the Disney Channel website now features a space where children can create mash-ups of their favorite episodes and have control over how they turn out. Steinberg presents this as a measure of Ross’ connectedness to his audience, but it seems more like Ross is just picking up on the user-generated content trend that has become prevalent because of the internet and the accessibility of video editing software. Since Mr. Ross feels that “High School Musical” is truly about kids anywhere and not just about Americans, he has traveled all over the world to bring the movie to as many countries as possible. My reaction to this statement is questioning whether he is doing all that traveling just for the sake of spreading the good messages in the movie, or to make more money in the international entertainment markets. Ross’ influence on the nature of the channel can certainly be felt when looking back to the days before he entered the scene. His leadership helped bring the Disney Channel into its current 90 million homes from a bare 15 million, and lead it to practically knock all other children’s television channels out of the competition.

A Musical For Tweens Captures Its Audience - New York Times
Ben Sisario, February 8, 2006

    Ben Sisario examines the marketing strategy that went into Disney’s High School Musical and how it was able to engage its target audience with not-yet-standard techniques. The movie premiered on the Disney Channel on January 20th, and by February 8th it was already making news for its popularity. The soundtrack released with the movie reached top 10 of the Billboard charts, made 45 percent of its sales online through iTunes and had no radio airtime outside of Radio Disney’s station, and that was only in the first two weeks.
    Sisario quotes Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, as explaining the value of the story in its themes such as “express yourself, believe in yourself, celebrate your family, follow your dreams,” but it wasn’t just the optimism that made this movie and all of the other media associated with it into such a success. Because Disney’s presence exists across multiple forms of entertainment, it was able to use cross-platform advertising to build excitement about the movie before it was first aired. The show’s characters appeared on a New Years Eve show, the Disney channel played music videos from the movie’s songs “in heavy rotation,” and Disney even offered a free download of the song “Breaking Free” around the time of the premiere. After the movie aired for the first time, Disney directed viewers to a sing-along version online where they could download the lyrics. According to Sisario, the lyrics were downloaded 500,000 times in the first 24 hours. That’s successful cross-marketing.
    Disney capitalized on its integration of web content into the TV market, something that they’ve gotten very good at of late. They also benefited from the fact that the movie and soundtrack were released in the winter, specifically because of the holiday sales of iPods and iTunes gift certificates.
    Sisario sees this movie as the beginning of “a new musical phase,” referring to the previous cultivation of pop stars Brittney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and the members of ’N Sync. They are creating a new generation of pop icons following the success of Hillary Duff, which began with her TV show “Lizzy McGuire.” The most interesting element of the movie and album’s success is the fact that it did not rely on traditional radio or MTV for its publicity. They know that their audience, because of their age, is very comfortable with the internet and digital music, so they were able to make use of their own website and their relationship with Apple’s iTunes to set the movie up for success.

Pang, Kevin

Chicago Tribune (IL); 2/02/2007

Persistent link to this record: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=2W62W63210752887&site=ehost-live

    Ken Stromberg is the musical director for Palatine High School in Illinois. His decision to direct “High School Musical” caused a great deal of commotion, even before auditions had begun. The Disney Channel made-for-TV movie was extremely successful, with a chart topping soundtrack and a fan base as large as the number of 6 to 14 year old kids, and that’s just in America. Kevin Pang’s article exposes the craze that built up around this one high school’s performance of the now famous musical.
    It’s as pathetic as it is amazing: parents of children from far outside the school district started calling for tickets even before the actors had been cast or started rehearsing. The high school added two performances to their standard four and added 40 chairs to their theater for 600 (the most that the fire department would allow), but still the waiting list for tickets was long enough to fill the theater twice over.
    Although Pang spent most of his article quoting conversations between Stromberg and a slew of crazed parents and explaining to readers that High School Musical has become a pop culture icon to so many children, he found a few paragraphs to devote to describing just how Disney capitalized on their successful movie. Disney Theatricals Productions usually spends about a year adapting a movie to a stage play, but this one they were able to churn out in six months, tweaking some of the dialogue and adding two new songs. High schools all over the country rushed to get their hands on a licensed copy of the script as soon as it was available, and the play has revitalized many small theater groups who’d had trouble finding kids to audition and enjoy acting until it came along.
    Pang’s article is a valuable window into the fan culture surrounding this movie. The parents who felt a desperate need to get their children tickets to the show were responding to the enormous success of the movie in the eyes of their children. However it was that this movie managed to get everyone’s attention last year, it has certainly generated a lot more than just buzz, and Palatine High’s experience is certainly just one example of many.

