The Harry Potter Wars Critique

The main argument of this chapter is the representation of the Harry Potter Wars as the struggle between many different viewpoints regarding media literacy and how that should be taught to children who are developing their reading and writing skills. The author argues that children are developing a sense of media literacy by reading the Harry Potter books and then subsequently using the tools of the Internet to enhance their writing ability and ability to express their thoughts. The main support the author had was that of the Daily Prophet, a student newspaper that allows children to create their own stories about the happenings of the fictitious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is a good example of children who have read the Harry Potter books using the tools of the Internet to enhance not only their writing skills but also their comprehension on how to use the media to their advantage. This shows that children are not only learning how to write more creatively while enhancing their skills, but also that they know they can use the tools of the Internet to their advantage. The controversy arises when organizations like Warner Brothers, who bought the rights to the Harry Potter franchise, try to shut down these creative forms of expression by children because they claim it is a copyright infringement. I agree with the author that children are developing a more defined notion of media literacy and that there are many people who are trying to damper that. I think it’s a great thing that children are becoming more media literate while at the same time enhancing their writing skills and showing their creativity. I also think it’s a shame that there are so many close minded people who think fantasy worlds are destroying young children or that they are so money hungry they would sue children over copyright infringement without realizing the benefits of their initiatives.

The Harry Potter Wars are those against the book itself for its fantasy world and those against the use of the Harry Potter characters in writing other than the actual books versus those who write the fantasy stories using the characters. Many religious groups and those against the teaching of wizardry have tried to ban the teaching of Harry Potter in schools because the fantasy world message destroys the idea of Christianity in those that are reading the books. In some cases their efforts have been successful making teachers angry because these books actively engage the young children readers in way other more traditional books can’t. Warner Brothers is trying to stop copyright infringement from those who write fantasy stories using the Harry Potter characters. Those who are writing the fantasy stories or those who write for the fictional Daily Prophet are writing fan fiction. Fan fiction stories are stories that fans of the Harry Potter series create using their own imaginations but use the characters and settings of the original work. The initiative to not only read the books themselves but to write stories expanding on the story one just read is expanding the notion of literacy. Not only are these people becoming literate from reading, but they are becoming literate through writing which is an equally important part of literacy. I don’t think literacy is something that should not be socially controlled. Everyone has the right to express themselves and I think the only reason Warner Brothers has a problem with it is because they want to make money off of a copyright infringement. Those from the religious groups are just closed-minded but what they fail to realize it that they are expressing their ideas freely in the same way that those who are writing about Harry Potter are.

The Daily Prophet is a fictional newspaper about life at Hogwarts that was established by a 15-year-old girl named Heather. All of the writers for the Daily Prophet are young fans of the Harry Potter books that have found the site on the Internet. These writers are able to express their imagination while showing their love for the Harry Potter books. They also are given the opportunity to enhance their writing by peer critiques and are able to socialize with fans from all over the world. In their stories the young writers create their own stories oftentimes using themselves or the issues they are facing in their real lives in the context of Hogwarts. One writer even went so far as to create a sister of Harry Potter who is attending the school also. The expression of their problems in this literary form lets them express their feeling and brings ideas from other readers as to how they can fix them. The Daily Prophet is not the only website that is devoted to fan writing. Many fan writing sites are beginning to develop and they are not all related to the Harry Potter books, although they are a large majority. Fans of many different things are beginning to see that the Internet is the perfect place to write about the stories they love while joining other fans that wish to do the same thing.

Convergence culture is the idea that one uses many different forms of media to get information on one or more specific issues or ideas. In order to be an active part of a convergent culture one must be able to use many different forms of the media to their advantage. An example of this is Heather the creator of the Daily Prophet. She is able to read the Harry Potter books and was able to use the tools of the Internet to create a website devoted to fictitious stories about the imaginary school. Not only was she able to read the books, but she was able to recognize that there are ways that she can further her involvement with the books in a different form of media. One of wishes to join the convergence culture of society today needs to possess those same skills.

The relationship between fan writers and publishers is a strained on. Many publishers dislike the idea of fan writers because they are infringing on a copyright. But this dislike is almost also solely about the monetary gain they would seem to gain if they could control fan writers. In the Harry Potter instance, author J.K. Rowling was in support of the fan writers and encouraged them to continue to writing and using their creative imaginations. Warner Brothers on the other hand sued many websites that used Harry Potter references in their addresses despite many of those sites being run by children. The children fought back and eventually Warner Brothers backed down from many of the suits they had filed.

Many religious groups have tried to ban Harry Potter from libraries and classrooms due to their supernatural elements. However, many people have fought back because this is a book that has actively engaged children in reading. Many traditional books fail to create the kind of enjoyment in reading for young children and teachers and parents do not want to take that away from a generation that in many ways are not interested in reading. The Internet has played a key role in this debate with fan writing websites and blogs. The Internet is a public forum in which there is no regulation of the content. Many fans of the Harry Potter books and those who believe in the idea of free speech in regards to the books are able to post their content on the Internet with no regulation from the religious groups who are trying to prohibit their reading of the books.