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Pop Junctions: Reflections on Entertainment, Pop Culture, Activism, Media Literacy, Fandom and More

Henry Jenkins

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Pop Junctions: Reflections on Entertainment, Pop Culture, Activism, Media Literacy, Fandom and More.

# Pop Junctions

Reflections on Entertainment, Pop Culture, Activism, Media Literacy, Fandom and More

- Pop Junctions/
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November 17, 2025# Frames of Fandom: An Excerpt From 'Fandom as Consumer Collective'
November 17, 2025/ Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins and Robert Kozinets recently released the third book in their Frames of Fandom book series, *Fandom as Consumer Collective and the* fourth book, *Fandom as Subculture*, will be published before the end of 2025.  Altogether, fifteen volumes have been planned in this series and are at various stages. The books are being self-published and print-on-demand on Amazon. This post provides an excerpt from the third book, which examines how consumer collectives overlap with, include, and also transcend subcultures and audiences to form a new type of social grouping, simultaneously engaged with and critical of consumer culture.

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November 17, 2025/ Henry Jenkins/

Frames of Fandom, Excerpt

Consumer Collective, Fandom, Star Trek

November 04, 2025# “I May Be Circling the Drain But I Have a Few Steps in Me!’: Dick Van Dyke, ‘Mary Poppins’ and Playful Aging
November 04, 2025/ Henry Jenkins

This blog post is based on remarks Henry Jenkins presented as a keynote speaker at The Older, The Better! Aging Celebrity in Contemporary Media and Sport Contexts, PRIN 2022 PNRR “Celebr-Age” Final Conference at Universita di Bologna in September.  He discusses legendary performer Dick Van Dyke's joyful aging vibrant characters in conjunction with Jenkins' own work as Van Dyke's 100th birthday approaches this December.

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November 04, 2025/ Henry Jenkins/

Critical Essays

Celebrity, aging, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins, permissiveness

October 23, 2025# IPDW2025—(Re)designing Production: An Interview with Alex McDowell
October 23, 2025/ Alex McDowell / Tara Lomax

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this contribution, Tara Lomax asks Production Designer Alex McDowell about world-building, reimagining the production process, and his work across industry and education.

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October 23, 2025/ Alex McDowell / Tara Lomax/

IPDW 2025

Production Design, Narrative Design, World Building, Non-Linear Production

October 23, 2025# IPDW2025—Minding Dreams
October 23, 2025/ Rick Carter

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this contribution, Academy Award-winning Production Designer Rick Carter shares a meditation on the nature of creativity as a practice of ‘dream minding’.

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October 23, 2025/ Rick Carter/

IPDW 2025

Production Design, Dreams, Dream Minding, Beatles, Creativity

October 22, 2025# IPDW2025—Storytelling Through Spaces: The Blood, Sweat, and Tears of Production Design
October 22, 2025/ Shailaja Sharma

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this contribution, Mumbai-based Production Designer Shailaja Sharma reflects on the work of production design as a dynamic between creativity, labor, and logistics through two different projects: *Gold* (Excel Entertainment, 2018) and *Dahaad* (Amazon Prime Video, 2023).

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October 22, 2025/ Shailaja Sharma/

IPDW 2025

Production Design, Gold, Dahaad, Art department, Creative labor, Spatial storytelling

October 21, 2025# IPDW2025—Natural Realism in Production Design Through the Lens of ‘Watching You’ (2025–)
October 21, 2025/ Virginia Mesiti

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this contribution, Australian-based Production Designer Virginia Mesiti unpacks the craft of “natural realism”: a design approach that disappears into character, psychology, and place. The goal is not to create spectacle but to persuade; to build spaces so truthful that viewers forget they were ever designed.

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October 21, 2025/ Virginia Mesiti/

IPDW 2025

production design, natural realism, Watching You, architecture

October 20, 2025# IPDW2025—Making the Invisible Visible: New Book Celebrates and Reframes Production Design
October 20, 2025/ Jane Barnwell

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this contribution, UK-based Production Designer Jane Barnwell introduces the forthcoming open-access collection, *Perspectives on Production Design: Practice, Education and Analysis* (University of Westminster Press, 2026), co-edited with Jo Briscoe and Juliet John. The book brings together voices from across industry and academia to illuminate the creativity, challenges and cultural impact of production design. This contribution signposts some of the book’s central concerns: how production design is practiced, taught, critically analysed, and why it matters to the wider ecology of film and media studies.

