A
quick search of recent scholarship about digital narratives will yield
results for digital storytelling in the classroom, the digital
narratives of video games, and hypertexts. However, one gap that exists
within this scholarship is an analysis of the relationship between
narratives of television shows and the digital narratives produced by
their webpages and social media profiles. Do they influence and affect
the narrative of the show itself? How do the stories presented on these
pages change how the audience views the narrative of the show? This
paper will examine how the digital narratives of the webpages for Once Upon a Time and Grimm
function: how the use of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and interactive web
pages create communities from the audience, how these digital
narratives influence the audience, and how audience input and
contribution to these digital narratives influences the narrative of the
television shows. I will argue that this interaction between the
narrative of the television show, the digital narrative of the webpage,
and the audience forms a new relationship that functions in ways similar
to the original transmission of fairy tales and folktales.
Frank’s
criteria for socio-narratology are an excellent starting point for
analyzing fairy tale television shows and the digital narratives
associated with them. Frank lists six basic traits of narratives, five
of which easily translate to analyzing television shows, specifically
television shows that have oral narratives as their source material.
SLIDE 1
- The audience comes to the media with wide knowledge base, one that is made up of multiple sources, supporting Frank’s concept of stories “depending on shared narrative sources”.
- Originally, the live, physical audience used stories, and the group interactives to create their “narrative selves” and make the stories social. Now, this occurs through the interactive mediums (discussion boards, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds) associated with a particular show
- Shows such as Once Upon a Time, and Grimm, with their mix of romance, horror, detective and action are perfect examples that stories have no “pure genre”
- Discussion boards and fan pages allow for fans/audience to “open up a story for various interpretations and possible uses” through their detailed analysis of episodes, and with the creation of fan fiction
- Analyzing the webpages of Once Upon a Time and Grimm as contributing sources to the primary narrative, connects to soci-narratology that “analyzes how stories breathe as they animate, assemble, entertain, and enlighten, and also deceive and divide people”. Certainly anyone that has experienced a discussion board troll or a flamer, can attest to the “divide people” part.
SLIDE 3
The viewing audience of shows such as Once Upon a Time and Grimm
come to these texts with a vast knowledge of folklore, often presented
through popular culture. Perhaps they are familiar with fairy tales from
early viewings of Disney’s adaptations, or perhaps they know the
stories from the darker Fairy Tale Theatre
series from the early 1980s. References to fairy tales can be seen in a
wide range of television shows and genres: shows such as How I met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory. may just reference them, while others may dedicate whole episodes such as “Gingerbread” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Warehouse 13’s “Where or When”.
Texts
do not exist in a vaccuum, instead operating in what Brooker calls the
“matrix”. More and more authors don’t just assume an audience’s
familiarity with these other texts, they depend on it. For example, when
Snow, in Once Upon a Time,
releases a bright blue bird, the audience is meant to connect that to
the story of the Bluebird of Happiness, as well as every animated Disney
princess that has a scene featuring cute, woodland creatures. Just as
authors depend on intertextual knowledge in order to understand primary
texts, fans are now not only interpreting texts in light of secondary
texts but are also contributing to the narrative of primary texts.
For
some fans, their conception of the text of the show is also formed by
the discussion boards they post on, the fan fiction they compose, and
the fan art they create. While fans/audience have participated in these
secondary texts for years, technology has enabled fans/audience to
instantly share their opinions with other fans and creators. Not only do
the fans/audience create a community through social media, but they
also add to the secondary texts with the creation of their own.
SLIDE 4
Zipes
also states that fairy tales are both “an elaborate and simple
narrative” and these tales can only be understood if “we grasp its
hybrid nature” and how it continues to build on storytelling qualities
of other genres (9). He also states that “fairy tales have been changed
while changing the media” (20). While Zipes was not specifically
addressing Once Upon a Time and Grimm,
or any other fairy tale based show, he might as well have. It is the
“hybrid nature” of these narratives that is interesting as technology
now allows an interaction between storyteller and audience, that I would
argue has not been present since the beginning of oral narratives.
There
is not yet a specific approach for analyzing the narratives of webpages
such as those created for movies or television shows so I have used a
combination of those used for the digital narratives of video games and a
cinematic approach. Analyzing mis en scene: color values, composition,
form, and framing all easily transfer to analyzing the narratives
presented by the webpages of these television shows.
SLIDE 5
For example, the background of the Once Upon a Time site
is the same background as the opening credits. The color scheme is
blue, which calls to mind shadows, but not necessarily the dark. The
main page has several menus on the right hand side that frame the page:
Preview Gallery, Full Episode, Latest Trivia, Episode Recap, and Once:
101. Each one of these frames focuses on a close up of a character’s
face, with the background presented as fuzzy. There is also a color
differential in each picture between the foreground and background,
serving to pop out the character’s face. This choice reinforces that Once Upon a Time is a character driven show.
