Lost vs Arrow:
transmedia strategies to create a
connected audience
MA Thesis Television and Cross-Media Culture Michella Wessels, 10003156
Jonckerhof 4, Nijmegen 0622900630
michellawessels@gmail.com First Reader: Toni Pape
Second Reader: Sudeep Dasgupta 25-6-’15, Universiteit van Amsterdam 22.691 words
Index
1. Introduction_________________________________________________________________3
2. Strategies to create an connected audience________________________________________6 2.1. The connected audience_______________________________________________ 8
2.2. Transmedia strategies_________________________________________________12 2.3. Social media strategies as transmedia strategies____________________________16 3. Lost: the narrative strategies for fan engagement___________________________________22 3.1. Narrative mysteries and gaps___________________________________________24 3.2. Non-chronological narration___________________________________________ 28 3.3. Cliffhangers_________________________________________________________32 3.4. Parallel realities and possible worlds_____________________________________ 33
4. Arrow: the (online) strategies for fan engagement __________________________________37 4.1. The narrative strategies _______________________________________________ 37 4.2. The online strategies _________________________________________________ 41 4.3. Connected through Facebook___________________________________________43 4.3.1. Activating fan creativity__________________________________________ 44 4.3.2. Connecting with the audience_____________________________________ 47 4.3.3. Promoting through Facebook______________________________________48 5. Conclusion__________________________________________________________________ 51 6. References__________________________________________________________________ 53
3 1. Introduction
Henry Jenkins introduced the term transmedia storytelling. He meant it as a 'creation of a storyworld through multiple documents belonging to various media' (Jenkins, 2006). From this moment on transmedia storytelling is a commonly used term within the television field and is understood as extensions of a narrative across different media. But as we live in a world full of convergence between different media, it is not only about stories (anymore). The relation between television and other media is based on so much more than only extending the narrative. The function of transmedia extensions of a certain television program, is to either reach a broader audience or to activate the existing audience. This audience does not necessarily consist of viewers who watch a show because of the narrative. A viewer, for example, can watch a show because his or her favourite actor plays a big role in it. If we take this example, a certain appearance of this actor on other media can form a transmedia strategy to attract viewers to watch the show. The narrative here, roughly speaking, might be just a detail that comes with the show. With my research I would like to give attention to an understanding of this concept of transmedia adjusted to the cross-media era that is taking place nowadays by showing that the understanding of it as transmedia 'storytelling' is too restrictive and that it should be considered a much broader concept.
For this I will use the television series Lost (ABC, 2004-2011) and Arrow (CW, 2011-2015) and two of their connected online platforms as my corpus. Lost is striking with its complex narrative that is deeply connected to the activity of viewers on different media. By looking at this show, in connection to two related online platforms: Lostpedia and the official Facebook page of the show, I can set out how storytelling can be an important aspect of transmedia strategies. However, it is not directly about extending the story on different media, more about the activity amongst viewers that is created through the storytelling strategies within the show itself. In comparison to this, Arrow is a series with an active fan community, but where the storytelling might not be that important for creating this activity. To make the same connections as with Lost, I will look at this show in connection to Arrow & The Flash Wiki and the Facebook page of lead actor Stephen Amell. I will look at how the strategies to create fan activity with Arrow are more focussed on social media. With this, I want to position the broader concept of transmedia strategies within the field of television and the active audience. I am proving my understanding of transmedia strategies by asking the question: how do the transmedia storytelling strategies of Lost compared to the social media strategies of Arrow represent a transformation in strategies to create fan activity with television shows in general? My research can be innovative by showing a transformation or difference in the strategies to create fan activity with television series and in this way setting out a new and broader understanding of
4 transmedia strategies. Why these particular case studies form my corpus, will get more clear in the next paragraph.
To see how the concept of transmedia strategies is broader than described mostly in theories, I will first set out my own understanding of the concept based on other theories. I will do this by looking at the main goal of transmedia strategies: creating an active audience. I will describe the different understandings of active audiences and how different developments have changed these understandings through time. Following this, I will describe how transmedia strategies are used as a term and how I will use the concept in my research. With my understanding of transmedia strategies then, taking the developments of active audiences into account, I will analyze the transmedia world of Lost. I will look at how these series has used transmedia strategies to create a certain viewer activity. This series is relevant here, because it can be seen as one of the first series which turned the narrative into 'a fictional brand'. The storyworld of Lost is extended on so many different media, that it has already been a very popular case study for many researchers. What I will focus on, however, is not particularly how the show uses a form of branding, but what kind of process there is taking place that extends the story to other media and at the same time makes the viewers active on other media. Because Lost can be seen as a 'traditional' case of transmedia storytelling, and because I would like to see how my more contemporary understanding of transmedia strategies might be applied, I will compare these findings to the transmedia strategies around a more recent series: Arrow. This show seems to have a comparable amount of fan activity as
Lost, but is not particularly characterized by the same transmedia extensions as Lost. What is striking
about this show is that the fans of the show have set up similar platforms as the fans of Lost, a wiki page. To see how this show has made their viewers so active in a different way than Lost did, I will look at the particular transmedia strategies this show used. I will first look if there are strategies recognized within the narrative that create this activity, which I will do in comparison to the narrative strategies found in Lost. Then I will look at the narrative structure reflected on the wiki page, again in comparison to Lost, to establish compatibility. What is striking about Arrow is that the use of social media seems to have much to do with the popularity of the show and the activity of the viewers. One of the most popular social media pages connected to the show is the personal Facebook page of lead actor Stephen Amell. Therefore I will look at this page and see how there are strategies recognized that are causing the viewer activity and how these strategies differ from the transmedia strategies used around Lost.
With this corpus, I can show how my understanding of transmedia really works. Next to this, it will show how there can be a big difference in using transmedia strategies to eventually create the same amount of fan activity. I will also look how the developments within the media and the television audience might have something to do with this difference, which I can feed back into the
5 earlier described theories about the active audience and transmedia strategies. I think in most theories about transmedia strategies evolving television, there still is a one-sided view on what transmedia strategies really are. Many theorists point at actual transmedia products that extend the narrative when talking about this concept. With this research I want to show that the concept of transmedia strategies should be understood within a much broader field, it is not only about extending the storyworld, it is much more about extending the 'playing field' of the viewers.
