Participatory Media and Harry Potter

Rhiannon McLane
Comm. 405
Final Paper
12/15/09
Harry Potter and Participatory Culture

After reading Henry Jenkins’ fifth chapter titled, “Why Heather Can Write,” it became clear to me that I wanted to use her educational website as my media artifact for the basis of this paper. I also chose author Dee Dee Halleck to further describe this artifact, because I feel as though this site is in need of recognition for its goals and accomplishments. The Website called The Daily Prophet can be compared and contrasted to the views of these two authors and their ideas about fans and participatory culture.

Heather Lawver in 2000 was a thirteen year old home-schooled girl in Mississippi. After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time, she believed her life was changed forever. Within the same year, Lawver started up a website called The Daily Prophet, a website which youngsters like herself could write online news articles about the mysterious and magical wizarding world as fictional Harry Potter characters. Her staff consisted of 102 kids from around the globe who sent in their articles for Heather to peer review before they were posted on the site. She corrected simple spelling errors and gave tips about writing styles and formats. I believe Heather Lawver’s site deserves scholarly attention for inventing a fun, safe and imaginative learning environment committed to literacy for adolescence to express themselves and benefit from constructive criticism. Unlike some fan based sites, Lawver does not ask for any kind of membership fee or sell any kind of Harry Potter products, her site is strictly educational. Halleck agrees whole heartedly in supporting small media like Lawver’s academically structured site, stating, “Community media is often treated as historically insignificant, but many groups are actively building an authentic “public sphere” in their communities and deserve serious consideration not only in academic study, but in public service funding and infrastructure as well” (Halleck 386).

A similarity between Jenkins and Halleck is their support for sites like the Daily Prophet. This website though might be mistaken for fan based media, because Lawver is borrowing names and ideas and adapting them to her website, and encouraging kids (mostly for their own protection) to come up with an alias that revolves around the Harry Potter world. One might ask if she deserves credit for her website at all seeing as how she did not come up with the fictional storyline her website follows. How is this site any different from other Harry Potter fan sites? While Halleck does not mention fan based media, she is in favor of small independent organizations much like how Lawver’s site can be conceived. Halleck and Jenkins could agree that sites like The Daily Prophet are good for not only its readers but it’s member as well. Jenkins states in his book, “Here, people of many different ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds (some real, some imagined) formed a community where individual differences were accepted and where learning was celebrated” (Jenkins 180). Halleck too believes groups and organizations are “…created to educate, to communicate, and to empower local citizens” (Halleck 385).

“J.K. Rowling and Scholastic, her publisher, had initially signaled their support for fan writers, stressing that storytelling encouraged kids to expand their imaginations and empowered them to find their voices as writers” (Jenkins 194). Although Jenkins goes on to tell how Warner Bros started shutting down fan websites after buying the film rights in 2001. “Each site was suspended until the studio could access what the site was doing with the Harry Potter franchise” (Jenkins 194). The act of shutting down sites which have not been accessed would be scandalous and an example of why Halleck does not care for corporate media. She would interpret Warner Bros. as “the man” and would agree with the actions Heather took to support her site and the sites of many others. “Heather herself never received a cease- and- desist letter, but she made it her cause to defend her friends who were under legal threats” (Jenkins 195). Jenkins continues to write about the kids who were in legal controversies with Warner Bros., most being the ages between twelve and fifteen. Halleck would probably freak out if she knew that a corporate company was taking legal action against young teens. She would applaud Heather and the actions she took defending sites mirroring her own, from helping to organize a petition from debating with a Warner Bros. spokesman on television, bringing the issue to the public. I believe Jenkins would agree with Halleck about the ridiculous lawsuits against young kids, but I don’t think he would believe this situation to be about bringing down corporate media.

In Jenkins’ book, he talks about “scaffolding.” Scaffolding is when in a participatory culture the entire community tries “… encouraging kids to try out new skills that build on those they have already mastered, providing support for these new steps until the learner feels sufficient confidence to take them on their own” (Jenkins 187). The entire idea of Heather Lawver’s site is to try and encourage youths to become more confident in their writing by editing each and every column, and giving constructive criticism to each writer in order to help strengthen and build skills they already have and ones which might need altering.

Surfing The Daily Prophet was an eye opener. I never thought kids could be as organized as they are on this website. Heather gives writers and fellow Harry Potter bloggers tips about how to protect their sites from corporate media which I thought was very… well professional. I understand that during the so called “Potter Wars” Heather was 16, and fighting to protect her assets and the world she had built. It made me think of a quote by Halleck about small media, “They are belittled as pathetic when measured against the power and ubiquity of mass culture” (Halleck 385). Obviously Warner Bros. did not know Harry Potter fans were well organized!

