The Case Study of Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Scholarly Commons ...

Literature Review
I began my research by examining the commercialisation of storytelling‟s three
traditional social functions and expanding upon cultural studies theory of the media‟s
manipulation of the audience. This avenue of research led to examine how my research
would be positioned within the objectivist/relativist debate, and whether my
methodological position was that of positivism or naturalism. As a result, I was
prompted to research the cultural studies definition of the audience and my intentions as
a researcher towards it. This audience-theory approach evolved into an examination of
popular and academic definitions of fans and fandom, which took my research towards
an analysis of Abercrombie and Longhurst‟s continuum (1998) and Bourdieu‟s
economic class system (as cited in Hills, 2002). These two theories form the foundation
for my research. Each embodies the idea that fandom is a state relative to a viewer‟s
progression on a continuum. Similarly, the idea of fandom being defined by degrees is
supported by McLuhan‟s media-related proposition that the “medium is the message”
(as cited in Mulder, 2004, p. 16); an examination into the audience‟s commercial value
and programmed response.
Cultural studies
The storytelling process
Storytelling is a cultural tool through which social functions are shared and taught.
Gerbner (1999) describes three specific kinds of story, which I named stories of
illumination, information and instigation. Illumination refers to Gerbner‟s (1999)
stories of the first kind . . . [their function is to] illuminate the . . . invisible
relationships and hidden dynamics of life. Fairytales, novels . . . and other forms
of creative imagination and imagery [act as] the basic building blocks of human
understanding. (p. ix)
The second social function of a story is information. A story should “give emphasis and
credibility to selected parts of each society‟s fantasies of reality” (Gerbner, 1999, p. x).
Today however, technology encourages almost anything, and so does commerce.
Consequently, the story‟s third social function is instigation. Often used as a
commercial tool, “these are stories of value and choice. They present things, behaviours
or styles of life as desirable (or undesirable) . . . Stories of the third kind clinch the first
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