SLIDE 6
Grimm’s
webpage on the other hand, visually points to the grittier nature of
the show’s mood- the background picture is the shadowy Portland forest,
the foreground is a set of scrolling images from the show- Nick
Burkhardt, our Grimm, featured hefting an axe; Nick researching Wesen,
Nick and his partner Hank with flashlights investigating a crime. Each
of these scrolling images presents a section of the story with the
emphasis on the primary genre (detective/mystery). The lighting is dark,
and the color scheme uses dark greens and blacks. the resulting
atmosphere is foreboding.
The Once Upon a Time
website is fan oriented and adds a lot to the existing narrative of the
show with its additional information. It contains blogs based on
characters/episodes where the fans/audience are encouraged to point out
things that the writer (of the blog) may have missed. There are
announcements for live Tweet events where fans/audience members can use a
hashtag #UnlockTheMagic to get clues on episodes, or get looks at
future scripts. The show’s webpage also has trivia quizzes, Snows
Gallery (Sic), and a discussion board. The discussion board, not
surprising given the nature of the storytelling on the show, focuses
mainly on speculation about what Storybrooke characters are what fairy
tale counterparts, what the relationships are between these characters,
and who unrevealed characters could be.
This
interactive section of the sites is billed as “Your 24/7 fan portal to
the real time conversation surrounding Once Upon a Time”. However, while
the live Tweet events and discussion boards create a sense of audience
and narrative interaction that replicates an approximation to the
original oral narrative/audience interaction, the language of the
interactions, interestingly, places it firmly under publicity rather
than narrative.
SLIDE 7
Every week there is a new episode, someone prominently featured with
the show live tweets either the East Coast or West Coast showing. Recent
Live Tweets have featured Jane Espenson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Lana
Parilla. The language of both Espenson and Goodwin’s Tweets fall firmly
under marketing- language such as “It’s On!”, and “Watch” as well as
repeated use of the #OUAT hashtag and even @ABC_Publicity make it clear
that the purpose of these Tweets is to increase the show’s profile, and
publicize that evening’s episodes.
SLIDE 8
In
contrast, when Lana Parilla, the evil queen Regina, live Tweeted an
episode, her Tweets appeared more personal, more along the lines of the
commentary track on a DVD, making personal comments and connections to
the scenes in the episode as it aired. However, even her Tweets make
frequent use of the @ABC_Publicity, @DIsney, and @Disneyland with the
purpose of publicizing the show, and its owner. It is impossible to know
whether the tone and language of these Tweets is something that the
cast members/writers have been directed towards, or whether they are the
choices of the those involved.
SLIDE 9
Of
interest is the similarity between the marketing heavy language in the
Tweets of the official @OnceABC account with those of the
actors/writers. It is clear that the purpose of the Tweets is to add
incentive to people watching the episodes in read time, and to provide
the feeling to fans that they are interacting with their favorite
characters or writers, whether or not this feeling is real. While no
real relationship exists, this does not seem to matter to fans, who
eagerly participate on both Facebook and Twitter. Conclusions as to how
influential the fans/audience’s input is on the narrative, such
conclusions are anecdotal at best without confirmation from the
authors/creators, which is problematic.
For instance, the favorite character of the Huntsman recently returned to Once Upon a Time
in the flashback heavy episode, “Welcome to Storybrooke”. Was he
brought back because the fans have flooded the discussion boards,
Facebook page, and Twitter feeds begging the creators to find a way to
bring him back, or was his return planned out months ago in keeping with
the storyline? Given the reputation for long arc storytelling that Lost writers/creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have, it would not be hard to argue that they planned out this return.
Perhaps a clearer example of the impact of fans on the narrative would be when Grimm
premiered Season 2 this past fall. There was an elaborate opening
narrative over the credits that provided background on the main
character Nick. The fan/audience reaction to this new narrative was
swift, overwhelming, and negative. Discussion board threads were full of
criticism. By episode 4 “Quill”, the narration was pulled, and replaced
with a shorter opening that featured the same images, but with the
narrative track removed. It’s hard not to draw a connection between the
two. Short of an interview with the creators that addresses what
specific decisions are informed by fan/audience feedback, there is no
way to know definitively.
SLIDE 10
The Grimm website, while not as well organized as Once Upon a Time’s,
offers more (although also more controlled) information. There are a
lot of “Exclusives” such as background information on Grimm and Wesen
history, Grimm Guide to episodes, interactives of both Aunt Marie’s
trailer and the Spice Shop. There are also photo exclusives, video
exclusives, games, and behind the scene looks.
SLIDE 11
While
Grimm’s webpage does feature a blog, it is a Production Blog, and while
there is a place for fan/audience comments, there is no fan/audience
created blog. There are few blogs that have comments on them, and it is
hard to tell if this is because the webpage is disorganized and the
production blog is buried, if it’s because the blog is monitored closely
and comments have been deleted, or if fans simply don’t find it
engaging and therefore don’t comment. In comparison to the Once Upon a Time board
the Production Blog appears less used, and therefore, a less likely
source of either fans/audience creating communities or of
interpretations of the narratives.