6 2. Strategies to create a connected audience
If we look at the understanding of television in 2015, it is no longer the simple piece of furniture that shows a program on its screen at a certain time and turns to an image of 'snow' when there is no program being aired. The entertainment experience is changing, and with this the television experience in particular. We can speak of a convergence culture where all different forms of media are connected to each other. With this, not only the different media are more connected to each other, the viewer is also more connected to the media. A television viewer is not limited to a remote control anymore, as the only way of controlling their own viewing experience. Through new technologies, there are all kinds of new possibilities for viewers to engage in the creation of their own viewing experience. There is a shift from passive so-called 'couch potatoes', to active 'connected viewers'. As a reaction to this, the creation of television programmes themselves needs to change. To be able to satisfy an active or connected audience, a television programme needs to create an active experience. Therefore new strategies have arrived within the production processes of television; transmedia storytelling, merchandising, social media strategies and more. The connected viewers have created possibilities as well as challenges for television producers. One way or the other, this change created a growing importance of 'transmedia strategies', as I will call all the different strategies that try to create and maintain an active audience.
Before looking at these strategies in detail, I would like to frame an answer to why this audience is becoming more active and more connected. A concept that can form a basis for this answer is 'connected viewing', which summarizes all the changes within the media experience and in particular within the television experience. 'Connected viewing' is a recent phenomenon that can be understood as a revolution in the way screen media is created, circulated and consumed. According to Jennifer Holt and Kevin Sanson this revolution is related to a larger trend within media industries to integrate socially networked communication with more traditional screen media practices. Connected viewing can be described as a system which provides possibilities for digital distribution and with this, new forms of user engagement rise. In this way, the concept of connected viewing is considered to contain certain strategies and techniques to create marketing success which create possibilities for new forms of viewer engagement and vice versa ( Holt and Sanson 1). With new technologies and social networking sites figuring more prominently as important platforms, connected viewing has become an important concept for content providers, distribution networks, policy makers and viewers. The concept can be seen as a specific, modern view on convergence culture, taking the newest developments into account (2). As a result from, media companies are using more and more multiplatform programming strategies, especially when experimenting with interactivity and user engagement to connect with viewers in this renewed media landscape (4).
7 Television as a medium in particular has been challenged with the arrival of connected viewing. Partly because the focus shifted to media, other than the traditional television set (4). But despite this challenge, it created a lot of productive opportunities for broadcasters. As an example of these opportunities; connected viewing has fragmented mass audiences, which has resulted in a new array of strategies to reconnect advertisers with viewers (5). More content has to be produced for the different media platforms that are connected to television, but at the same time there are more possibilities in the creation of content. Content has more chance to succeed, because there are more different kinds of audiences that are profitable to reach. With this, we can also recognize a rise of smaller companies. Smaller audiences as profitable outcomes, create space for more companies to grow (6).
Why is this concept of connected viewing so interesting when looking at strategies to create a different kind of active television audience? It is important to outline that this concept reflects the new technological possibilities around media that make it possible to connect all the different media and users with each other. It is the presence of connected viewing that makes it possible for an audience to really be 'active' in less individual form for the first time in television history. As Holt and Sanson state: "Today, second-screen content, social networking, apps, cloud-based services, and over-the-top (OTT) technologies have all evolved to provide content for a multiscreen ecosystem that is constantly reinventing itself" (8). This multiscreen ecosystem makes it possible to make this 'connection' between the media and the audience. With this connection, there rose a new kind of audience, as Holt and Sanson call them: 'connected viewers' (9). The different strategies that are associated with connected viewing are creating a multitasking on multiple screens, which nowadays defines the act of watching television (9). In this way Holt and Sanson understand the active viewing experience as a multiple screen experience that does not have to be related to a certain space. Viewers are taking part of this experience when using multiple screens at the same time, 'even if audiences remain stationary on the couch (9).' Then the next question arises: why is it necessary for television producers to create this multiscreen 'connected viewing' experience? The most obvious reason is that there are more screens, and thus more spaces, that can be filled in by advertisers (202-203). Next to this reason, we can recognize the benefit for producers of having more access to information about viewers. When viewers participate and have a more active viewer experience on multiple screens, there is more viewing data to be tracked which gives producers a better idea of what the viewer wants. In this way there is more certainty that a television program will succeed. Due to the information the producers use to make a program, the viewer will most likely be more satisfied with the result and the creation of a devoted audience becomes a better possibility for producers (203). A big example for this is the television series created by Netflix: House of Cards (2013-2015). By analysing viewing numbers on Netflix of different content that would be similar to
8 the content of House of Cards, Netflix created a kind of certainty for a television hit. All the elements of the series were already proven to be successful, through the information gathered from ‘connected’ viewers (Carr, 2013).
Developments within technology thus create more possibilities for viewers as well as producers. These developments are creating the possibilities for an active audience and this active audience has certain needs to satisfy their viewing experience, which need to be fulfilled by producers. The result of this, then, is the increasing importance of certain new transmedia strategies. We can describe this process as a virtuous circle between the audience and the producers, which is characterized by an increasing importance of transmedia activities. Transmedia storytelling is one expansion that became more prominent through the arrival of connected viewing and influenced a lot of other viewing strategies that came with it. While transmedia storytelling is an important concept here, connected viewing addresses the much larger industrial landscape in which a text is situated (6). A lot of theorists have talked about the growing importance of transmedia storytelling within different forms of television. Theorists like Carlos A. Scolari, Henry Jenkins and Matt Hills describe the phenomenon of transmedia storytelling as an extension of the narrative that is possible through the convergence of different media and more active viewers. But just as the description of connected viewing indicates, there is a need for a broader understanding of the landscape of television in order to understand the changes that are taking place within it. Because the concept of 'transmedia storytelling' is quite limited in this regard, I will talk about 'transmedia strategies' in this thesis and will understand this concept more as a 'connected viewing strategy' than as just an expansion of storytelling on different media. First, to understand the processes of transmedia strategies it is relevant to outline the other side of the virtuous circle: the active audience. If this kind of viewership had such a big influence on the television field, what exactly can we understand as being an active audience? What are the processes that can be recognized? And how did the concept change through the developments within the media field?
