Module 2

CONSUMPTION OF POPULAR CULTURE IN

DIGITAL AGE

Overview
Hello and welcome to new exploration, I’m glad that you’ve come this far, continue your
hard work and soon it will be paid. Before you start this module I want you to take some
self-assessment, so…. are you in?
This simple self-assessment is related to your next lesson to be study, just follow the steps.
Step 1: Go around your home
Step 2: List down all the media available in there on a piece of paper
***After reading this module go back in here to proceed in the next step.
Step 3: Draw a  in every correct kind of media in your list.
Step 4: Cheers!!! for your self-assessment results.
(No cheating, because you don’t want to be cheated on.)

In this module, you are going to learn how people are consuming popular culture in
digital age since that we are now into the new normal due to COVID-19 pandemic it is timely
and I know that every one of you can relate to this lesson. I hope you enjoy while learning.

Learning outcomes
At the end of this module the students will be able to:

1. Identify different forms of participatory culture;

2. Differentiate producers, consumers, and produsage in participatory media;
3. Differentiate indie film and mainstream film; and
4. Evaluate how Filipinos are consuming popular culture in digital age.

Lesson 1: Social Media and New Media

Media is mean for conveying something, or a channel for communication, it is started
during ancient time. Below is the evolution of media.
1. Oral Communication, speech with us for the last 200k years, was the most important
tool.
***Facilitated human movement and settlement, then civilization
2. Script, writing, allows to communicate; share knowledge across space and time
***Cuneiform, hieroglyphics, calligraphy, proto-alphabet, Wood, clay, bronze, bone,
tortoise shells, papyrus and parchment.
3. The Printing Press, started the information revolution
***Movable blocks in China, movable type by Gutenberg. Production of books,
pamphlets, flyers, preserved knowledge, standardized knowledge, challenged the
status quo, vie for competing ideas and views.
4. Electronic Media
***Telephone, Telegraph, radio, film, and Television
5. Digital Media
***Electronic media, combination of the binary algorithms of 0’s and 1’s Use of
computers, digital technology, revolutionized information dissemination and integrated
the various aspects of culture.

New media is all forms of electronic communication that have appeared or will appear
it includes any and all of these:
• Online news
• Streaming video and streaming audio
• 3-D and virtual reality environments and effects
• Highly interactive user interfaces
• Mobile presentation
• CD and DVD media
• Telephone and digital data integration
• Online communities
• Live internet broad casting
• Social Networking sites

Lesson 2: The Internet Fans and Participant Culture

Brief history

In 1989 Tim Berners-Lee completes the original software for the World Wide Web
(WWW). He envisions the WWW as a shared information space within which people
communicate with each other and with computers. From 1991 to 1994, the use of the WWW
server grows by a factor of ten each year as the world begins to use the new information
phenomenon. The Internet does not consist of a physical network; it is a loose system of
connections between different computers located all over the world. Participatory culture, an
opposing concept to consumer culture, is a culture in which private individuals (the public) do
not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers). The term is
most often applied to the production or creation of some type of published media. Recent
advances in technologies (mostly personal computers and the Internet) have enabled private
persons to create and publish such media, usually through the Internet. Since the technology
now enables new forms of expression and engagement in public discourse, participatory
culture not only supports individual creation but also informal relationships that pair novices
with experts. This new culture as it relates to the Internet has been described as Web 2.0. In
participatory culture "young people creatively respond to a plethora of electronic signals and
cultural commodities in ways that surprise their makers, finding meanings and identities never
meant to be there and defying simple nostrums that bewail the manipulation or passivity of
"consumers."

The increasing access to the Internet has come to play an integral part in the
expansion of participatory culture because it increasingly enables people to work
collaboratively, generate and inseminate news, ideas, and creative works, and connect with
people who share similar goals and interest.
1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement.
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others.
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most
experienced is passed along to novices.
4. Where members believe that their contributions matters.
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the
least they care what other people think about what they have created).

Participatory culture can be manifested in affiliations, expressions, collaborative

problem solving, and circulations.
1. Affiliations include both formal and informal memberships in online communities such
as discussion boards or social media.
2. Expression refers to the types of media that could be created. This may manifest as
memes, fan-fiction, or other forms of mash-ups.
3. Collaborative problem solving is when individuals and groups engage in working
together on a particular form of media or media product like a wiki.
4. Circulation refers to the means through which the communication may be spread. This
could include blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and even some forms of social media.

