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By Any Media Necessary: Mapping Youth and Participatory Politics

Harry Potter Alliance

About

Inspired by "Dumbledore's Army" in the Harry Potter narratives, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) has been organizing fans around political and philanthropic issues since 2005. Based on the House Cups in the books, the Alliance is organized according to the "Chapter Cup" model. Tapping fan infrastructures, including podcasts, blogs, Wizard Rock concerts, mp3 networks, and YouTube celebrities, HPA runs its own campaigns tapping its 70 local chapters and supports efforts organized by partner NGOs.

Harry Potter Alliance Media

The Harry Potter Alliance, A History
Why I can't go to LeakyCon? Personalizing the experience of an undocumented HPA member.

Decreasing World Suck

Accio Books: LeakyCon Edition

How to Change the World

Books on FIRE

Andrew Slack Tedx Talk

Other Examples of Civic Engagement in HPA:

Andrew Slack's TEDex Talk on the identification with the orphan vs empire:

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Remix
How can appropriating and remixing content from popular culture lead to new kinds of political consciousness? And, how do activists who use remix and appropriate existing media in their campaigns resolve issues around copyright?
We are seeing examples of the merging of the identities of fans and citizens across a range of political movements -- most spectacularly in our work through the Harry Potter Alliance and the Nerdfighters, but also in the use of remix for political expression via the Occupy Wall Street movement (like the Pepper Spray Cop memes), the protests against Gov. Walker in Wisconsin, “Binders of Women” during the 2012 Presidential Campaign, and the use of the Guy Fawkes mask, most closely associated in the United States with V for Vendetta, by a range of activist groups, including Anonymous. Remix promotes a mode of political speech that can be easy to understand, funny and powerful. It contrasts with the policy wonk language that often excludes youth from meaningful participation. Show how remix can change the meanings associated with pre-existing images. Use a series of memes as an example of remix practice. Copyright can be seen as “private censorship” that silences a particular kind of expression. But creative activists need to understand the basic criteria of Fair Use and make informed choices as they quote and circulate pre-existing media. Learn how you can use it to defend appropriating existing media by making sure your remix work intends to be: transformative (How much of the original are you using?), critical (proving critical commentary), and non commercial (you are not making $). Real World Example: The First Day Fast music video is a parody of the popular radio hip hop song “Birthday Sex”. The Fast video is very effective in creatively maintain the melody and rhyme structure of the original song while completing changing the meaning. The playful nature of the video as well adds to the comical juxtaposition of the original song and it’s new lyrics. The song speaks to specific issues and struggles of fasting but delivers a humorous message of encouragement to those going through the process. It shifts the emphasis of pop music away from sex and romance towards addressing the everyday experience of a marginalized population. The amount of stylistic detail in both music and video reappropriate the projected values of the popular medium to the specificities of the Islamic experience. It must be noted that though most of the youtube responses were positive, there were a couple individuals who were offended by what they perceived was a conflation of sex with an Islamic holiday.
“Decreasing World Suck” The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA), a non-profit organization established in 2005, encourages civic and political engagement amongst Harry Potter fans by using metaphors from J. K. Rowling’s best-selling fantasy series. When the HPA was established, Harry Potter fandom was at its peak: two of the books had not yet come out, the movie series was just gaining steam, and the fan community was thriving. Yet even a 7-book, 8-movie series that has become a world phenomenon ends at some point. In terms of release of original content, that end came in July 2011, with the release of the last movie in the Harry Potter series. At that time, many feared that the fandom was also dissolving . At Leakycon 2011, a grassroots fan convention, young fans were talking about “the end of an era”, linking the series’ conclusion to their own ending childhood. As one HPA member puts it, with some degree of overstatement, “so obviously Harry Potter is over, sadly” (Daniela, 23). What happens to a civic organization that grounds itself in the connection to a prominent content world, when that content world increasingly loses its traction? The HPA tried to pre-empt this question by launching the “Imagine Better” Project in July 2011. The idea: applying the approach that has proven successful for the HPA—connecting fans around story worlds they love to create real world change -- to collaborations with other fandoms. The HPA can be seen as a prime example of fan activism—harnessing fan enthusiasm toward real world change. Yet at the same time one may ask, to what extent is the example of the HPA a singular one? The Harry Potter phenomenon, after all, has been a remarkable success, with a generation of children “growing up with Harry”. This fan community was recognized as a particularly active and creative one -- among the first major fandoms to emerge alongside the internet and employed its increasing affordances. Moreover, many of the themes of the books seem particularly resonant with real-world issues, complemented by J.K. Rowling’s own history working for Amnesty International. Much like Invisible Children, the HPA uses media production and circulation to direct attention onto issues their members care about and in the process, to try to reshape the cultural and political agenda. Yet this model is not the only possible approach to fan activism. Consider the example of the Nerdfighters. Nerdfighters are an informal online community that took shape around the YouTube channel of the Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green. The two brothers upload two videos a week, about “nothing in particular”, though always with their unique look and feel, including a fast pace of speech, multiple jump cuts, and elaborate use of inside jokes and jargon. Nerdfighters are not connected around a fictional content world, but rather around their affiliation with the Vlogbrothers and a broader “nerd” identity, yet the group has developed a shared social agenda, broadly characterized as “decreasing world suck”. Beyond the Vlogbrothers’ own videos discussing current affairs (e.g. “Revolution in Egypt: a 4 minute introduction”), the young participants also are creating and posting their own videos in support of diverse charities and non-profits. The Nerdfighters have shown a capacity to mobilize rapidly around short-term, high impact civic goals: for example, the Foundation to Decrease World Suck raised $483, 296 in two days in 2012. According to John Green, the group’s civic goals are: Very very much at the center of Nerdfighteria and I don’t think that there really is a community without that commitment to decreasing world suck or, as Hank likes to say, ‘increasing world awesome’. Building on these three case studies (the HPA, Imagine Better and the Nerdfighters), this chapter explores the intersection of fan communities, content worlds, and participatory politics. The HPA demonstrates how a civic organization can translate fan enthusiasms into civic and political action. The Imagine Better Project raises questions about whether such a model can be “generalized” towards other fan communities. The Nerdfighters, finally, show that civic goals can be achieved by an interest community without one shared content world. Through these case studies, this chapter will explore two theoretical concepts: fan activism and content worlds.

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