2.1. The connected audience
To understand how there is a connected audience recognized in contemporary media culture, it is relevant to look at what changed since the first notions of an active audience. In this way I can show how this connected audience is in fact something new. The television audience was not seen as active at all from a lot of perspectives in the earlier days of television. A common-sense view of television where viewers are 'mindless absorbers' of moving images is a longstanding trend in mass communication theories. In different research fields, media researchers have seen the viewer as homogenous, vulnerable and easy to manipulate by the 'powerful and all-pervasive media'. If we
9 look at certain media or mass communications, however, they can contradict this view and argue for a different view on audience as active, resourceful and motivated. This argument may apply to both old or new media (Livingstone 175). In a certain way then, the notion of an active or connected audience was already slightly present, but forms a challenge within these earlier views on the television audience. The real emergence of the concept of the active audience is not just about a change in the activity of the audience, but mostly about a change in perspective on this audience. It is about a different look on traditional media, as well as on new media. When analysing more traditional media then, we can say the audience has always been active, if only in the act of interpreting a program. We can recognize a form of activity when looking at the interpretation processes of the viewer. Off course, every viewer interprets television on a different level, but there is always some form of interpretation taking place. As Livingstone explains it in her book Television
and the active audience (2000):
We have, then, at least three arguments for the active engagement of audiences
with the mass media. First, audiences must interpret what they see even to construct the message as meaningful and orderly, however routine this interpretation may be. Second, audiences diverge in their interpretations, generating different understandings from the same text. Third, the experience of viewing stands at the interface between the media (and their interpretations) and the rest of viewers' lives, with all the concerns, experiences and knowledge which this involves. (Livingstone 177)
Looking at it from this perspective, we could say the television audience has always been active on- and off screen. The active audience has always been there, even though not all theorists had recognized it until later. The connected audience as I understand it, however, has not. Even though the social aspect is already seen by Livingstone in the interpretations of viewers, I think the viewing experience has only become a real social activity in the form of connected viewing, due to new technologies.
Within this thesis I am looking more specifically at the new kinds of (inter)activities that have been created, because these are the kinds that are part of the development within transmedia strategies. I am looking at a 'connected' audience that has been formed over the last two decades or so, instead of an 'active' audience in the more traditional sense. But, as I mentioned before, it is relevant to take the more traditional views into account to be able to show change. One category of viewers is particularly useful to show this change, because they seem to play an important role in actively watching television. I am talking about a notable group of active viewers, which we commonly call 'fans'. Commonly understood as viewers who are extremely devoted to certain actors, characters or a complete show. This devotion then, is mostly being recognized through the activity of this viewer around the show on different transmedia platforms. The definition of ´fans´ used to have mostly negative connotations like madness and possession. But at present we know these negative connotations can be seen as mistaken enthusiasm (Jenkins 1992 9-12). Not only because activity is
10 being seen as positive against the passive 'couch potato' viewer in a cultural aspect, but also in a more economical aspect; because television producers get the most profit from these devoted viewers. As I already mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, the more active the viewers are, the more information the television producers get from which they can benefit when producing certain shows or transmedia products/outlets. In this regard, extremely active viewers, as we understand fans, are a positive outcome for television producers. This might explain why the negative connotations of fans are fading away and making place for positive, stimulating perspectives on these kinds of viewers. The image of fans has changed quite drastically and the enthusiasm doesn´t get ´mistaken´ anymore. While the fans used to get stereotyped as ‘obsessive’, ‘sad’ or ‘bizarre’, it seems this negative connotations have made place for more positive ones (Hills 2005, 35). Despite the negative connotations, there has always been some kind of social activity recognized in the pursuits of fans as the desire for socio-cultural belonging was seen as a main reason for the occurrence of television fans (35-45). What is more recognized this day, is that especially for television producers, active fans are a positive reaction to a television show. We can argue that the full meaning of a television program that was intended by the makers, can only be received by the audience when they are actively interpreting the text (Livingstone 176-177). Forms of extreme fandom, are only a small part of the widespread interactivity taking place amongst viewers. These kinds of viewers just give a good example of the change in perspective on active viewers.
Different theorists then, also outline different kinds of fans. In what way the viewers or fans are being active, is relevant when trying to understand the effect it has on the success of a television show. The most active fans, and thus the most relevant or profitable for producers, might be the 'forensic fans'. If we look at shows like my case studies Lost and Arrow, what makes these show particularly interesting within the field of modern television strategies, are the storytelling strategies that position the fans as players instead of viewers. These strategies create 'forensic fans'; fans who collectively work to get answers to the 'game' of the narrative (Mittell 2012, 6). These kind of fans are motivated by puzzles and games created for viewers within the diegesis of a show, asking the viewer to decode narrative information and decompose meanings. These fans are very actively participating in this 'game' of interpretation, where they try to get their own answers to certain questions left open in the text and the producers give them a certain feeling of 'mastery of the story' when actively decoding this hidden narrative information (6-7). We could set forensic fans out against the more traditional understanding of a fan. Even though this understanding already featured some recognition of social activity, the emphasis was more on a desire for social activity than actual social contacts. A forensic fan can be seen as a very social being instead, because the active process of viewing is mostly about making connections and working together with other devoted viewers; collectively seeking answers to certain gaps in the narrative. An example of forensic fans are 'spoiler
11 fans', a concept by Jonathan Gray and Jason Mittell. These fans are explained as fans "who seemingly short-circuit the program's narrative design by seeking out advanced plot points online” (Gray and Mittel 1). By seeking out advanced plots, they are looking for certain meanings to eventually give their own interpretation to them. According to Gray and Mittel the practice of spoiling is deeply connected to the changing infrastructure of transmedia storytelling, serial textuality, and norms of narrative consumption. As I have already mentioned, most forms of viewer activity and engagement are motivated by a certain strategy that is deployed by television producers. The example of Gray and Mittell shows that different activities of viewers are influenced by the developments in transmedia strategies and vice versa. This kind of active reading creates social activity, partly through the creation and exchange of new texts that emerged from the main text. We can see this form of activity as a part of the connected audience: the viewers are connected to the text by making it 'their own', while they connect their interpretations and findings with others and thus they are connected to other fans as well. However, the outcome of the activity is still quite individualistic. Viewers are only connecting with the show and with others to make sense of the story for themselves.