***Some of most popular apps that involve participatory culture includes: Facebook, Tiktok,
Snapchat, Instagram, Tinder, LinkedIn, and Twitter, others alike.
Technology

As technology continues to enable new avenues for communication, collaboration and

circulation of ideas, it has also given rise to new opportunities for consumers to create their
own content. Barriers like time and money are beginning to become less significant to large
groups of consumers.
***For example, before the creation of movies once required large amounts of
expensive equipment, but now movie clips can be made with equipment that is affordable to a
growing number of people.
The ease with which consumers create new material has also grown, extensive
knowledge of computer programming is no longer necessary to create content on the internet.
Media sharing over the Internet acts as a platform to invite users to participate and create
communities that share similar interests through duplicated sources, original content, and re-
purposed material.

Social Media

People no longer blindly absorb and consume what large media corporations distribute.
Today there are a great deal of people who are “prosumers” or “consumers” who also produce
their own media. The reason participatory culture is a high interest topic due to the fact that
there are just so many different social media platforms to participate and contribute these
happen to be some of the leader in the social media industry and are the reason people are
able to have such an advantage to participate in media creation. Today, millions of people
across the world have the ability to post, quote, film, or create whatever they want with the aid
of these social media platform, the ability to reach a global audience becomes easier.

Participatory media culture

There have been several ways that participatory media allows people to create,
connect and share their content or build friendships throughout the media. YouTube
encourages people to create and upload their content to share around the world, creating an
environment for content creators new or old. Discord allows people, primarily gamers to
connect with each other around the world and acts as a live chat room. Twitch is a streaming
media website where content creators can "go live” for viewers all around the world, these
participatory sites have community events such as charity events or memorial streams for
someone important to the people in the Twitch community.

Explicit and implicit participation

An important contribution has been made by media theorist Mirko Tobias Schafer who
distinguishes explicit and implicit participation (2011).
1. Explicit participation describes the conscious and active engagement of users in fan
communities or of developers in creative processes.
2. Implicit participation is subtler and unfolds often without the user's knowledge. In her
book, The Culture of Connectivity, Jose Van Dijck emphasizes the importance of
recognizing this distinction in order to thoroughly analyze user agency as a techno-
cultural construct (2013).

Participatory media is a media where the audience can play an active role in the
process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating content. Citizen / Participatory
Journalism, Citizen Media, Empowerment Journalism and Democratic Media are related
principles. It includes community media, blogs, wikis, tagging and social bookmarking, music-
photo-video sharing, mashups, podcasts, participatory video projects and videoblogs which
described as e-services, which involve end-users as active participants in the value creation
process. However, active uses of media are not exclusive to our times, in the history of
mediated communication we can find many variations of participatory practices. For instance,
the initial phase of the radio knew many examples of non-professional broadcasters.
Marshall MacLuhan discussed the participatory
potential of media already in the 1970s but in the era of
digital and social media, the theory of participatory culture
becomes even more acute as the borders between
audiences and media producers are blurring.

Characteristics of participatory media

***These distinctly different media share three common, interrelated characteristics:

1. Technical-structural characteristic

Many-to-many media now make it possible for every person connected to the
network to broadcast and receive text, images, audio, video, software, data,
discussions, transactions, computations, tags, or links to and from every other person.
The asymmetry between broadcaster and audience that was dictated by the structure
of pre-digital technologies dictated has changed radically.

2. Psychological and social characteristic

Participatory media are social media whose value and power derives from the
active participation of many people.

3. Economic and political characteristic

Social networks, when amplified by information and communication networks,

enable broader, faster, and lower cost coordination of activities.

***Full-fledged participatory news sites include NowPublic, OhmyNews, DigitalJournal.com,

On the Ground News Reports and GroundReport.

With participatory media, the boundaries between audiences and creators become
blurred and often invisible. In the words of David Sifry, the founder of Technorati, a search
engine for blogs, one-to-many "lectures" (i.e., from media companies to their audiences) are
transformed into "conversations" among "the people formerly known as the audience". This
changes the tone of public discussions. The mainstream media don't get how subversive it is
to take institutions and turn them into conversations. That is because institutions are closed,
assume a hierarchy and have trouble admitting weakness whereas conversations are open-
ended, assume equality and eagerly concede weakness.