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October 20, 2025/ Jane Barnwell/

IPDW 2025

production design, space, story, film, television, aesthetics

October 19, 2025# IPDW2025 — We All Eat Feta: Reflections on the First Production Design Gathering
October 19, 2025/ Natalie Beak

To celebrate International Production Design Week (IPDW) between October 17th-26th, Pop Junctions presents a range of contributions related to the craft of production design, with particular focus on the art of world-building and the creativity and culture of production design practice. IPDW is an initiative led by the Production Designers Collective and involves a calendar of events that showcase production design around the world.

In this first contribution, Australian Production Designer Natalie Beak reflects on the cultural and structural significance of the first Production Designers Gathering that took place in 2022 on the Greek island of Spetses. "The Gathering" highlighted production design as a site of authorship and world-building, while also exposing some of the systemic challenges of visibility, labour, sustainability, and technological change.

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October 19, 2025/ Natalie Beak/

IPDW 2025

Spetses, Production Designers Collective, Production Designers Gathering, Cultural Events, Community

October 08, 2025# Geek Week: A Pop Culture, Gaming, Young Adult and Children's Literature, and Fanfiction Event at UFRJ with A Significant Academic Impact in Brazil
October 08, 2025/ Renata Frade

This piece provides a summary of the academic event Geek Week in Brazil, which was a collaboration between the research groups NEPF² (​Fans and Fanfic Studies and Research Group), NuPNE (Electronic Narrative Research Center), and NUPLIJ (Center for Research in Children's and Youth Literature). The primary objective of Geek Week was to establish a safe and engaging space for intellectual discussions on topics related to pop culture, gaming, young adult and children's literature, and fanfiction. The event encouraged not only the academic research groups to share their perspectives but also provided an open forum for attendees to actively engage in discourse about widely consumed cultural phenomena.

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October 08, 2025/ Renata Frade/

Events

NEPF, Geek Week, popular culture, Brazil, fan fiction

September 29, 2025# Hiring a "Virtual Boyfriend": Chinese Cosplayer Construct Authenticity and Romantic Fantasies in Cosplay Commission
September 29, 2025/ Lenore Wang

At an event centered on Chinese otome games (dating games aimed at a female audience), I cosplayed as a male game character and was asked several times if I would accept cosplay commissions — getting paid to cosplay as someone’s favourite character and going on a date with them. Cosplay commission is an emerging practice within Chinese fandom, where clients hire cosplayers to perform as characters in animation, manga, and games, simulating romantic or friendly relationships and dating them in real life. It usually happens in shopping malls, on the streets, in art galleries or in restaurants. This post explores the surprising mix of parasocial relationships and authenticity of cosplay commissions, drawing on both participant observation and semi-structured interviews with multiple female cosplayers.

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September 29, 2025/ Lenore Wang/

Essays

cosplay, China, otome games, relationships, parasocial relationships, authenticity

September 22, 2025# Captain Nemo: A Swap Story, or Why We Can’t Barter Our Way to a Better World
September 22, 2025/ Ellen Kirkpatrick

Ellen Kirkpatrick dives into the character of Captain Nemo, particularly Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s gender-swapped version. She argues that story is the beating heart of social action, helping us to envision a just and equitable world. Yet it’s not enough to simply observe how mainstream stories shape or constrain our imagination of what is possible; we need to dig deeper into how they work. Method doesn’t always marry up with message. As Kristen Warner’s idea of “plastic representation” points out, mainstream media often privileges surface over meaningful substance. Such is often the case with "genderswap" stories like Janni Dakkar's journey into becoming the new Captain Nemo.

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September 22, 2025/ Ellen Kirkpatrick/

Essays

Alan Moore, Captain Nemo, genderswap, gender, storytelling, remake, fan works, comics/graphic novels

September 12, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — What We Do in the Shadows: Nothing Ever Changes, But Yet it Does
September 12, 2025/ Erin Harrington

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This article considers the FX mockumentary sitcom *What We Do in the Shadows* (2019-2025) at the end of its six-season run. It argues that the show made novel contributions to the development of the sitcom and mockumentary forms in ways that enrich narrative, character and theme, particularly in light of its comic approach to vampire media and lore.