Another form of activity to be recognized within the connected audience, is related to a more traditional concept called ´poaching´, defined by Michel de Certeau in 1984. He describes this as an ongoing struggle between readers and writers for possession of the text and control over its meanings (Jenkins 1992 p. 24). Viewers are 'borrowing' meaning from the text, and in some cases the text created by the viewers becomes even more popular. Here I am talking about certain fan productions or transmedia extensions created or initiated by fans themselves. This act of 'poaching' and 'borrowing' is maybe the most active form of viewer engagement, because the viewers are actually making new content and in this way playing a role in the production of the transmedia universe around a certain show. In this regard, we can see this form of activity as even more 'connected' than forensic fan culture. Even though there are different activities to be recognized that play a part in the concept of a connected audience, most theories about these different categories come together with the same processes that I recognized in the concept of forensic fans; giving meaning to the text and by this creating more texts.
The previous characteristics that describe the concept of an active audience, can still be applied to the television audience today. However, they are highly influenced by the changes taking place since the use of transmedia strategies and later social media strategies by television producers. Television producers use strategies to make the viewer feel like they are participating and keeping the practice of watching television alive, even when the television itself is turned off. Transmedia storytelling, the practice of extending content to different media, is a common strategy to keep the viewer interested in a television program before and after airings. More classical strategies situated within the text
12 itself, like complex narratives, are also still influencing the activity of the viewer, but are often reinforced by transmedia practices. As a result of these strategies, there are certain viewers that are particularly active; the fans. Transmedia strategies have led to all kinds of overlaps in cultural norms, textual design and fan engagement across distinct media (Mittell 2012). It is exactly this what I would like to dig deeper into: how an active audience is created by transmedia practices. With the previous findings on active audiences in mind, I will describe the practices of transmedia strategies in the next section.
2.2. Transmedia strategies
A lot of theorists have focussed on transmedia storytelling when talking about modern strategies to invite viewers to keep watching and actively participate. To place my research against the other theories about this phenomenon, my focus will be on transmedia strategies in general, not necessarily limited to storytelling. I will take all the extensions of television shows into account, which I think will give more insight into the possible effects on the audience. The creation of an active audience is about the whole industrial field of television, not just about extending the story world. In my two case studies I will compare the different forms of transmedia strategies that are used to create a devoted and active viewership and are not necessarily extensions of the story. For example, part of my case study will be the personal Facebook page of an actor, not that of the character in the show. These kinds of transmedia extensions are just as important as direct extensions of the narrative. To look at the connection between the active audience and transmedia strategies, it is important to look at all strategies, not only those that relate to the story world as many theorists did before. In this sense I argue that a lot of previous research into transmedia storytelling is limited, but this will get clearer as I proceed setting out my theory.
As I mentioned, there is already quite a lot written about transmedia, where Lost is one of the most common examples that has been used to give an image to the different processes evolving around transmedia. One of these scholars that took Lost as a starting point is Carlos A. Scolari. He describes the concept of transmedia storytelling by pointing at different examples around Lost. According to him the definition could be: 'works expending their narrative through different media' (46). Even though he calls it 'transmedia storytelling', he argues that it could be seen as a synonym of cross-media. I don't think this is the right comparison, because cross-media is a broader concept, but in this way the content of his definition can be applied to transmedia strategies in general and thus can be relevant for my research perspective. As many other theorists, Scolari names the concept he uses 'transmedia storytelling', but he is really describing a much broader concept. Because Scolari does in
13 fact point at this broadness of transmedia however, I will partly agree with the theory he sets out. One of the most important statements Scolari makes, is that not every transmedia experience is expansive, where he defines some cases that reduce the story as 'nanotexts'. Here we need to think of media like trailers, fan compilation videos and other media extensions that reduce the story or summarise it instead of extending it and giving new information (48). The fact that Scolari defines these nanotexts and other cases that reduce the story, explains that the understanding of transmedia storytelling is more complex than often set out. Another important aspect he points out is that not every form of transmedia storytelling is fiction, where again, he uses 'transmedia storytelling' as a broader concept comparable to cross-media in general (49). Transmedia storytelling is complex on itself, but the research field for transmedia strategies is even more complex because it contains all different kinds of transmedia processes. The transmedia processes that can be recognized, are thus part of the complete changing cross-media field. With this in mind, Scolari analyses the different transmedia extensions of Lost and concludes that all of these experiences ensure that marketing strategies blend into fictional worlds and vice versa (51). This may reflect part of an answer to the question how an active audience is created by certain strategies: it is not about passively putting a television show out there for the viewer to just 'see', it is about actively putting processes in motion by motivating viewers to participate. By motivating viewers to participate more frequently and more profound, marketing strategies can be blended into a fictional world and vice versa. It is important to see transmedia strategies as a combination of fictional and non-fictional, extending the story and reducing it and most importantly as a combination of all different aspects of a television show that are extended on other media, including actors, products and other non-diegetic content.
The definition of transmedia strategies seems clear in some contexts, but my understanding of the concept and the theory of Scolari highlight the difficulty in defining the concept. The line between what we can see as transmedia strategies and what not, is hard to grasp, which was already partly clear when setting out that the concept contains the whole cross-media field (62). With such a broad definition, problems can come up due to contradictions. As pointed out earlier, transmedia extensions do not necessarily have to be expansive. This is an example of what makes the concept hard to grasp, because then the question comes up: how can we consider compressed texts as an expansion strategy? An explanation for this is to see the transmedia textual network as something that is spreading from the core work, which is expanding, while the texts that compose the network can be either expanding or compressed (63). As I mentioned earlier, trailers are an example of compressed expansions or nanotexts. They expand the main text by adding a new text, but the actual use of the main text is compressing; the story is made ‘smaller’. Another critical borderline, according to Scolari, is that between transmedia storytelling and transmedia branding, where he says in the case of Lost 'the fictional world is the brand' (63). Lost is one of the biggest examples of marketing
14 strategies blending into a fictional world and vice versa, which makes it a relevant case study for a lot of transmedia research. Again we can reflect this back to the limitations of the definition of transmedia storytelling of Scolari; if we look at it as transmedia strategies and not only 'transmedia storytelling', it is a combination of storytelling and branding and the concept could be more clearly set out. Scolari gives a good starting point to recognize the different elements of transmedia strategies to create an active television audience. Even though his designation of these strategies as 'transmedia storytelling' might be too limited, the content he refers to is useful for an understanding of transmedia strategies. In this research, I conceive of transmedia storytelling in a different way. As I already described, my definition leans more towards a combination of the complete television transmedia field and I do not want to reserve the term for 'transmedia storytelling' alone. I consider transmedia storytelling as one type among a variety of transmedia strategies to create fan engagement. This perspective, which clearly distinguishes different strategies of transmedia fan activity in general, will allow me to trace the recent changes and effects on the audience which changed into a more active audience, which Scolari's and other theorists' broader and less differentiated concept of transmedia storytelling might not be able to show.
