Creating a bond of loyalty between audiences and the media they consume has always been a high priority within the entertainment industry. It is what brings audiences back at the same time each week or, more relevantly to today's audiences, encourages them to watch numerous episodes of a show over twelve consecutive hours. The use of complex storyworlds may well be a popular method employed by media producers to forge a certain level of fan loyalty, but it is also very much something that is mutually beneficial to both parties involved. With reference specifically to the popular cult television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), this essay will look at the relationship between media producers and media consumers. It will look at how media producers used the complex storyworld device to ensure fan loyalty. It will also discuss how other components aside from the use of the complex storyworld helped contribute to the popularity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; for example, the use of transmedia storytelling, and Joss Whedon's involvement with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom.
Herman (cited in James 2015) explains that the notion of storyworlds is a more accurate way to better account for the deeply engaging potential of narratives, rather than the simple concept of the story itself. He goes on to say (James 2015, p. 209) “... Storyworlds foster a range of responses from readers, including sympathy, identification, and evaluation, corresponds with my more specific claim that storyworlds can cultivate greater environmental understanding by fostering emotional connections between readers and narrators/characters.” By using storyworlds, media producers can forge a powerful emotional connection between an audience and a specific text, and thereby create a strong sense of loyalty, as audiences become emotionally invested. The direct link between narrative and empathy (Nussbaum 1997) is one that is exploited by media producers to gain fan loyalty. Running in tandem with this is the notion of transmedia storytelling, with media expanding not just in terms of seasons and episodes, but across the spectrum of video games, comic books, websites etc., which builds a more complex storyworld for an audience to be invited into (Hilmes 2012). The use of tie-in games, books, webisodes etc. helps to bring different aspects of the storyworld to the foreground, and allows audiences to explore a universe previously seen on television in a whole new way, interacting with it as if they were participating in this fictional universe (Mittell 2015), which in a sense they are. Gray (2009) talks about the way that shifts in our technology impact on the way that audiences interact with texts, and that even though this huge transmedia expansion may appear daunting to audiences not specifically in the loop, those who are willing to invest their time and effort are rewarded with larger and more complex storyworlds than ever before.
Media producers design and target their brands in a highly specific way in order to encourage a lasting and emotional investment in their products from their audiences (Vellar 2009). They aim to construct a loyal audience, an audience which is engaged with the brand emotionally, actively, and purposefully. Media producers and advertisers have been quick to spot the commercial potential offered by such fans. Their loyalty as consumers of these texts can have a significant impact on the way a particular media product, and its associated branding, is received (Slade et al. 2015). This seems to chime with what Jenkins (2006, p.20) describes as the ideal consumer: “active, emotionally engaged, and socially networked.” Jenkins (2006) then goes on to discuss how this new type of consumer is renegotiating the relationship between producers and audiences, as these new engaged audiences push through the boundaries between producer and consumer. They pursue the idea of inviting themselves into the lives of the franchises they are engaged with, and actively participating within these pieces of media. As the technology used to create, distribute and engage with film and television shows evolves and changes, the opportunity to create a vast and complex storyworld becomes clear (Dowd 2015).
The more complex the narrative and the storyworld, the more there is available for viewers to engage with. As complex narratives have demonstrated via a wide variety of examples (Dr Who (2005), The Walking Dead (2010), Game of Thrones (2011), Buffy the Vampire Slayer etc.), viewers will actively engage with challenging narratives, which has prompted producers to try out more varieties of transmedia storytelling (Mittell 2015). Using these complex storyworlds, media producers have found that by splitting transmedia narratives into different components, the narrative can be spread out across different platforms, such as through board games, video games, books etc. which in turn has allowed media industries to build upon a profitable foundation. Jenkins, Ford and Green (cited in Booth 2015) all describe this division of narrative as a way to prolong the audience's engagement with media texts, which allows media producers to continuously expand upon storyworlds. Jenkins, Ford and Green go on to emphasise the importance of the relationship between producers and consumers, as the success of these transmedia franchises rests solely upon a sometimes fragile audience loyalty. Fans have the capacity to dictate their needs and wants to producers; after Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended its run on television, it was then continued in a series of comic books, and Star Trek was saved by active fan campaigning (Dowd 2015).