THEATER REVIEW; Trading Math Class For Corsets And Minis - New York Times
Ginia Bellafante. January 10, 2007

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    Ginia Bellafante is disgusted with “High School Musical: The Concert.” She does not take any pains to hide that feeling. In her review of the event, she shares her experience of seeing the actors from the Disney Channel movie turn into incredibly poor models of success and individualism. The characters in the movie dealt with cliques that tried to hinder their choices and limit their interests, but they were able to find their own passion, theater, outside of the math nerd or basketball jock world. Bellafante enjoyed Disney’s “just-be-your-real-self message” and was shocked to see it lost entirely at the live performance.
    The concert, one of the many ways Disney has cashed in on the success of their movie last year, features most of the original cast members performing all of the songs from the movie, to a wild adoring audience of adolescents. What upset Bellafante most about the performance was not only way the lead female actors danced and dressed inappropriately both for their characters and their age, but also the fact that the concert was really just a way of launching each of the actors’ solo albums directly to their target audience. She saw straight through that marketing pitch, and is sure that the teens felt the same way.
    Bellafante notes at the end that it’s quite curious that Disney made a movie about students learning to love musicals, just as the company jumped back into the business of making them. I admit, put that way it does sound scheming. I happen to be in favor of the production of musicals and the cultivation of an attitude that they’re an enjoyable form of entertainment. It says something about the quality of the music that so many kids desperately wanted to attend a concert where the music was the central focus. The self-appreciation lesson is certainly an important one, but it seems that Disney’s emphasis was on the music, and with a concert, a theatrical adaptation, and a top selling album, that’s where they’ve been the most successful.

This article, by Clive Thompson, argues that the new film, Star Wars Revelations, a forty minute $20,000 budget film made by Star Wars fans, is better than any film made by George Lucas. Thompson's view is that, despite the impressive size of Lucas' budget for the Star Wars franchise or his aptitude for special effects, the creative minds of the fans turn out a better product time after time. Star Wars Revelations is just one example.

Lucas is no longer making new Star Wars films for his ravenous fans to enjoy. As a result, the numerous fans around the world have taken to making their own sequels/prequels. These fans are doing more than just filling the void; they are doing a better job than the Star Wars creator. The special effects are comparable to those developed by George Lucas. Additionally, these are not small films only accessible to a relatively small audience. It is estimated that in one week, one million people will see Star Wars Revelations - without any promotion or marketing effort. The widespread success of the film is based solely on the devotion of the Star Wars fans and the widespread reach of the internet.

Lucas has always encouraged fan produced films. However, he has stipulated one condition: these fan filmmakers cannot attempt to make a profit from their creations based on Lucas' genius idea. While films such as Star Wars Revolutions are widely circulated and astonishingly high-tech, there are still two major problems with all fan films - the second rate scriptwriting and acting. Thus, even with all of the success of fan films, there will always be an opening for George Lucas to return with one of his professionally made additions to the Star Wars series. Some might suggest that the fan films are better than the authentic Star Wars. However, with two significant problems plaguing fan films, fans can attempt to fill the void, but their productions will never compare to those of the irreplaceable George Lucas.

David Nieborg explores the history of mod culture in computer games in this essay. Most of his analysis is based on Jenkins' theories of fandom and participatory fan culture. There is a short section on how manchinima fits into the larger culture of modifing first person shooter games.

Media theorist Matt Hills conducts a very lengthy interview with the one and only Henry Jenkins. Their discource revolves around the theories set forth by Jenkins' book Textual Poachers. Hills attemptes to break down, and better understand Jenkins' position on fandom a decade after Textual Poachers was written.