Through these described strategies that are taking place to create an active audience and loyal viewership, we could say that television programmes can act as brands in their own right. A brand which sells products, figuratively in the forms of media content and literally in the form of merchandise. This can be connected to the concept of branding that Catherine Johnson explains with television merchandising in particular.1 With Lost we can take the products around the Oceanic
Airlines as an example here; the airline is a company from the fictional world, but the brand is used
for products in the real world. The 'marketing strategy' here, is to place some points of recognition of the story world into the real world. We can reflect this back to the statement that transmedia is about marketing strategies blending into the fictional world and vice versa, which I borrowed from the theory of Scolari. Transmedia processes like merchandising are happening in the real world, but have some connection to either the diegetic world of the television show or the 'real' fan world evolving the show. Luring viewers from a point in the real world into the narrative or the 'reality' around a certain show, seems to activate viewers and with this, create the so-called forensic fans. Why are the viewers getting so much involved with a show when lured from the real world? An
1
Johnson divides merchandising as a part of transmedia strategies into three forms; diegetic, pseudo-diegetic and extra-diegetic, where the first two can invite viewers into the fictional world. Extra-diegetic merchandise contains products that are concerned with the series as a television programme; think of DVD's, posters and books about the series. Diegetic merchandise can be understood as products that belong to the fictional world of a television show, while pseudo-diegetic merchandise refers to products that are directly related to the fictional world, but do not actually appear in the diegesis (Johnson 15).
15 answer could be that the viewer might look for points of recognition amidst the every day street life to enter another, imagined world (Reijnders 48). This relationship with reality might get more clear when talking about social media strategies in my analysis. I will not analyze the practices of merchandise or fan conventions further, because they are not directly connected to the activity of the viewer, they are more about making profit around a television show. With narrative and social media strategies I can look deeper into the processes of creating viewer activity, instead of directly making profit.
Now that we have a clear overview of the definition, goals and processes of transmedia strategies to create an active audience, let's look at some examples. Lost can be seen as one of the first to embrace and develop a 'brand' through transmedia strategies. Because broadcast ratings of the show were declining, the producers tried to reach an audience online next to the regular television audience. This happened through all kinds of different media platforms that were set up to create fan activity next to the show itself (Ramos and Lozano 423-424). Maybe the most important aspect that is reflected through all these different media platforms, is the striking narrative of the series. Lost has a kind of 'mastermind narration', which I will describe in more detail when analyzing this series, but it is mostly about the presence of one central guiding narrative which the viewer is invited to 'master' (Mittell 2012). When analyzing Lost with this concept of mastermind narration, M.J. Clarke notes that through signs within the diegesis, like playfully choosing certain titles, the producers indirectly communicate with the viewers (129). By communicating with the viewers, it becomes possible to blend the fictional world into the real world. In other series this is even taken further when unmasking the creators in the context of the diegesis, as was done in The Prisoner (139). As I set out before, this is what can be said to be a transmedia strategy that creates an active audience. Next to the example of Lost and The Prisoner, Clarke mentions aspects of these kind of strategies in Heroes, Doctor Who and more series.
After movies and television, it seems logical to talk about new media. New media has been quite dominant in the development of transmedia strategies, the internet has almost become a necessary medium to use when watching television. Social media then, might be the most interesting media that have been used as a transmedia strategy, because it is the social aspect that seems to create the most active fans (think back to the description of the forensic fans). Because my two case studies both have an interesting development in connection to social media, I will set out the different social media strategies as category of transmedia strategies in the next subchapter.
16 As I have set out the different perspectives and definitions of transmedia strategies, it is important to look at how the concept takes its form in the recent media field. As different research indicates, new media, or Web 2.0., is what is dominating the media field nowadays. It seems logical then, that this Web 2.0. also forms a big part in transmedia processes evolving around television. Web 2.0. is mostly about participation by media users, which could be seen as the contemporary version of an 'active audience'. David Beer gives a concise definition of this phenomenon: "In general terms, Web 2.0 is a concept that forms part of the lexicon of a range of emerging accounts that commentate on a large-scale shift toward a ‘participatory’ and ‘collaborative’ version of the web, where users are able to get involved and create content" (Beer 986). Mostly when talking about participatory web cultures, theorists are also taking about structures of power. Because of the growing importance of content created by users, next to the content created by producers, the power of the big media conglomerates seems to be challenged. The user seems to get more power over the content that is created, as David Beer states: "(...) rather than the hegemon operating outside and above, instead the social and cultural structures of the day, exemplified by Web 2.0 applications, organize themselves through the self-organizing and predictive powers of the software with which we live" (993). Beer bases his argument on other theorists, including Lash and Hayles, when saying that this power working from inside the system of participatory web cultures is less visible than power working from above or outside the system (993). It might seem like the user is getting more and more power in creating media texts, but what is mostly happening is that the power of the big media conglomerates is becoming less visible. Users get more opportunities to create media content and participate in the creation processes of media producers, but these opportunities are still created by the media producers. Also, the more users participate in the media, the more information they give to the 'owners' of these media. If we look at YouTube and Facebook for example, these platforms seem to give web users the opportunity to form their own networks and structure their own entertainment use. But especially these media platforms have the biggest opportunities in creating profit, because the information they get from users is worth a lot to advertisers (995). The producers are not creating opportunities for users to get information about other people or music, the producers are creating opportunities for themselves to harvest information about the users. It might give the producers and conglomerates even more power, instead of giving the user more power. In this way we can see Web 2.0. as a new kind of transmedia strategy to create a more connected active audience.
