The Nerd Media Archive

Welcome to the Nerd Media Archive

The Nerd Media Archive is an exploration of genre and the emerging genre of “nerd media.”  The nerd media genre is a cross media phenomenon wherein self-identified geek/nerds create media for geeks, about geeks.  By identifying nerd media and cataloging the elements that distinguish media’s genre, this site hopes to achieve a comprehensive overview of what elements are fundamental in nerd media and an observation of how nerd media has changed throughout the decades.

Justification of Genre:

Genre is a term that cannot be defined in a simple manner.  Sure it is acceptable to call genre a classification, a category, or a type, however the true function of genre gets lost in this definition.  John Frow talks about genre as constraints on interpretation, which is fundamental in human cognitive processes.  If genre allows humans to properly read texts, it is important to know the functions of the specific genre.  Knowing how the genre confines thought leads to a better understanding of the cultural placement of the genre. For nerd media, it is important to see how the genre informs issues of consumerism, social status, and obsession.

The geek identity sits at a pivotal moment.  For decades, geek culture was an identity that found little positive representation in popular culture.  With the rise of geek status in the tech boom of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the capitalist structure suddenly found a purpose for geek media.  As John Fiske explains in his work The Jeaning of America

“Popular culture is the culture of the subordinated and disempowered and thus always bears signs of power relations, traces of the forces of domination and subordination that are central to our social system and therefore to our social experience.  Equally, it shows signs of resisting or evading these forces: popular culture contradicts itself.”

Understanding the constraints of the genre will demonstrate where the particular media sits on the spectrum of the disempowered and the powerful. Is the media an act of resistance?  Is it an act of commodification?  Moreover, what elements of nerd media represent the understanding of the emerging genre?  Knowing these factors will help to illuminate the elements valued by the disempowered, elements that can be utilized by those in power.

Although genre changes from media to media, nerd media has always been a cross media phenomena.  Because nerd media has strong ties with fan communities, the texts are entwined in the proclivity of fan communities to create transmedia experiences.  This site does not pose say that nerd media behaves in the same way across all medias, but it does intend to look for the fundamental building blocks that make up genre as a whole.

A Few Notes About language:

It is my prerogative that, for the sake of research, the terms geek and nerd be examined in tandem; their minor differences do little to aid in research and thus, for the sake of this project, the term nerd will be used to refer to media and the term geek will be used to refer to people. The exception to this will be when people self identify, in that case their preferred term will be used.

Thanks so much for reading and if you have any suggestions for the site, please email!