A better place to see fan/audience interaction is on the Twitter feed
of @NBCGrimm, or to follow the #Grimm. The Twitter interactions,
especially when the creators, writers, and actors are tweeting, gesture
towards the paradigm of storyteller ←-> audience, as @OnceABC and
#OUAT does. Three main stars, Sasha Roiz, David Guintoli, and Bree
Turner, often Tweet reminders of upcoming episodes, short notes and
pictures from set, and thank yous to the fans for watching. Notably
absent on Twitter is Silas Weir Mitchell, who plays fan favorite,
Monroe. The tone of the Grimm actors seems more interactive, although
there is still the publicity language of hashtags with #Grimm, and
Twitter mentions of other Grimm
actors. @Grimm’s Tweets provide video clip links, questions to fans
that ask for their opinion, and are geared towards increasing interest.
The tone of their Tweets is similar to @OnceABC, the purpose is to
encourage viewership, and while both have the appearance of “true”
interactions with fans/audience, the marketing/publicity language belies
this. Again, the interaction and sense of community appears to be more
illusory than real.
SLIDE 13
The
Facebook fan pages of each show are pure marketing vehicles- fans are
allowed to post, but it is moderated. The majority of the posts are done
by the author, and act as marketing- there is a strict control of how
the story on the Facebook page is presented. The Facebook pages offer
much of the same material as gets posted on the official Twitter
accounts of both shows- language meant to increase interest, links to
video clips, and both reminders and “talking up” for upcoming episodes.
If fans/audience are watching their episodes online, they are also able
to click on the screen and share on either their own Facebook or Twitter
accounts that they are watching the episodes. While both Facebook and
Twitter would seem to create a connection through the storyteller ←>
audience interaction, it is an illusion. Fans/audience may feel as
though they are creating a relationship, but the lack of specific
response from the actors/writers, the distant language of their postings
and tweets, as well as the marketing/publicity language used, all
points towards this technology being used simply as a tool.
According
to Zipes, “Storytellers strive to make themselves and their stories
relevant, and if they succeed, those stories will stick in the minds of
the listeners, who may tell these stories later and contribute to the
replication of stories that form cultural patterns (5). One of the main
purposes of the digital narratives created by the Facebook fan pages and
Twitter feeds for Once Upon a Time and Grimm is
to make themselves relevant. Likewise, the additional information
provided in the digital narratives of the webpages of the shows
themselves seek not only to contribute to the the primary text, but to
also encourage fans/audience to create and participate in the secondary
texts.
One
of the difficulty in analyzing the secondary texts of these shows is in
determining how much of the content is driven by the narrative of the
show, and how much is smart marketing by the studios. Who the
storyteller is. Is it the studio executive who insists that their cast
members Tweet to increase the show’s profile? Or is it the writers that
write specific, additional content just for the webpage and the fans? As
is often the case with television or film, the question of what is
driving the content is worth acknowledging.
There’s
a counterargument to be made, that the use of Twitter, and Facebook are
not part of the narrative of the show, being only marketing tools used
by the studios. That only the shows’ webpages can be seen as secondary
texts and digital narratives. I would argue that because of the
participatory nature of both Twitter and Facebook, and because of the
sheer number of conversations fans/audience are involved in, that it is
necessary to view these interactions as part of the intertextual matrix,
because again, these narratives do not exist in a vaccuum.
Right
now, there is no way to measure whether or not shows being talked about
on social media are actually successful, or reaching an audience. This
will soon change though as Twitter and Nielsen are joining together this
fall with the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating which will track “how social
media is affecting TV viewing” (Stransky 33). However, the push through
social media by networks does create “a must-watch community atmosphere.
Now networks and showrunners hope to replicate that effect by making
their real-time airings as relevant as they were before the advent of
the DVR” (Stransky 33). Nowhere does it mention the narrative, but the
emphasis here is on creating community. Once these numbers become
available, future research could examine them and it would be of
interest to examine the language of the social media to see if a
determination could be made as to “marketing” versus “narrative”
language.
As
analyzing the discourse or narratives presented by webpages,
particularly webpages that are connected to primary narratives is
relatively new, there is much to be explored. Examining how the
language of these digital narratives differs from more traditional
narratives, the problem of authorship of the webpages and other
secondary texts and how or if this authorship is different from the
authorship of the primary texts, as well as the complication of
corporation/studio as author are all topics that need to be explored.
Works Cited
Stransky, Tanner. “Pretty Little Phenom”. Entertainment Weekly #124B 1 March 2013. Print.
Zipes, Jack. The Irresistible Fairy Tale” The Cultural and Social History of a Genre. Princeton University Press, 2012. Print.
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