Week 10: Networks

Fans have are able to willingly and eagerly participate in the creation of myspace pages for characters of their favourite television show or movie. Booth's article, 'MySpace Character Personas and Narrative Identification' reinstates how fans voluntarily have the opportunity to connect with one another and write out works of fan fiction based on the personalities that the television show or film has outlined. This expands fandom in a major way from conversation to online forums, to dedication websites to social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. This notion is referred to as transmediation and demonstrate that the lives of these characters extend beyond the screen. 


A connection with other fans is also made reminding them of the next episode airing date and storylines as well as the opportunity to influence those casual viewers as they browse past the page online or shared via a friend. More free publicity is made using these online tools and free of charge too! The establishment of the virtual online world has many positive aspects and enables life on screen to be virtually role played online.


Bibliography
Booth, P., 2008, ‘Rereading Fandom: MySpace Character Personas and Narrative Identification’ in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp 514-536.