This week in class we really focused on the power of the fans. In other words, we learned about the uses and gratification theory. The Uses and Gratification Theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. UGT is an audience centered approach to understanding mass communication. It assumes that audience members are not passive consumers of media, but are actually active with their favorite shows. This theory mainly focuses on the view of the audience, and how the fans actually consume the media. Me personally I am a fan of many types of movies and TV shows. Some of these forms of entertainment include the Marvel franchise, Game of Thrones, and the Star Wars series. I absolutely love the Marvel universe and I think everything they’ve done so far has been incredible, and I’m very excited to see where the franchise is going to go from here. As much of a fan I am of Game of Thrones I was very disappointed at the final season, but hopefully with the power of the fans the creators will actually produce something better than that. Or if they make a very good prequel to the story. The power of fandom really has endless powers. For starters, the power of the fans actually brought a TV show back from the dead. Family Guy was not in production for quite some time, and then suddenly by the power of the fans the show came back on air. This is just one example of what the power of the fans can really do.

Over the duration of this week we watched the Movie Galaxy Quest, which starred one of my favorite childhood actors, Tim Allen. This movie is exact representation of the uses and gratification theory. This movie is based on a spoof of the classic Star Trek. I thought this movie was very good and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I found it funny how everything they have been doing for the past decade actually became they’re reality. Tim Allen played an excellent role in this movie, He really was caught off guard by the entire situation that he got himself into. He just thought it was a normal gig, but in the aliens reality he was saving their world. This movie is the foundation of fandom, since people were such fans of Star Trek they thought of an idea to make another type of Star Trek movie. Overall great movie and great week of class.