Fan loyalty, when strong enough, will see consumers of a piece of media seek to continue to engage with a show long after it has been taken off air. Therefore it is clearly in the interests of media producers to achieve this level of engagement in order to fully gain the benefits of a loyal audience (Kirby-Diaz 2009). This knowledge of post-show engagement is recognised and manipulated by the media industry, as Harrington (cited in Williams 2015) explains: because continuation - be it official or unofficial - is often sought after by media producers, any kind of closure for fans in a show directly contradicts its potential for afterlife. Media producers will promote fandom as a way to ensure the maximisation of profits from this dedicated segment of the audience (Livingstone 2002). As Williams (2015, p.18) explains, “Fandom [is also] actively encouraged as it provides a lucrative market, with fans acting as media consumers whose spending contributes to the economic and symbolic power of the producers.” Producers will also create online sites and other marketable opportunities in order to initiate fandom and wider fan engagement, such as The Bronze, a forum created by producers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer which debuted a few months after the show aired. And LucasFilm hosted a fan video competition, where fans were encouraged to make their own Star Wars films from a selection of images, music and sounds which were provided to them (Canavan and Link 2015).
To encourage a high level of fan engagement, a complex storyworld offers an endless world of possibilities. This is what Hills (2002, p. 137) refers to as hyperdiegesis, or “the creation of a vast and detailed narrative space, only a fraction of which is ever directly seen or encountered within the text, but which nonetheless appears to operate according to principles of internal logic and extension.” For hyperdiegesis to operate within a piece of media there needs to be a wide enough scope to allow the world to expand without contradiction (Smith 2009). Creating the feeling of a vast fictional world, with a deep history and unexplored ideas, inspires a cult audience. These details invite a fandom to take this fictional world and develop it further, investing their time, effort and emotional engagement in order to make the world more real (Gwenllian-Jones and Pearson 2004). Hyperdiegesis is now frequently used to extend the storyworld through the use of what Hilmes (2013, p. 401) calls “transmedia migration.” In other words, the production of comic books, video games or novels etc., is used to extend the universe and tell the story further, thus encouraging the audience to remain engaged with a text through means other than simply watching a one-hour episode once a week, and so moulding them into Jenkins’ active, rather than passive, viewer.
The internet has proven to be an incredibly valuable asset for the preservation of an active fandom, a tool which is used in conjunction with the hyperdiegesis of a piece of media. Websites and forums dedicated to the shows are widely used by fans and allow them to discuss fandom related topics, such as conventions or new episodes, or in the case of a discontinued show, new pieces of work taken on by the actors (Kirby-Diaz 2009). Loyal fans will seek out the actors of their favourite characters in other pieces of work. In the case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, despite the show having been off the air since 2003 fans continue to engage in fandom through the appearances of the actors in other shows and films. For example, when Alyson Hannigan (Willow) and Alexis Denisof (Wes) appeared together in a film, post-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fans of the show took to a reddit forum and posted, “Willow and Wes are in marriage counselling!”. For these fans, their favourite characters do still exist, and continue to function, but just in a different world (Slade et al. 2015). Given the vastness of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, the concept of the characters of Willow and Wes being transported to an alternate dimension in which they are married and attending counselling together is entirely within the realms of possibility for the fans (Gischler 2015).
A fan base which produces its own creative content, such as fan art or fanfiction, means that its members are less likely to be alienated by storytelling choices made by a piece of media. If their favourite character gets killed off, or a particular “ship” (romantic relationship between two characters) is broken up, for example, they can live out their desires through seeking out fanfiction to relieve frustration over a particular event (Kirby-Diaz 2009). Recent studies have shown that television show creators implicitly encourage the production of fan fiction through the use of subtext in a show (Willams 2015). For the fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fan fiction is still very much alive. A decade after the series came to a close, fans are still rewriting the finale, and going back over previous episodes with new characters and new endings. As Stuller (2013, p. 42) explains, “For creative fans and committed shippers, fan fiction continues the interaction - the dialogue, the conversation, the story - between the characters and the fan. The sharing of fan fiction - writing it, reading it - expands and deepens the fan community.” The use of fan fiction within fandom gives the fans ability to pick and choose what they can consider as canon (Frankel 2015). For example, today there are twenty two thousand, three hundred and seventeen search results available on popular fanfiction site Archive of Our Own for Buffy the Vampire Slayer related fanfiction. When pitted against another television show, such as Desperate Housewives (2004), which did not employ all the same techniques as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (transmedia storytelling, showrunner and fan interactions, complex storyworld to the same degree etc.), the disparity in fan loyalty becomes clear as it only returns one hundred and sixty two results.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer skilfully continues to engage its audience and maintain their interest in the show by employing the use of strategic narrative deferral (Ravel cited in Negra 2006). The “endlessly deferred narrative”, to quote Hills (2002, p. 35), is a defining feature for cult texts, and a successful indicator of engaged fandom is the existence of fan culture, such as fanfiction, fan art or fan videos (Kirby-Diaz 2009). The utilisation of the internet has proven itself to be an extremely important factor in the creation of this level of commitment, and shows with particularly complex storyworlds appear to thrive best. Fans will attend conventions in the real word but, more importantly, are likely produce their own fan culture through the use of the internet, as it is the perfect space for fan expression (Macnaughtan 2011). This is more important because such expression has more longevity to it and has the potential to be shared from platform to platform. The use of the complex storyworld proves effective because it seemingly gives fans what appears to be an endless list of possible avenues to explore. Thompson (2003, p. 98) explains how Buffy the Vampire Slayer “provides a model of how modern media interact to generate potentially endless narrative material from a single basic situation.”