Some proposed that journalism can be more "participatory" because the World Wide
Web has evolved from "read-only" to "read-write". In other words, in the past only a small
proportion of people had the means (in terms of time, money, and skills) to create content that
could reach large audiences. Now the gap between the resources and skills needed to
consume online content versus the means necessary to produce it have narrowed significantly
to the point that nearly anyone with a web-connected device can create media. As Dan
Gillmor, founder of the Center for Citizen Media declared in his 2004 book “We the Media”,
journalism is evolving from a lecture into a conversation. He also points out that new
interactive forms of media have blurred the distinction between producers of news and their
audience. In fact, some view the term "audience" to be obsolete in the new world of interactive
participatory media. New York University professor and blogger Jay Rosen refers to them as
the people formerly known as the “audience."

Some even proposed that "all mass media should be abandoned", extending upon one
of the four main arguments given by Jerry Mander in his case against television: Corporate
domination of television used to mold humans for a commercial environment, and all mass
media involve centralized power. Blogger Robin Good wrote, "With participatory media instead
of mass media, governments and corporations would be far less able to control information
and maintain their legitimacy. To bring about true participatory media (and society), it is also
necessary to bring about participatory alternatives to present economic and political structures.
In order for withdrawal from using the mass media to become more popular, participatory
media must become more attractive: cheaper, more accessible, more fun, and more relevant.
In such an atmosphere, nonviolent action campaigns against the mass media and in support
of participatory media become more feasible."

Brief background

The term Participatory Media was first used publicly by Greg Ruggiero and later
popularized by blog researcher Rebecca Blood and others, such as Furukawa. In April 2006,
journalist and media researcher Jim McClellan used the phrase Personal Participatory Media,
which may distinguish between objective social media (scientific, corporate, pure information)
and subjective/personal social media (value-laden, opinion, religious).

Producers, consumers, and "produsage”

In the work of Vincent Miler's Understanding Digital Culture, he makes the argument
that the lines between producer and consumers have become blurry. Producers are those
that create content and cultural objects, and consumers are the audience or purchasers of
those objects. By referring to Bruns' idea of "prosumer,” Miler argues “with the advent of
convergent new media and the excess of choice in sources for information, as well as the
increased capacity for individuals to produce content themselves, this shift away from
producer hegemony to audience or consumer power would seem to have accelerated, thus
eroding the producer-consumer distinction” “Prosumer” is the ending result of a strategy that
has been increasingly used which encourages feedback between producers and consumers
(prosumers), “which allows for more consumer influence over the production of goods."

Bruns (2008) refers to produsage, therefore, as a community collaboration that

participants can access in order to share "content, contributions, and tasks throughout the
networked community". This is similar to how Wikipedia allows users to write, edit, and
ultimately use content. Produsers are active participants who are empowered by their
participation as network builders. Bruns (2008) refers to produsage, therefore, as a community
collaboration that participants can access in order to share "content, contributions, and tasks
throughout the networked community. He describes the empowerment for users as different
from the typical "top-down mediated spaces of the traditional media spheres" produsage
occurs when the users are the produsers and vice versa, essentially eliminating the need for
these "top-down" interventions. The collaboration of each participant is based on a principle of
inclusivity; each member contributes valuable information for another user to use, add to, or
change. In a community of learners, collaboration through produsage can provide access to
content for every participant, not just those with some kind of authority. Every participant has
authority, this leads to Bruns' (2008) idea of "equip potentiality: the assumption that while the
skills, and abilities of all the participants in the produsage project are not equal, they have an
equal ability to make a worthy contribution to the project." Because there are no more
distinctions between producers and consumers, every participant has an equal chance to
participate meaningfully in produsage. In July 2020, an academic description reported on the
nature and rise of the "robot prosumer" derived from modern-day technology and related
participatory culture, that, in turn, was substantially predicted earlier by science fiction writers.