This journal (2004) is a very cool read for feminist scholars and anyone interested in body politic.  Although I am not sure that any of the essays will apply to my work, I was quite interested in Schleiner's essay "Female-Bobs Arrive at Dusk", which talks about the phenomenon of fan-created female heroine patches for video games in the late 1990's (part of our discussion with Nick Monfort).  I was hoping to be able to use the essay by Aristarkhova "Femininity, Community, Hospitality: Towards a Cyberethics" in order to discuss issues of hospitality and community for women online, but she spends the entire time theorizing on the ideas of Derrida and community without talking about language and speech.

This very recent compilation (2005) contains 11 scholarly articles on the subject of adolescent girls and their use of the web, from perspectives of age, gender, ethnicity, and sociology/media theory.  With regard to the subject of teenage girls and fandom, I am interested in Scodari's work on the negotiation of age and gender in TV fan newsgroups, since I am also discussing women's speech in such groups.  Mazzarella continues this topic with her discussion of the "cultural economy" of teenage girls fandom on the internet.  Finally, Thiel takes on the description of the construction of identity and gender identification for girls over instant messaging, which she describes as both a cultural and an experimentation space.  While this text does not discuss specific linguistic topics, it does serve as an interesting sociological reference for young women's behavior on the internet, which could influence or inform linguisitic decisions online.

This journal article discusses the reality that, despite popular opinion, female fans are just as knowledgable as male fans.  This will present another example of evidence that contradicts the commonly held opinion that female fans are mostly into sports for the attractive guys.

Quirk actually takes a serious attempt at a self-help book for Sportsaholics and their significant others.  This is exactly the common perception of male sports fans that is necessary to counter the rising number of female fans.  What do the two groups mean to one another? How do they reflect on their genders as a whole?

Guttmann takes a historical stance on sports fans, beginning all the way back in Ancient Roman and Greek times.  He also presents the idea of the "hooligan." The concept of the "hooligan" is deceptively complicated, but seems to embody what most would claim to be masculine traits with aggressiveness being a major foundation.  What do these "hooligans" imply on female sports fans?

Perrin illuminates a variety of aspects of American fans, in particular sports radio hosts.  His discussion of the prevalence of male hosts highlights the gender bias present within sports media, let alone fan cultures.

Miller discusses the relatively recent shift in sports fan cultures, particularly with the marketing shift that has targeted female sports fans.  It is interesting to see how he takes on lesbianism in relation to sports. There is a lot of great material to use in relation to my paper.  

Sports Illustrated for Women ended its publication back in 2002. This could imply a lack of female sports fans to read this magazine. In looking at this website, especially in comparison to Sports Illustrated's website, it is clear that not as much work or effort went into its creation. Although, this difference could be from the 3 year span between when SI for women ended and today, during which SI's website could have had major additions and transformations.

Essentially a book about the movie culture in America. Looks at the impact movies have on society and vise versa. Primarily focuses on fan clubs of movie stars and obsessed fans, but also how Hollywood reacts to these movements.

This article focuses on the psychological aspects of being a fan.  By including a psychological perspective, in particular one that discusses inclusion and exclusion from fan cultures, the implications of being included in a fan culture despite being female will be explicated, as well as vice versa. 

This article was cited in the "Myth of the 'Puck Bunny'" article.  The strength of women affecting the fandom of men implies that the questioning of gender norms for one sex affects how the other views themselves.  This could corrulate with the argument that female fans are seen in opposition to gender norms.

This is the first article to differentiate between biological sex and gender constructions.  This differentiation comes as a test to see if gender constructions or sex were a better predictor of who would be a fan.  By differentiating between gender and sex, this article helps to clarify whether being a sports fan conflicts with the gender norms associated with being a woman.

This article presents an older look at sports fans, prior to the recent influx of female fans, which again is up for debate.  The authors attempt to differentiate sex associations based on different aspects of being a fan.  With an older look at fan behavior, the recent popularization of female fans can be determined as a changed perception or an actual increase in the numbers of female fans.