A narrow audience is something that producers strive to avoid, as such audiences threaten the commercial interests of the media producer by closing off potential consumers, but the notion of a narrow audience also threatens to stunt the growth and maturation of the text (Smith 1999). To avoid the possibility of a narrow audience, producers can invoke the complex storyworld in order to appeal to a multitude of audiences. Cult shows were often distinguished by the way they amalgamated various characteristics in one place, interweaving horror and suspense with comedy, and interrupting the narratives with non-diegetic aspects such as song and dance routines. All of this can easily be found within Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While these techniques were found in other shows that displayed post-modern dispositions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and other cult shows, differed through the way in which they acknowledged fan opinion and sensibilities and then incorporated them into the overall design of the show (Harrison 2010). Buffy not only tried to appeal to a wider audience through genre combining (horror fans, comedy fans, Joss Whedon fans etc.), but the writers also aimed to give hardcore viewers a sense of exclusivity, therefore strengthening the loyalty of the fanbase, as they felt they were being rewarded and their opinions were being taken seriously.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer managed to combine transmedia and complex storytelling, which allowed it to become incorporated into various aspects of its audience's lives (Short 2011). The Bronze, the previously mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer forum, allowed a space for fans and writers to interact, and Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the show’s spin-off Angel (1999), became exceedingly well known for frequenting this forum - as well as many others across the internet - to discuss and weigh in on fan debates, and he has even referenced fan contributions in his work (Bacon 2012). To expand upon this, Leavenworth and Isaksson (2013, p. 39) explain that, “Transmedial storyworlds generate large fandoms and intense fan activity and weaken the authority traditionally associated with an originator of work.” This is true within Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not in the sense that the transmedia aspects and intense fandom have weakened its authority, but that because of increased interaction between fandom and show runners, the lines have become blurred.
Whedon's continuous and painstaking commitment to continuity and hidden “easter eggs” within Buffy the Vampire Slayer is cited by Havens (2013) as the reason for such a strong fan loyalty towards the show. Transmedia storytelling and complex storyworlds go hand in hand here, as a world so expansive allows itself to be explored in many forms. Even after seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it spawned a series of transmedia products which could explore many facets of the show that had not yet been shown in the television series. Season eight and season nine took place in comic book form, which allowed the show to continue to grow (Stuller 2013). In this situation, however, it is important, as Scott (cited in Delwiche 2013) explains, to have an authoritative figure to connect the dots on the transmedia storytelling front. Sales of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books went up considerably after Whedon anointed them as season eight, and therefore became a canon with the events of the seven seasons of television.
In conclusion, media producers have always sought to create a long lasting and emotional bond with their fans. Ensuring that their audience has an emotional investment in their show is beneficial for their financial gain. It means that they can branch out into other areas of storytelling, such as video games, comic books, tie-in novels, action figures etc., and there will be an audience ready and waiting to engage with it. The utilisation of complex storyworlds is an intelligent way to ensure fan loyalty, as it is easier for the transmedia storytelling to tie into the overall story. Exploring aspects of the world that have been mentioned in the core text but are not yet fully realised means that highly invested fans gain the opportunity to engage with the text in a deeper way, but not at the expense of alienating the casual viewer. Complex storyworlds do not immediately guarantee fan loyalty and success, however - there are many other factors to take into account. In the case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this was a combination of many things: the complex storyworld, the transmedia elements, the involvement of Joss Whedon with the fans, and of course the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom feeding itself with fan art, fan videos and fan fiction.
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