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284 Patricia G. Lange and Mizuko ItoReciprocity agreements and friendships can greatly assist one’s visibility.One interviewee in Mizuko Ito’s anime study (Anime Fans), SnafuDave (seebox 7.1), is a successful web comics creator who hosts a site for his owncomics and the comics of several other artists. He described that as he wasgetting started, the friendships he made with other established artists wereinstrumental in his gaining audience. Some of these artists ended up usinghis site to publish their work, which “was a really big pull.” Others wouldmention his site in their own postings, which would also drive audienceto his site. He also places advertisements for his site on other establishedweb comics sites. In this case, he generally pays for the advertising, eventhough there is often a spirit of reciprocity within the web comics world.“I try to pay for all of my advertising, just because I know, say, if they dogive me that spot, then they’re losing money by not selling it to someoneelse.” In addition to these forms of ad placements, he visits conventionsaround the country to promote his work and sell related merchandise.Youth such as SnafuDave who are able to reach wide audiences canparlay their creative work into future careers. Even in the case of youthwho stay within recreational and amateur domains of creative production,the ability to connect with audiences is a key part of what drives theirparticipation and learning in creative production. The ability of digitalnetworked media to create new publics and audiences for amateur work isone of the most transformative dimensions of contemporary new media.The ability to define new collectivities and niche publics for culture andknowledge has been the subject of much writing on contemporary digitalculture (Anderson 2006; Benkler 2006; Jenkins 2006; Shirky 2008; Varnelis2008). Examining media production provides a window onto how thesedynamics are operating in the everyday lives of youth.Aspirational TrajectoriesIn most cases, young people who create digital media are not aspiring tobe professionals or to get famous through their creative work. They engagein digital media production as a social activity, a fun extracurricular hobby,or maybe even a serious lifelong one. Most of the dominant forms of fanproduction—fan fiction, video remix, amateur comics—are not commerciallyviable. Even older fans who do professional-quality work and whohave a substantial following in the fandom generally have no professionalor commercial aspirations in the area and have day jobs that are not related