10
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
produced for and within fan cultures that are themselves in processes
of transformation, with some becoming bigger and more accepted in the
cultural mainstream (as suggested by major newspapers like The Guardian
devoting articles to fan theories about the newest developments in Game
of Thrones), others increasingly diversifying, and still others forming niche
groups that stand not only in relation to one another but have been integrated
into commercial processes through media content that follows an intensified
“narrowcasting” logic. 8 Fan-based and largely fan-targeted adaptations,
which were still somewhat hermetic when Camille Bacon-Smith and others
produced their early work in fan studies, are now shared in communities that
have become much more accessible. 9 In toto, the rise of digital media and
the effect it has had on patterns of production, reception, and interaction
in a convergence environment, in which new and older media coexist and
interact, quite possibly constitutes the single most important development
in the material we study as adaptation and (trans)media scholars since the
advent of film and photography in the 19th century.
The Blurring of Practices… and Definitions
Looking at texts in a convergence environment from an adaptation studies
angle (or at adaptations from a transmedia perspective) raises questions of
how the concepts of adaptation and convergence culture are connected,
where they can be productively brought into contact, how far they might
overlap, and where they should best be kept separate to retain their respective analytical strengths. Such questions are not only difficult (some would
say impossible) to answer but also decidedly unpopular in an academic
environment and a field like adaptation studies that remains deeply committed to a poststructuralist deconstruction of categories.
To be sure, neither this introduction not the collection offer final answers
to the question of definitions, differences, and overlaps, in part due to its
contributors’ diverse materials and perspectives. One position that all
contributions share, however, is the conviction that the more fluid and
dynamic ways in which texts are being appropriated and re-appropriated
in a convergent environment necessitate an expansion of the concept of
8 Cf. Derek Johnson, Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture
Industries (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 5.
9 Camille Bacon-Smith, Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular
Myth (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).
AdAptAtion in the Age of MediA ConvergenCe
produced for and within fan cultures that are themselves in processes
of transformation, with some becoming bigger and more accepted in the
cultural mainstream (as suggested by major newspapers like The Guardian
devoting articles to fan theories about the newest developments in Game
of Thrones), others increasingly diversifying, and still others forming niche
groups that stand not only in relation to one another but have been integrated
into commercial processes through media content that follows an intensified
“narrowcasting” logic. 8 Fan-based and largely fan-targeted adaptations,
which were still somewhat hermetic when Camille Bacon-Smith and others
produced their early work in fan studies, are now shared in communities that
have become much more accessible. 9 In toto, the rise of digital media and
the effect it has had on patterns of production, reception, and interaction
in a convergence environment, in which new and older media coexist and
interact, quite possibly constitutes the single most important development
in the material we study as adaptation and (trans)media scholars since the
advent of film and photography in the 19th century.
The Blurring of Practices… and Definitions
Looking at texts in a convergence environment from an adaptation studies
angle (or at adaptations from a transmedia perspective) raises questions of
how the concepts of adaptation and convergence culture are connected,
where they can be productively brought into contact, how far they might
overlap, and where they should best be kept separate to retain their respective analytical strengths. Such questions are not only difficult (some would
say impossible) to answer but also decidedly unpopular in an academic
environment and a field like adaptation studies that remains deeply committed to a poststructuralist deconstruction of categories.
To be sure, neither this introduction not the collection offer final answers
to the question of definitions, differences, and overlaps, in part due to its
contributors’ diverse materials and perspectives. One position that all
contributions share, however, is the conviction that the more fluid and
dynamic ways in which texts are being appropriated and re-appropriated
in a convergent environment necessitate an expansion of the concept of
8 Cf. Derek Johnson, Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture
Industries (New York: New York University Press, 2013), 5.
9 Camille Bacon-Smith, Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular
Myth (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).