Aiming to write 3,000 words tonight (written 1,329 so far! yay!) Anyway, think I've almost got my introduction bang on. Found my old proposal which I thought I had lost due to misplacing a USB, but managed to get hold of it and weaved it into the new introduction with information I forgot. So here it is. Any constructive criticsm welcome!
“Investigating the ethnography of fan culture in particular reference to the contemporary cult television series ‘LOST’”.
The details of this project that is to be recognised is that ‘LOST’ is a popular sci-fi drama series that has been on air since September 2004 till present, claiming to conclude its final sixth season in 2010, the final episode airing in May. ‘LOST’ has a hugely recognised fan base, amongst many references that has been deeply analysed by the fans in relation to religion, science, philosophy, numeracy, mythology and literacy. In its own rights, it has become a cult show globally in terms of its fan culture. With this fandom culture with the show, it will be interesting to discover how deep the potential obsession with ‘LOST’ runs in the everyday lives of the fans.
Looking at the most popular ‘LOST’ fan forums, I am going to investigate through a series of questionnaires in relation to the fan culture. These forums include Sky Forums, Michael Emerson Fan Board, The Fuselage, Lost Video Island, The Tail Section and DarkUFO. On each of these forums, I will create a topic in which I will post a questionnaire for dedicated ‘LOST’ fans to answer in relation to the fan culture of ‘LOST’.
There is a strong active relationship with the audience and cult TV show ‘LOST’. The majority of this activity is found on the internet, found on many social forums as well as networks ‘facebook’, ‘myspace’, ‘bebo’ and ‘twitter’.
My main aims and objectives in the research include gaining primary data by interviewing direct associates with the TV show ‘LOST’ such as one of the main actors, Michael Emerson as well as creating a questionnaire to submit on ‘LOST’ forums and websites for ‘LOST’ fans to complete, including attending the ‘LOST’ convention and handing out questionnaires to dedicated fans there too. This will provide research data from various sources including primary and secondary, meaning the research is more thorough rather than using information from just one type of source. I will also email the same questionnaire to students through the university email to obtain local results as well as global.
The methods I plan to use have already been mentioned, but to go into further detail about these methods would include one of the biggest factors towards my research is that in the beginning of August, there is a J.J Abrams weekend convention in which ‘LOST’ is included in the convention, and guests include actors from the show, a confirmed guest being Michael Emerson, one of the lead and most important actors on the show in terms of his character in the plot of the series. Having obtained the ‘gold pass’ which allows me extra access at the convention, including meeting the guests of the convention (including Michael Emerson) in which I will have the opportunity to ask him questions, of course, taking into consideration that I will have to get permission to use what is said in answer to my questions can be used in this project, making sure I keep every word of what is said accurate and exact to what my interviewees answer. By interviewing people directly associated with the TV show, I will obtain primary data which will be valuable in contributing towards my research as well as considering would be valuable information.
Relating to the questionnaire to submit on the internet, I will also copy the questionnaire and print to give out to fans who will be attending the ‘LOST’ convention as well as staff of the convention to gain extra input, as obviously, real hard-core fans will be dedicated enough to spend a lot of money to attend the event, so the answers to the questionnaire will be very interesting to study in relevance to ‘LOST’ references and influences.
After searching the library, I found there were no current dissertations already written in relevance to ‘LOST’, however, in the keyword search of two hundred and seventy five results, I found that only six of the results were relevant to the contemporary TV show, the majority of them in which would be useful to reference to in my project. These books include: ‘Reading Lost: Perspective on a hit TV Show’, ‘The Myth of Lost: Solving the Mysteries and Understanding of Lost’, ‘Lost Ate My Life: the inside story of a fandom like no other’. ‘What can be Found in Lost’, ‘Unlocking the Meaning of Lost’ and ‘Getting Lost: Survival, baggage and starting over in J.J Abrams’ ‘Lost’’. Looking at the titles alone, I can tell straight away that ‘Reading Lost: Perspective on a hit TV Show’ and ‘Lost Ate My Life: the inside story of a fandom like no other’ will be the most useful literacy texts to study.
‘Reading Lost: Perspective on a hit TV Show’ contains ‘Today’s technologically savvy ‘forensic fandom’ whose members mobilise i-Pods and cell phones to watch episodes and reveal in the complexities of ‘The Lost Experience’. These and many more issues involving ‘Lost’s’ production, distribution, narrative, and the audiences are addressed by this essential book’. The author of the book, Roberta Pearson, is a ‘professor of Film and Television Studies, and director of the Institute of Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham, as well as having authored and co-edited numerous books and articles including co-edited ‘Cult Television’ (2004), several essays on ‘Star Trek’ and is currently editing ‘Companion to Television Genres’. This information obtained from www.amazon.co.uk has helped to identify that this text would be useful in aiding my research to my project, as well as offering other titles that would be worth researching.
‘Lost Ate My Life: the inside story of fandom like no other’ contains the following information according to again, www.amazin.co.uk: ‘Split into two halves, this digest of the show demonstrates, firstly, how it was the first show to combine the artists and patrons of the programme by sponsoring the largest independent discussion forum in history. Secondly, interwoven with the story of the fandom, is the examination of the plot itself. Begging the question, ‘what is it in the formula of Lost that so captures the imagination?’, this is a tour de force look into a truly tour de force show.’ The book is also reviewed as a ‘Well documented and researched, almost lovingly so’ by ‘Sacramento Book Review’, therefore looking like a positive source of a literature reference. All the books I managed to research that are related ‘LOST’ and to my dissertation question I will use in my investigation. I also researched in the library using the keyword ‘fandom’ to see what search results would come about, and the following couple of titles were available that I do plan on purchasing as well as the above mentioned ones related to ‘LOST’ to help aid my dissertation project. The following texts are; ‘Fandom: identities and communities in a mediated world’, ‘Television Fandom and its effect on ‘spin off culture’’ and ‘Tune in, Log on: soaps, fandom and community’.
I also plan to research fan fiction, fan videos, fan reviews and other related media texts that would contribute towards the project in reviewing ‘LOST’ and how the concept of ‘fandom’ effects the lives of either obsesses or dedicated fans as well as fan merchandising.
In researching available books on fan culture, I have found the following that will aid me in my research; “The Cult TV Book”, “Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World”, “Fan Cultures” and “Television Entertainment”. As well as “LOST Ate My Life” also being suitable for research on ‘LOST’ alone, it will also be beneficial in research on fan culture.
(Aware that I've mentioned some books more then once - hence sketchy completed introduction with need of a lot of tweeking and editing!)
© COPYRIGHT MARCH 2010 BY ZOE KENDELL-TAYLOR
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