As Matt Hills calls it: 'web 2.0 fan productivity', is a dominant phenomenon in the media field the last couple of years. The web seemed to create more opportunities for fan communities, including active television viewers, to participate in debates, create related content and other social productivities (Hills 2013). Where DVD's, merchandising and transmedia storytelling used to be the
17 main strategies to create an active and engaged audience, web 2.0., especially social media, is taking over the dominance in transmedia strategies. These online platforms provide the viewers with opportunities to participate within and cocreate a new consumer culture (Tussey 203). Not only social media as it is generally understood as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, but also including other platforms where viewers are able to participate and create user-generated content. As Hills argues, user-generated content online and other forms of participation are not something completely new (131). However, we can say that the importance of it has grown intensively. What started as pure enunciative fan productions, became textual productions standing on their own. If we do a Google search on Lost, for example, we can find all kinds of products designed by fans that they sell online. The user productivity is making economical profits itself, instead of only reinforcing the profit of a television show or other media that forms the main text. Lostpedia is a good example of a fan production that started to gain money on its own, it forms a website with some advertisements, not officially connected to the tv show. As I mentioned before when setting out theories about the active audience and transmedia strategies, the main characteristic of transmedia strategies is the blending of marketing strategies into the fictional world and vice versa. In the case of user-generated content it is not only about the interplay between the economic aspects and the fictional aspects anymore, it is about the interplay within these economic aspects as well (134-138).2
So how are these developments evolving fan activity in new media related to transmedia strategies created around television shows? First of all, changes in the field of new media almost always have some kind of connection with changes in the field of television. As a lot of theories indicate, it is (no longer) credible to look at new media as mark for a radical break with traditional media practices (Caldwell 130). Not only can new media and more traditional media exist next to each other, they are deeply connected to each other. Especially when working through branding strategies, the digital media landscape is characterized by a transmedia connection with other media (131). This is also the case for television; new media does not necessarily seem to challenge television in this, it rather creates more possibilities. As Proulx and Shepatin state about the rise of 'Social Tv’: “While many people have proclaimed the death of television, the over-70-year-old medium is as healthy and alive as it has ever been. In fact, we are watching more television than ever before” (3). They continue by saying the internet has become television’s 'best friend’ (3). The internet did not cause the death of television, it created more possibilities for its developments. One
2 This is confirmed by previous work from Matt Hills, when talking about 'trans-transmedia'. In this research
Hills looks at transmedia products that expand the hyperdiegetic world of a certain television show. He
emphasizes how these texts do not only move across different media, but also across different industry and fan discourses (Hillls 2012).
18 of those possibilities is the way new media and television together form certain strategies to create a more connected audience. These strategies that combine television with new media, are also known under the name of 'second-shift aesthetics'.3 The recognition of this term is how Caldwell describes the break with traditional television. It reflects how the focus of television strategies has shifted from creating a loyal, passive audience, to creating a more connected, active audience. A main strategy of television producers that came with this shift then, are social media strategies. Then the next questions rise: what is the reason for this shift? Why do television producers want a more connected audience instead of a loyal audience who just watches what is screened for them?
There are several reasons for a shift within transmedia strategies if we look at different research. The most logical reason for the shift from purely television-based strategies to more diverse transmedia strategies, with connection to Web 2.0., is that the viewers themselves have already moved towards the internet. We could say that the shift within strategies is a logical response to several interrelated historical and industrial shifts (136). Next to this, social media is a relatively cheap way to reach a big audience and invite them to watch television. And as I mentioned earlier, user productivity is making economical profits itself, by creating new texts related to the text of a television show (Hills 134-138). As I already explained at the beginning of this chapter, the change in transmedia strategies is a result of the audience getting more connected and more active, but also the other way around. I described this as a vicious circle between the audience and the television producers, where together they reflect a broader shift of the media field into a more interactive digital age. Against theories that proclaimed the death of television, I argue, like many other theorists, that we can and are watching more television than ever before. The web, especially social media, is being used next to watching television, which changes the way we watch television, but definitely does not make us watch less (Proulx and Shepatin 3).
Now that I have set out why and how this shift towards social media strategies is taking place, I want to briefly describe what these strategies are. First, we can distinguish the 'backchannel of social television', which stands for the conversations happening online while a television program is airing
3 These aesthetics can be described as programming strategies in the world of the digital (Caldwell 132).
'First-shift aesthetics' can be understood as the programming strategies of television before the digital age, strategies that could be realized through programming schedules within broadcasting itself. Think about counterprogramming, were two opposite audiences are being lured to two different channels with a certain form of programming like sports and drama series (where the two opposite audiences would be men and women) (133-134). Just like this strategy there are all kinds of strategies that can be recognized to attract an audience through a certain way of programming; tent-poling, hammocking and more that are in function to create a certain kind of television flow (134). Second-shift aesthetics take this flow to another level. They seem to be in function to create a connection between different media, and with this, activate the audience, instead of just making them 'watch the flow' like the first-shift aesthetics seem to induce.
19 (Proulx and Shepatin 4). Twitter here, forms one of the biggest outlets for viewers to express themselves and connect with other viewers while watching television programs. We can define this backchannel as the social media conversations happening in real time, during the time that the program is broadcast (11). The famous Facebook, however, is also one of the biggest players in real-time conversations around television. The difference with Twitter is mostly that the conversations on Facebook are more private, but opportunities keep opening up for communities of interest to publicly connect as well (12). The first effect that strikes when using these social media strategies in combination with television, is that live television is getting more interest again. Viewers want to avoid seeing spoilers on social media or want to take part in the ‘live conversation’ and therefore see the importance of watching live television (14).
Almost an opposite reason to use social media, is to 'bridge' content in between episodes. While real-time participation on social media might stimulate viewers to watch live, participation between episodes stimulates the viewer to watch the next episode (137). This strategy then, seems to be especially effective with drama series, because it keeps the viewer engaged with the story. This engagement that is created through social media conversations about television often give the viewer a more ‘connected’ feeling which makes the viewers participate more actively. The viewer gets the feeling of a deeper connection with television personalities which makes the viewing experience more intense, as I will later demonstrate in this thesis with the Facebook page of the lead actor from Arrow, Stephen Amell. As Proulx and Shepatin state: “Social media creates the feeling of a more direct and intimate interaction between celebrities and their fans. This leads to a more engaged TV viewing audience who are increasingly abandoning their DVRs to tune in live. The lure of connecting with a community through a shared real-time experience is a compelling force” (Proulx and Shepatin 20).
