On cinema and convergence

Abstract

Using Star Wars and the Marvel Extended Universe as primary examples, this essay explores the ways that transmedia storytelling practices have altered Hollywood entertainment, resulting in a stronger emphasis on world building and a more participatory relationship with its audiences. Transmedia in its contemporary form assumes a networked audience that is actively seeking out information about entertainment experiences they care about, resulting in much more extensive use of paratexts to signal what we might expect from upcoming releases, more blogs and podcasts that recap and interpret cult media texts, and more informal spaces where people can debate, pool knowledge, share their own grassroots creations, and otherwise participate in the fan phenomenon that grow up around such works.