A difference between Halleck and Jenkins is Halleck believes some small media is “not bent on entertainment or amassing viewer numbers” (Halleck 385). Although to Jenkins, fan culture is all about entertainment. “Fan culture” is fun; people who are fans of something enjoy participating in whatever it is they like to do. Whereas Halleck makes small media (which could be considered fan culture or activism) as a job, something professional and serious which is meant to be policy changing or thought provoking. I think Halleck’s view on small media is very strict, and goal oriented. She tries to prove points and has a distinct message for what she is trying to accomplish.
Although a similarity I like about the two is how they both believe that the community is important in the success of a project. Heather Lawver’s site would never have prospered as much as it did without the following of kids like herself. Their close- knit community gave them strength and a voice. Also a following, even one a small as TDP gives sense a sense of belonging and they all can share and partake in a community even though many of them do not live near each other.

So finally here’s the question… Who cares? Why should I care about some nerdy home- schooled girl from Mississippi? What does she have to prove and why is the creation of her site important? Well first of all we should recognize the accomplishments of a 13 year old creating a web site which helps teach kids how to write thoughtful stories and show them how to improve their writing skills. I am 20 years old and still can barely check my email account! Secondly, writers Halleck and Jenkins’ ideas about participatory culture are proven because of this girl's accomplishments. Using her site to explore theories and ideas by Jenkins and Halleck may help us better understand what is so important about participatory culture and technology. The “Potter Wars,” in which Heather Lawver was highly involved in, illustrates Halleck’s theories about the major influences a small media can have on a mass culture. Lawver’s well organized petition and boycott was made public through her site and many other sites connected to hers, and ended up getting her on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Mathews (Jenkins 195). It caused quite a stir that children’s right to the first amendment was being tampered with. This got the public’s attention, especially the fact that a 15 year old girl was debating and negotiating the rights of internet use with a middle aged representative of Warner Bros.

Heather Lawver’s site supports many of Jenkins’ theories on participatory media. One being how the media industry wants fans and viewers to make them money by participating in their product, whether that is buying the Harry Potter DVDs, clothes, costumes, games, toys etc. but at the same time industry is not sure how involved they want these viewers to be, they don’t want to lose money and when they feel like that is the case they will try and limit the fans’ participation. The “Potter Wars” is a great example of Jenkins’ theory showing that even children who pretend to be a witch or wizard can affect the money making ability of a company. Warner Bros. seeing these fan sites as a threat to their profit started shutting down these sites, even threatening to press charges against kids between thirteen and seventeen. Parents and viewers are shocked that a greedy company is suing children who are just pretending to be fictitious characters. This impact eventually embarrassed the studio, which resulted in them dropping law suits, unblocking fan sites, and issuing the statement that the whole situation was “an act of miscommunication” (Jenkins 196).

Small media is growing and beginning to have a larger impact than corporate media would think. These communities are established by people like you and me. They come together in order to blog about their ideals or learn something new. Websites like TDP are organized with community members who know their rights and are willing to take a stand for what they believe in, they will not be silenced out of fear of “big industry.” Sometimes corporate companies forget how websites connect followers from everywhere and can collect a large following, and are ultimately surprised when one cannot be silenced.

This leads me to the social implications of a media society. First of all there is no way of physically gathering a group in a organized fashion, so people become pretty limited in the idea that people have to support and represent their group where they are. Members and followers of TDP had to support the cause from their home front, wherever that was. The idea that the site is the meeting place for the members to join makes it harder for them to unite in the physical world. The internet also makes it easier for mass industry to silence voices and decrease people’s right to the first amendment. Just like the real world, people can still be attacked for their differences, so technology is still not as perfect and judge free as many believe. Kids on sites like TDP still have to work to fit in, “Some children fit in comfortably within the available roles; others feel excluded and have to work harder to insert themselves into the fantasy” (Jenkins 182-183).

Technology is always changing and though it will never be perfect, it’s always conforming to the many ways people use it. People’s participation in how they communicate change with the development of new technology. The internet is used for so many things that is really doesn’t surprise me that kids are actually getting help with school online. Heather Lawver’s participation and invention of The Daily Prophet illustrates the importance of communication and social networks which connect a community. Though The Daily Prophet is no longer up and running due to the illness of Heather Lawver, her site has shown me the strength of participating in small media and the negatives and how her website fits into our society, and the growing strength of small media.

Works Cited

Halleck, DeeDee. “The Uses of Community Media: A Global Survey.” Hand-held Visions: The Impossible Possibilities of Community Media. New York: Fordham University Press. 384-395.

Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press