Gendered experiences

Participatory culture lacks representation of the female, which has created a

misrepresentation of women online. This in turn, makes it difficult for women to represent
themselves with authenticity, and deters participation of females in participatory culture. The
content that is viewed on the internet in participatory situations is biased because of the
overrepresentation of male generated information, and the ideologies created by the male
presence in media, thus creates a submissive role for the female user, as they unconsciously
accept patriarchal ideologies as reality. With males in the dominant positions "media industries
engage existing technologies to break up and reformulate media texts for reasons of their
own". Design intent from the male perspective is a main issue deterring accurate female
representation. Females active in participatory culture are at a disadvantage because the
content they are viewing is not designed with their participation in mind. Instead of producing
male biased content, "feminist interaction design should seek to bring about political
emancipation… it should also force designers to question their own position to assert what an
"improved society" is and how to achieve it". The current interactions and interfaces of
participatory culture fails to "challenge the hegemonic dominance, legitimacy and
appropriateness of positivist epistemologies; theorize from the margins; and problematize
gender". Men typically are more involved in the technology industry as "relatively fewer women
work in the industry that designs technology now... only in the areas of HCI/usability is the
gender balance of workforce anything like equal". Since technology and design is at the crux
of the creation of participatory culture "much can – and should – be said about who does what,
and it is fair to raise the question of whether an industry of men can design for women".
"Although the members of the group are not directly teaching or perhaps even indicating the
object of… representation, their activities inevitably lead to the exposure of the other individual
to that object and this leads to that individual acquiring the same narrow… representations as
the other group members have. Social learning of this type (another, similar process is known
as local enhancement) has been shown to lead to relatively stable social transmission of
behavior over time". Local enhancement is the driving mechanism that influences the audience
to embody and recreate the messages produced in media. Statistically, men are actively
engaging in the production of these problematic representations, whereas, women are not
contributing to the portrayal of women experiences because of local enhancement that takes
place on the web. There is no exact number to determine the precise percentage for female
users; in 2011 there were numerous surveys that slightly fluctuate in numbers, but none seem
to surpass 15 percent. This shows a large disparity of online users in regards to gender when
looking at Wikipedia content. Bias arises as the content presented in Wikipedia seems to be
more male oriented.

Lesson 3: Fandom, Copyright and Fan-Fiction

Fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and
camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even
minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant portion of their time and
energy involved with their interest, often as a part of a social network with particular practices
(a fandom); this is what differentiates "fannish" (fandom-affiliated) fans from those with only a
casual interest. A fandom can grow around any area of human interest or activity. The subject
of fan interest can be narrowly
defined, focused on something like
an individual celebrity or more
widely defined encompassing
entire hobbies, genres or fashions.
While it is now used to apply to
groups of people fascinated with
any subject, the term has its roots
in those with an enthusiastic
appreciation for sports.

Fandom as a term can also be used in a broad sense to refer to the interconnected
social networks of individual fandoms, many of which overlap. There are a number of large
conventions that cater to fandom in this broad sense, catering to interests in film, comics,
anime, television shows, cosplay, and the opportunity to buy and sell related merchandise.
Annual conventions such as Comic Con International, Wondercon, Dragon Con and New York
Comic Con are some of the more well-known and highly attended events that cater to
overlapping fandoms.

Anime and manga fandom began in the 1970s in Japan. In America, the fandom also
began as an offshoot of science fiction fandom, with fans bringing imported copies of
Japanese manga to conventions. Before anime began to be licensed in the U.S., fans who
wanted to get a hold of anime would leak copies of anime movies and subtitle them to
exchange with friends in the community, thus marking the start of fansubs. While science
fiction and anime grew fandom in media the Grateful Dead subculture that emerged in the late
1967-1970'created a global fandom around hippie culture that would have lasting impacts on
society and technology.

Fangirl/fanboy
A female/male that is a
part of one or more fandoms.
Furthermore, the term
fangirling/fanboying refers to a
moment where a person gets
excited about a fandom. Fanon
(portmanteau of fan and canon) is
an "unofficial canon" idea that is
widely believed to be true among
fans, but is neither unconfirmed
nor officially endorsed by the
original author or source creator,
preventing it from being labeled as
canon. Fanon may refer to a whole interpretation of the original work, or specific details within
it.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal means of protecting an author's work. It is a type of intellectual

property that provides exclusive publication, distribution, and usage rights for the author. This
means whatever content the author created cannot be used or published by anyone else
without the consent of the author. The length of copyright protection may vary from country to
country, but it usually lasts for the life of the author plus 50 to 100 years. Different type of
content can be protected by copyright. Examples include books, poems, plays, songs, films,
and artwork. In modern times, copyright protection has been extended to websites and other
online content. Therefore, any original content published on the Web is protected by copyright
law. This is important in the digital age we live in, since large amounts of content can be easily
copied and pasted.

So how do you obtain copyright protection?