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September 12, 2025/ Erin Harrington/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

comedy, What We Do in the Shadows, mockumentary, sitcoms, vampires

September 12, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Adolescence: Think Pieces and Cultural Dialogue
September 12, 2025/ Alexander Beare

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece explores the cultural dialogue that has extended from the Netflix limited series, *Adolescence.*

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September 12, 2025/ Alexander Beare/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Adolescence, Think Pieces, Cultural Dialogue, Social Media Ban, Television, Netflix

September 11, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — All Dr. Robby’s Children: The Spectre of Soap Opera on The Pitt
September 11, 2025/ Jacqueline Johnson

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece reframes HBO Max’ series *The Pitt* as part of television soap opera’s long lineage.

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September 11, 2025/ Jacqueline Johnson/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

The Pitt, seriality, soap opera, Television

September 11, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Laughing at Her/Laughing with Her: Dichotomies of the Aging Woman in Hacks
September 11, 2025/ Ashton Leach

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece explores how *Hacks* offers sharp cultural commentary on the double bind women face in comedy: dismissed as too young to be serious, then too old to be relevant.

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September 11, 2025/ Ashton Leach/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Television, Aging, Emmys, Hacks, Comedy

September 10, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — When the Force is Not with Us: Considering Genre in Andor and the ‘Star Wars’ Franchise
September 10, 2025/ Tara Lomax

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This contribution considers how the Disney+ series *Andor* reignites a discourse around genre in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise as it more clearly adopts the science fiction political drama genre and oppresses its fantasy themes.

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September 10, 2025/ Tara Lomax/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Andor, Star Wars, Franchising, science fiction, fantasy

September 09, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Shrinking and Mental Healthcare ‘Comedy’
September 09, 2025/ Robert Boucaut

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece explores themes from a broader research project into Apple TV+ as reflected in *Shrinking*, considering how it constructs its workplace storyworld and how it engages mental healthcare as both a thematic imperative and narrative setting.

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September 09, 2025/ Robert Boucaut/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Shrinking, Ted Lasso, Kind TV, Apple TV+, TV Comedy, Mental Healthcare, Streaming, Televison

September 09, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Severance: A Present Tense Dystopia
September 09, 2025/ Melanie Robson

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This video essay explores the place of Outstanding Drama Series nominee *Severance* (Apple TV+) in the genre of science fiction TV. *Severance* continues the recent trend of dystopian sci fi shows grounded in a near future, using a ‘mystery box’ narrative structure and demanding an intellectual, committed audience enabled by streaming platforms. This video analyses the visual ways the show builds its dystopian world: a world that feels intensely relatable and present, but simultaneously a horrific warning of technological potential.

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September 09, 2025/ Melanie Robson/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Severance, science fiction, dystopia, television

September 09, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — The Studio: Television (About Movies), Now More Than Ever
September 09, 2025/ Madison Barnes-Nelson

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This piece explores the industrial reflexivity and satirical industry critique of the Apple TV+ comedy series *The Studio*, placing it within a surge of media about media. It argues for a “comedy verité” style in the post-network era that contrasts with traditional network sitcoms’ canned humor.

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September 09, 2025/ Madison Barnes-Nelson/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Television, The Studio, Comedy, Hollywood, Emmys, Movie Industry, self-reflexivity

September 08, 2025# EMMYS WATCH 2025 — Shrinking The Bear: A Closer Look at Two Divergent Outstanding Comedy Nominees
September 08, 2025/ Chris Comerford

‘Emmys Watch 2025’ showcases critical responses to the series nominated for Outstanding Drama, Outstanding Comedy, and Outstanding Limited Series at that 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. Contributions to this theme explore critical understandings of some series nominated in these categories. This contribution by Chris Comerford compares the mix of comedy and drama in *The Bear* and *Shrinking.* Though it may have started as one, *The Bear* no longer feels like a comedy, nor even a “dramedy”. Despite its nomination once again for Outstanding Comedy Series at this year’s Emmy Awards, this article argues that *The Bear* has slipped further from its comedic roots in favour of prioritising drama and introspection. By contrast, the article examines fellow nominee *Shrinking*’s second season and its successful intertwining of comedy and drama even as its tone and subject matter get increasingly heavier.

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September 08, 2025/ Chris Comerford/

Emmys Watch, Emmys 2025

Television, dramedy, genre, tone, framing

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