Crawford and Gosling attempt to debunk the myth of the 'puck bunny.' In their efforts, they recognize no difference in knowledge between male and female fans. This significant disjuncture from common beliefs helps to legitimize female fans as being genuine.

This is yet another indication of the corporate benefits being enjoyed by the increase in female fans or perhaps just the increased awareness of female fans.  There could be no significant increase in female fans, but the perception of these fans could be changing.  This website offers an alternative view of female fans from the negative portrayal usually associated with such an idea.

NFL.com will help provide information on the significance of feminized sports hats and other such products. As mentioned in another article, presence of pink hats has caused a significant response by both women and men.  Women tend to like them, whereas men think they are wrong, infuriating, or any number of other negative opinions.

These authors try to determine the likelihood of men and women to become fans in general and then more specifically as fans according to gender to comparable sports like, college basketball.  Also, it counters the many articles that emphasize and often exaggerate the number of female fans, finding data that denies an equal level of fans in both sexes. Men, of course, are more represented as fans.

This article takes a significantly more involved advertising slant.  It provides another example of how female sports fans are becoming a force to be reckoned with, be it their male counterparts or advertisers.  In particular, this showed that advertisers need to differentiate their marketing strategies for men and women, because although they are all fans, the "image congruency" is lacking.

Trail and Robinson focus on intercollegiate sports, but offer interesting statistics about spectators as a whole.  Their focus on advertising relates to the advertisers of professional sports.  However, an argument could be made that female college fans do not carry over into professional sports fans, due to the specialized setting under which their fandom is developed.

The authors attempt to distinguish a difference in perception of female fans by men who were sports fans themselves or nonfans.  How men perceive female fans is crucial in determining the implications that female fans have on the fan cultures of professional sports, as well as, gender constructions.

The article exposes the significant effect that female fans have had on professional sports.  An entire night devoted to female fans is the premise of this article. Also, it shows how advertisers are being influenced by the realization that women are interested in sports.

This article fits in with my argument that the presence of women fan's in a fan culture predominantly made up of men causes significant changes to gender constructions as well as the fan culture, itself.  This article focuses on the creation of pink hats for almost every professional sports team.  The author finds fault with this creation, which adds weight to the belief that women "shouldn't" like sports.

I am not sure whether I will be actually able to use this article, because it does not appear when I click on the link from PennText.  However, from the abstract in EBSCO, it seems like it would fit right in with my argument that female fan cultures affect gender norms.  It is a TV Guide Survey of NFL female fans, with attention being drawn toward the affects that female fans have had on the NFL, particularly in its product line.

From Blacktable online magazine; a devoted Morrissey fan attempts to explain the rationale that has kept Morrissey idolized worldwide twenty years past what should have been his "peak". Elders argues that the mystery shrouding Morrissey's personal life is what has allowed him to remain a respectable artist over time. Regarding his Latino fans: "But sublimated people, or minorities, or marginalized races don't identify with Morrissey because he's different...Morrissey is himself, uncompromisingly so."

Article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. by a journalist from the UK's "The Guardian". Taylor covers a conference held in Manchester, English titled "Why Pamper Life's Complexities?": named after a Smiths song, and the first academic conference held in the band's honor. Using quotes, papers, and interviews at the conference, Taylor explores how the Smiths and Morrissey appeal to even distinguished academics, many of whom presented papers with the qualification that they were themselves mega-fans of the group. The author presents several reasons for the continuing appeal, such as Morrissey's mysteriously ambiguous sexuality, and his passionate lyrics - he was described by one conference-goer as everyone's "invisible friend."

This book is a collection of essays that distinguish the differences between fans and subcultures.  As consumers, we do something with the media we consume.  However, fans take what they consume and use it as a source or inspiration to create their own art, ideas, or writings.  Subcultures live through what they consume.  For instances, people who attend Insane Clown Posie concerts cover their bodies with paint.  These people are subcultures as they enjoy a certain type of music and dress a certain way.  For bands that use the lyrics of the group as inspiration or sources of ideas are fans, because they take what they consumed and build on it.

Description to come.