Fortunately, in most countries, copyright protection is automatic. This means whenever

you publish original content, it is automatically protected by copyright law. For example, if you
post a blog on the Internet, your content is automatically covered by copyright. In most cases,
this type of copyright protection is all that is necessary. However, if you want others to know
your content is copyright protected, you can post the copyright logo (©) next to your name on
any Web pages that include your original content. You may also want to include the years you
have owned the content.
In situations where it is critical to protect an author's rights, many countries provide
copyright registration, which allows authors to register copyrighted content with a central
agency. This makes it easier to prove ownership of content if it is ever disputed. Copyright
provides a helpful means of protecting original content. It serves to give people credit for the
work they do, which is something we can all appreciate. Therefore, if you ever consider
copying someone else's content, think of how it would make you feel if someone copied your
original work and published it as their own. If you ever would like to use another person's
content, make sure to ask the author for permission first. And always give credit where credit
is due
Fanfiction

Fanfiction is a fiction that has been written by people who are fans of a particular
television series, movie or book, the text can be printed or written on paper, but modern
examples are often published on the internet. Fan fiction ranges from couple of sentences to
an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creators’ characters and settings or add their own,
the material might violate copyright laws but copyright claims rarely pursued by original
authors or creators unless the fanfic writer is attempting to profit from the material. Generally,
an author’s work will become “public domain” (copyright expires) 50 to 70 years after the
author’s death, at this time fanfiction can legally be published for profit.

Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or ff) is fictional writing
written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted
characters, settings, or other intellectual properties from the original creator(s) as a basis for
their writing. It is a form of fan labor. Fan fiction can be based on any fictional (and sometimes
non-fictional) subject. Common bases for fan fiction include novels, movies, bands, and video
games. Fan fiction is rarely commissioned or authorized by the original work's creator or
publisher and is rarely professionally published. It may infringe on the original author's
copyright, depending on the jurisdiction and on legal questions such as whether or not it
qualifies as "fair use.” Attitudes of authors and copyright owners of original works to fan fiction
have ranged from indifference to encouragement to rejection. Copyright owners have
occasionally responded with legal action.

The term came into use in the 20th century as copyright laws began to delineate
between stories using established characters that were authorized by the copyright holder and
those that were not. Fan fiction is defined by being related to its subject's canonical fictional
universe, either staying within those boundaries but not being canon itself, or else branching
outside of it into an alternative universe. Thus, what is "fanon" is separate from what is canon.
Fan fiction is often written and published within circles of fans, and therefore would usually not
cater to readers who have no knowledge of the original fiction.

Fan fiction has become more popular and widespread since the advent of the World
Wide Web. According to one estimate, fan fiction comprises one-third of all content about
books on the web. In addition to traditional fanzines and conventions, Usenet group electronic
mailing lists were established for fan fiction as well as fan discussion. Online, searchable fan
fiction archives were also established and online archives were initially non-commercial hand-
tended and fandom, or topic, specifically. These archives were followed by non-commercial
automated databases. In 1998, the not-for-profit site FanFiction.Net came online, which
allowed anyone to upload content in any fandom. The ability to self-publish fan fiction at an
easily accessible common archive that did not require insider knowledge to join, and the ability
to review the stories directly on the site, became popular quite quickly.

Popular example of modern fan fiction:

 E. L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey. This
series was originally written as fan
fiction for the Twilight series of books
and movies and played off the
characters of Bella and Edward. In order
to not infringe on copyright issues,
James changed the character names to
Ana and Christian for the purposes of
her novels which is a practice known as
“pulling-to-publish”.
 Anna Todd's 2013 fan fiction “After”
about the English boy band One
Direction secured a book and movie
deal with renamed characters in 2014.
The movie “After” was released on 12 April 2019.
***On May 22, 2013, the online retailer Amazon.com established a new publishing service,
Kindle Worlds. This service enabled fan fiction stories of certain licensed media properties to
be sold in the Kindle Store with terms including 35% of net sales for works of 10,000 words or
more and 20% for short fiction ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 words. However, this
arrangement includes restriction s on content, copyright violations, poor document formatting,
and use of misleading titles. Amazon shut down Kindle Worlds in August of 2018.

Genres of Fan fiction

In addition to the "regular" list of genres, which for fan fiction are usually determined by
the work they're based on, there are a few genres that are closely associated with fan fiction.
Often, they also overlap. The genres includes:

Angst
A story with an angst-ridden mood centered on a character/characters who are brooding, sad,
or in anguish.

