Our group chose the Star Wars FanFiction site, TheForce.net.
This site appeals and engages its audiences through exciting star wars news, and up to date information regarding star wars. They display posters, figurines, games, fan films, and music that are available to the fans. The site is very fan oriented, for example they display a calendar of upcoming events that are available for fans to attend and participate in.
The Force.net is like the Daily Prophet in that they both provide BETA readers for peer review, they allow to public to participate in fiction, and they also provide a style guide. It is unlike the prophet in that the force offered polls/survey and writing challenges that give guidelines to fans to create the story. The force is unlike the prophet in that there is no character roll play.
The site demonstrates participatory literacy because fans consume as well as produce the media. They can participate through contacting the editors, reviewers or ‘artists’ (note that they do not use the word author) with contact information that is readily available on the site. Fans are encouraged to publish their own fan-fiction, as well as take part in forum discussions and are also exposed more to the star wars universe. Fans, through the site, can learn about star wars conventions, toys, music, games, products as well as officially licensed books furthering the series. While this is all designed in such a way as to engage the consumer more with the Star Wars franchise, the Daily Prophet relied more on the consumers already obtained knowledge through reading the books. Another aspect where they differ is role play. TheForce.net does not seem to encourage or even have any role play on their site. While they do advertise conventions where one can roleplay, they do not offer it on the site through fanfiction.
This site engages with legal issues by providing a disclaimer at the bottom that says the site is not endorsed by Lucasfilms or twentieth century fox and is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. It also says that all of the logos, pictures, names, registered trademarks, etc. are registered trademarks of Lucasfilms.
There were several questions raised by our group regarding the site:
1. Who started and maintains the website?
2. Has there been any legal action opposing the website?
3. Who are the main producers or the target audience?
4. How did the originator start this particular website?
