Inquiry Proposal: The Internet Remembers (COM 680)

Over the past century of technology driven storytelling, our culture has taken the most popular stories and stretched them across multiple platforms. From page, to screen, to forum, the entertainment industry’s interest in these transmedia and adapted properties have risen in the past two decades, as seen most evidently by the rise of expanded franchises and universes, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Harry Potter  (Heick, 2017). As these transmedia properties have taken over our newsfeeds, with audiences clamoring online to discuss the newest plot twists that happened in the most recent episode, what was once just a cinematic event, has become a daily part of pop culture. Bennett explains, “It’s just as important to acknowledge the wonder of that as it is to honor what happens when the experience gets messy (Bennett, 2019).” In an age of 24/7 connection, fandoms are a microcosm of how we engage with our culture, specifically transmedia properties. Some are passionate to the point of action and investment; others are blissfully just enjoying good television. However, in the age of constant communication, fans are more passionate than ever about the stories that they have a specific and undeniable relationship to, and the entertainment industry is well aware of it. I argue that further observing these fandoms through a specific transmedia property (Game of Thrones) and computer-mediated communication theory, will allow a better understanding of how fans are impacting participatory media platforms, the internet, and the larger entertainment industry as a whole as these adapted properties become the new storytelling obsession.

Keywords: Game of Thrones, computer-mediated communication, convergence culture, transmedia storytelling, participatory media.