Alternate universe [AU]

Alternative universe (fan fiction)
"What if..." fanfiction featuring characters set in a universe other than their canonical one. This
can be an alternate setting such as a High School AU where the characters are in High School
as opposed to their canon setting, or this can be an alternate universe of canon to reflect the
author's thoughts on events in canon. For example, Everyone Lives AU might reflect an
alternate universe where no characters have died and thus differs from the canonical universe.

Crossover
Works featuring characters, items, and/or set pieces from multiple fandoms.

Darkfic
Stories that are considerably more grim or depressing than the original, often in deliberate
contrast to the canonical work(s). Not all stories tagged as "dark" count as darkfic. This is
sometimes done with fandoms that are meant to be light-hearted or for children. Darkfic can
also refer to content that is "intentionally disturbing" (i.e. physical/emotional violence or abuse).

Fix-fic
A counterpart to darkfic, or perhaps its supergenre, fix-fic or more commonly known as "fix-it",
refers to stories which rewrite canonical events that the fic author disliked, often because they
were depressing or incomprehensible.

Fluff / WAFF
"Feel good" fanfiction designed to be happy, and nothing else. The plot is usually less relevant
in these types of works, as the main focus is to be cheerful. WAFF is short for "Warm and
Fuzzy Feelings," and the two terms are quite similar in usage.

Fusion / Crossover
Works blending two settings, and sometimes their casts, into a cohesive whole.

Hurt / Comfort
A story in which a character is put through a traumatizing experience in order to be comforted.
The ultimate goal of these stories is often to allow for close examination of two characters'
bond with one another and is sometimes seen as an alternative to more sexual content.

Peggy Sue
A story in which one of the characters is sent back in time, getting a second chance with
knowledge of the original plot. Named after the movie Peggy Sue Got Married, in which this
happens to the titular character. Groundhog Day is an example of this happening repeatedly.
This refers to both the story and the character in this situation.

Rationalist rewrite
Rebuild fiction that heavily features critical thinking skills and deductive reasoning. Popularized
by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Rebuild fiction
A sub-type of fix-fic, wherein aspects of the setting or characters are rewritten to be more
cohesive. Named for the Rebuild of Evangelion series, which originally qualified, and also
popularized by Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

Self-insert
A genre of fan fiction in which a version of the author is transported to, or discovers they are
inside, the world that the fan fiction is based on. Almost always written in the first person. Fan
fictions of this type are often also fix-fics.

Multicross self-insert
Instead of a single fictional universe, the inserted author is taken to many in a row, and must
usually solve some problems or complete some challenges in each place before moving on.
Gaining new powers and occasionally companions from each world is common.

Recursive / Meta / Fan Verse

Fanfiction that obtained enough popularity as to have inspired readers to write fanfiction based
on those stories, despite the fact that the original story is fanfiction in and of itself. Recursive
fanfiction are well-loved themselves that other writers treat them as a framework from which
they base their own stories on. The original author may or may not acknowledge these as
being part of their continuity, have a positive reaction, encourage derivative works, and even
adopt some or all of it into the canon of their own shared "fan verse" continuity.

Shipping
A variant of romance focused on exploring a relationship between two or more characters from
the original fandom(s). It has several sub-genres, including Slash (which focuses on
homosexual pairings, usually of the male variety), Femslash/Femmeslash/Yuri (same as
Slash, but exclusively female/female), Crossover Shipping, which focuses on a romance
between characters from multiple fandoms, and "friendshipping", which focuses on platonic
relationships. In another context, the term "shipping" within the community may mean that a
fan is heavily invested in a relationship between two characters. Writers of fanfiction often use
the genre to explore homosexual pairings for popular characters who are heterosexual in the
canon work.

Curtainfic
A subcategory of shipping; describes romantic couples in mundane/ordinary domestic
situations such as picking out curtains.

Smut / Porn / Erotic

Smut/Porn/Erotic is sexually explicit material or pornographic writing; this could refer to a small
portion of a story, or in its entirety. Historically, the terms "lemon" (i.e. Porn) and "lime" (i.e.
Erotica) were euphemisms used to allude to explicit material. They were in common use in the
2000s, but have since outdated terms that waned in usage. However, as of December 2018,
the terms have seen a revival due to Tumblr's censorship on adult content. The use of the
terms lemon and lime allow writers to circumnavigate the "explicit terminologies" Tumblr
banned, while still tagging their work as explicit.