Even though there is no direct proof in the form of television ratings that social media strategies do have a profitable effect for television producers, there is enough evidence found in less factual forms that it does have a positive effect on television's success (119-120). If we look at a recent television drama, Scandal (ABC, 2012-2015), for example, this show seemed to earn most of its success through the activity on Twitter. As one theorist states when talking about the success of this show created by Shonda Rhimes: “The fan’s purchase on Scandal, besides being ‘all- in,’ betrays a level of intense affect and engagement that is highly prized in the TV industry. For not only have
Scandal fans reinvented TV fandom with Shonda Rhimes’ blessing, but there is no doubt that her
historic takeover of ABC’s entire Thursday night primetime schedule owes much to her activist fans on Twitter, who proudly self-identify as “gladiators” (Scandal show devotees)” (Everett 37). While in the beginning of new media developments, television producers seem to be afraid that this medium
20 would outshine television, it seems that now there is an awareness that it can be used to reinforce the power of television (Proulx and Shepatin 16-18).
While the backchannel conversations might be the most important social media activity around television, there are many more activities that can be recognized. ‘Check-in’ programs for example, where viewers can confirm with an application that they are watching a certain show at that time (57-80). There are also applications created to play a game during a show, related to this show or to participate in a playful way. The originally Dutch show The Voice of Holland (RTL 4, 2010-2015), internationally known as The Voice, is a good example of a television show creating playful apps around the show.4 All these different technologies that make it possible to be active on other media while using the television medium can be put together in a term as 'the second screen'. We are taking part in a multiscreen television experience nowadays, instead of just a television viewing experience (Proulx and Shepatin 84-85). For every form of television, however, another different strategy using another different social media platform can be effective for that particular form or program. For drama series, as an example, Facebook might be a more relevant platform than Twitter. On Facebook there is more space for long term creativity to dig deeper into narratives, while on Twitter it is more about real-time, fast conversations. This is one of the reasons why I think the viewer activity of my two case studies, Arrow and Lost, is better represented through analysing Facebook, than Twitter or other social media.
I set out that social media is the most relevant transmedia strategy to create a connected audience for television nowadays and I tried to describe the main reasons for this relevance. As I mentioned, there is a economical benefit: it is a relatively easy and cheap way to reach a large audience and at the same time activate this audience. But if we look deeper into this, why does the audience need to be lured from social media and be active on this media before actually watching television? I want to suggest that this has to do with the change in perspective of mediated reality. As viewers used to be directly 'hooked' in a fantasy world of a television show, just by watching it on their television set, it might not be that easy today. We can say that social media form a new kind of 'gate' into the fictional world of television shows. As I already mentioned in the previous subchapter, giving the viewer access into the fictional world through recognition points in the real world is one of the main aspects that creates an active audience and is thus one of the main goals of transmedia strategies. Fan interpretations can be seen as a kind of escape outside the real world where there are rules and there is a dominant taste. With interpreting certain narrative and aesthetics of a show, fans
4 With the 'Thuiscoach App’ viewers could vote during the airing of a performance if the candidate should go to
the next round or not. Next to all kinds of other playful elements, this app created a certain gameplay between the show and the viewers with this function to vote at home.
21 seem to integrate media representations into their own social experience (Jenkins 1992 p.18). From this we can conclude that, to be able to enjoy the entertainment, we must negotiate a stance towards the reality so that we can decode the television text (Fiske and Hartley 6). We can't see reality and fiction as two different worlds when analyzing media, we need to talk about multiple imaginations and realities (Reijnders 41). Even when a viewer is watching a fiction programme, there is some connection to reality taking place in the viewing experience. As I said before, the viewer looks for points of recognition to enter another, imagined world. These points of recognition might be harder to find for viewers nowadays because of the overload of media images, texts and other information that they have access to. A social media page, like the Facebook page of the lead actor of
Arrow, can be an extra help to make this viewer engage with a fictional world. This might be the case
for all kinds of social media platforms, where the viewer gets the idea of having 'real' conversations with actors or other viewers and because of this engagement might find a deeper connection with the story.
It seems that in 2015, social media strategies are the most effective strategies to create an active and connected television audience. As I set out, the coming of Web 2.0 strengthened television's effects rather than reducing or replacing the use of this medium. Social media strategies are more effective nowadays than traditional television strategies, because of several reasons. It is economically an easy way for television producers to get more profit out of a show, it has more potential luring viewers into a complete fictional 'brand' because it works in the modern perception of reality and it protects television as a medium by adjusting to new technologies and new media. Because I want to show how transmedia strategies changed from more traditional 'web activity' to activity more focussed on social media and how this might have created a more connected audience, it is relevant to look at two case studies from a different period. That's why my next chapter I will analyse the Wiki page and official Facebook page of the television series Lost, which aired in 2004, when the web was already a big player in transmedia strategies, but still at its starting point. To show how these earlier stages of transmedia strategies related to web activity changed through the last decade, I will analyze the same sort of transmedia extensions of a television series which aired in 2013: Arrow. Not only are these two shows based on a story about an abandoned island, they also seem to have a very active fan community. I will look at how these two particularly active audiences might differ and how the difference in transmedia strategies is reflected on their Wiki pages and Facebook pages.
22 Of course, it makes sense to analyse these new developments within transmedia strategies with a new television programme as main object. But there is one television show that aired ten years ago from where the consequences of certain television strategies are still evident nowadays, which makes it a very relevant object of research. I am talking about the hit show Lost (ABC 2004-2010), a fantasy series about a plane crashing on a mysterious island. The show is especially characterized by the diverse narrative that makes use of flashbacks, non-chronological storytelling, narrative plot twists that leave gaps in the narrative and many more characteristics that make the narrative quite different from most television shows. What seems to be a story about survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island in the first episode, quickly changes into a much more complicated, fantasy-based story. From the moment on that there is the case of a 'smoke monster', the viewer becomes aware of the strangeness of the series and when there are polar bears spotted in the forest of the tropical island you will start to question if you are watching an average drama show. These strange appearances keep happening during the first season of the show and seem to raise more questions with every piece of new information that is being released. This openness in the story continues until the last episode in 2010. The characters do get more comprehensible through the use of flashbacks that show their life stories, but the main story on the island remains quite difficult to grasp.
