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

Model
From my findings, I have discovered the cultivation process of my fandom, and by the
examination of my ethnographic journey, I am able to design both a continuum and a
model of my cultivation as a fan by the media. My proposed model was originally
limited to four distinct degrees of audience-to-fan cultivation: general audience, fan,
enamoured fan and educated fan. The enamoured and educated section was presented as
parallel to each other, implying that both states were equal in their position. Figure 1,
however, Abercrombie and Longhurst‟s audience continuum (1998), encouraged my
simple theory to encompass the varying degrees of cultivation between those proposed
five states of cultivation. Figure 1, while crucial to the development of my theory is, in
itself, over-simplified and impersonal. In designing a continuum to accompany this
study, I wished to combine my own theories and those of other theorists to expand upon
the often-limited representation of fandom. I, therefore, developed a consumer-to-fan
cultivation continuum:
General Audience – Follower – Proto-Fan – Fan – Working Class Fan – Fan-As-
Consumer –Petit Bourgeois – Poacher – Enthusiast – Educated Fan and
Enamoured Fan – Dominated Bourgeois – Elite Fan – Fan-Academic and
Academic-Fan – Executive Fan
Figure 6. Consumer-to-fan cultivation continuum.
Figure 6 expands upon my initial model and encompasses the theories of Abercrombie
and Longhurst (1998), Grossberg (as cited in Jenkins, 1992), Tulloch and Jenkins (as
cited in Hills, 2002), Hills (2002), Bourdieu (as cited in Hills, 2002), De Certeau (as
cited in Jenkins, 1992), McLaughlin (as cited in Hills, 2002), and Gray et al. (2007). By
incorporating the various ideas and definitions of kinds of fans from these scholars, I am
able to produce a continuum that draws upon the research and examination of those
before me, and hopefully contribute to the progression of research dedicated to this area
of fan studies. What I was unable to capture, however, was the limits of cultivation; in
other words, when the cultivation process ends. Abercrombie and Longhurst‟s
continuum (1998) proposes that the position of petty producer is the most advanced
which an audience member can achieve. I, however, have found it difficult to assign a
state of limitation to cultivation, for I am aware that I have yet to experience community
fandom and this avenue would develop, or even alter, the entire model altogether.
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