Songfic
Songfic, also known as a song fic or a song-fic, is a genre of fan fiction that features a fictional
work interspersed with the lyrics of a relevant song. The term is a portmanteau of "song" and
"fiction"; as such, one might also see the genre referred to as "songfiction". As many lyrics are
under copyright, whether songfics are a violation of that copyright law is a subject of debate.
Some fan fiction websites, such as FanFiction.Net, have barred authors from posting songfics
with lyrics outside the public domain. In an essay in Music, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, University of Sydney professor Catherine Driscoll commented that the genre
was "one of the least distinguished modes of fan production" and that "within fan fiction
excessive attachment to or foregrounding of popular music is itself dismissed as immature and
derivative".

Vent
Vent refers to literature written by an author under duress or for therapeutic purposes,
normally to calm themselves following a stressful or upsetting situation
Author's note [A/N]
An abbreviation of "author's note". Author's notes can be written at any point during a fan
fiction (in some cases interrupting the flow of the piece by appearing within the body of a fan
fiction), but are typically found directly before the beginning of a fan fiction or after it has
concluded, and also at the starts or ends of chapters if the story is updated periodically. A/Ns
are used to convey direct messages from the author to the reader regarding the piece.

Canon
Canon is the original story. This means anything related to the original source including the
plot, settings, and character developments.

Drabble
A form of flash fiction writing also popular outside of fan fiction, drabble is typically a piece of
writing that is only 100 words.

Headcanon [HC]
Headcanon is a fan's personal, idiosyncratic interpretation of canon, such as the backstory of a
character, or the nature of relationships between characters. It may represent a teasing out of
subtext present in the canon, but it cannot directly contradict canon. If many other fans share
this interpretation, it may become fanon.

One Shot
A short piece of writing, as opposed to a multi-chapter work, that can be of any length. May
also have sequel works related to it, while still being a one shot.

Real person fiction [RPF]

An abbreviation of "real person fiction" or "real person fan-fiction". Describes fan-fiction-like
works written about real people, usually celebrities, instead of fictional characters.

Self-insert [SI]
An abbreviation of self-insert, usually referring to either a story in the eponymous genre or to
the author's avatar within one.

Trigger warning [TW]

An abbreviation of "trigger warning". Trigger warnings are meant to warn people of content in
fan fictions that could be harmful or "triggering" to those who have dealt with situations such as
abuse. Fan fiction is tagged using various TWs so that readers may prepare for or avoid
certain content. Sometimes CW, an abbreviation of "content warning", is used instead of or in
addition to a TW. Trigger warnings are usually inserted when the subject matter of a piece of
work deals with things issues like drug abuse, mental illness, abuse, or extreme violence.

Whump
The term whumping (or whump) refers to a form of H/C that is heavy on the hurt and often
focuses on gen stories; indicate a character who was in jeopardy, tortured, or hurt (either
psychologically or physically), and then other characters comforted. Originates from Stargate
SG-1 fanfiction and similar to Muldertorture in X-Files fandom
Lesson 4: Hollywood versus Philippine Indie Films
Indie or independent films is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the
major film studio, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment
companies. Independent films are sometimes disguisable by their content and style and the
way in which the film makers’ personal artistic vision is realized, usually indie films are made
with considerable lower budgets than major studio films. Indie films are often screened at
local, national, or international film festivals before distribution (theatrical or retail release). An
indie film production can rival a mainstream film production if it has the necessary fund and
distribution.

Indie films Mainstream/Hollywood films

Independent film or 'Indie film' are films that are Mainstream film is described as films that are
produced outside a major film studio and are widely released in cinemas, often created in the
distinguished by both the style and the artistic machine that is Hollywood
manner in which the director chooses to show
them.

Independent films have a considerably lower Typical Mainstream films are released in cinemas
budget than mainstream films and are marketed for a short period of time and are marketed to
completely different due to their function of attract mass audiences and create revenue. The
showing artistic value and not making money. primary function of a mainstream film is to make
money and create synergy and franchise.

Indie cinema would need to use what they have, Mainstream cinema often build sets, and travel all
and often, film in the same location, with one or over the world to get exactly what they need for
two shots that are not in the same place. This is production
because it is the cheapest option, but also, still
very effective in portraying the story.

In indie cinema, actors are often unknown, and In mainstream, actors are often used to attract
are not in any way used to create revenue, but audiences and fans of the actor to the movie, and
instead used because they are the cheapest are one of the main attractions of the film.
option, or required