The show caused curiousness and activity with the viewers, whereupon the viewers formed their own transmedia platforms to communicate about the narrative. My interest here is not just in what theories emerged, but also how these theories connect to the activity of fans looking for information provided by the series itself and provided by the different transmedia extensions around the show. There are also important transmedia extensions directly created by the makers of the show themselves. These profitable extensions were what Lost came to be known for, resulting in critique on the lack of focus on the story itself.5 These extensions are often the main object of research, next to: consumption practices, branding and marketing, narrative strategies, genre studies, religion, game studies and maybe most importantly transmedia storytelling (Scolari 45). But what makes this show particularly interesting within the field of modern television strategies, are the storytelling strategies that position the fans as players instead of viewers. Most transmedia strategies created around Lost, seem to be in function of expanding the narrative. Even though my personal understanding of transmedia strategies is broader than just extensions of the narrative, in the case of
Lost it is relevant to look at the reflection of the narrative on other media, through certain strategies.
They are all tools for the viewers to be ´playing for the plot´. Therefore I will look at how these storytelling strategies can be recognized and how they are reflected on certain transmedia platforms.
5
According to Mittell, the show failed because it was more focussed on 'playing for the plot' and creating reactions outside the medium of television, than on the developments within the narrative itself (Mittell 2012).
23 In this chapter I will look at the narrative of the show, a fan-based website and the Facebook page that is set up by the producers of the show itself and see what transmedia strategies I can recognize. With these case studies I can show both how certain strategies are used and how they work in practice with the viewers.
One of the biggest fan platforms created around Lost, and therefore one of my case studies, is the website lostpedia.wikia.com or shortly: Lostpedia. This website was launched in 2005, during the second season of the series. It was supposed to be a test for MediaWiki software, but the fans of the show reacted and participated on it so actively, that the main function of the website became a shared archive of all kinds of information around the show and a platform for fan creations and interactions (Mittell 2009). The growth of Lostpedia is said to be partly due to the transmedia content available of the show, or even as a main source if we believe theorists like Scolari (51). As he states: "The transmedia textual network is expansive: it spreads from the core work (the TV series in the case of Lost) out to the never/ending production of user-generated contents" (Scolari 63). However, the transmedia universe created around the series mainly exists for its diegetic or meta-reference to the narrative of the series (Gray and Mittell 27). Lostpedia might have grown because of the available transmedia content, the transmedia content seem to be in function of preserving continuity of the fictional universe. The complex narrative is the strength that bears the success of all different texts concerning the series. This confirms the deep connection between the narrative and the transmedia extensions of Lost.
The quite unique character of Lost, as Jason Mittell describes it: "a mode of narrative complexity and innovative storytelling that has rarely been matched in any medium (6, 2012)", is the main strategy being used by the show to create active viewers. The next step they made, was to stimulate the viewers to keep being active between episodes and even after the show concluded. A first step in this, might be the creation of an actively updated Facebook page. The official Facebook page of the series, is active since 2008. All extensions could be interesting to take as examples. What is most relevant for now, however, is to look at how this particular Facebook page might have helped activating the viewers. Lost might be one of the first television shows to actively use Facebook as a tool and in this way I can compare this to the use of Facebook of a more recent show, as my other case study Arrow.
To show the connection between the television strategies and the outcome of these on online media, I will set out the structure of the narrative of this show by describing the different storytelling strategies to create fan activity that are used in this show. Each strategy will be set out separately and I will connect this to two transmedia platforms of the show; Lostpedia and the official Facebook page of Lost and see how the found strategies are reflected on these extended platforms. With this, I can show how the strategies of Lost are characterized by certain aspects that invite the
24 viewers to participate or even create their own transmedia extensions. I will compare these findings with Arrow in chapter 4, by first looking at the narrative and its characteristics and then analyzing a fan-based website and the Facebook page of a lead actor of the show. Not only is this show quite new in comparison to Lost, it also seems to differ in their transmedia strategies on these similar platforms. Both shows, however, base their story on a mysterious deserted island. Because the starting point of their narratives seems quite similar, it is interesting to look at where the differences come to play within the narrative and within their transmedia universes.
3.1. Narrative mysteries and gaps
Lost is shortly said, about survivors of a plane crash trying to find their way off a deserted island.
From the moment on you have seen one episode of this show, however, you know this isn't nearly what the show is about. I would describe Lost as more of a fantasy series than a drama series, but this is a conclusion to understand only after watching more than one season. It is relevant for now to recognize the narrative structure that returns in every episode with different narrative strategies to create an active audience.
The first narrative strategy to create fan engagement that can be recognized is that of a ‘playful plot’, making use of narrative mysteries and many gaps in the story line. The first episode here, is a good starting point for analyzing these story lines, because most episodes follow the same narrative structure and story characteristics. This episode gives a good idea of how the producers seem to 'activate' the viewers through a playful plot. We see a man (as we later on get to know as Jack) who lies injured somewhere in the jungle. He starts to run through the jungle until he reaches a beach and hears other people screaming. He finds out there has been a plane crash and that there are a lot of survivors who need help. Jack starts to help people and by how he does this, it seems as if he has some medical background. We get a peek into what his character might be, but it remains unclear why he was laying in the jungle and the rest of the survivors are located around the airplane. Next to this mystery, the story immediately raises a lot of questions after only 5 minutes; why is the plane crashed? Was Jack even in the plane? Who are all the people that have survived? What island are they on? And we could keep on going with these questions. During the rest of the episode, the characters get to know each other better, but no one seems to question the situation and there is no sign of panic. The television producers clearly start with giving the viewer a big mystery with many unanswered questions. About halfway during the episode, there is starting to be some logical response to the whole situation. Two survivors, Said and Charlie, are talking to each other about how there should have already been some form of help in this kind of situation. This only raises more questions for the viewer, however, because there is no answer to this question and it makes us
