Lostpedia and Wiki Fandom Article

15Sep09

Just a quick pointer to my newest publication: in the new issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, I’ve published “Sites of Participation: Wiki Fandom and the Case of Lostpedia.”Here’s the abstract:
This essay explores the award-winning fan site Lostpedia to examine how the wiki platform enables fan engagement, structures participation, and distinguishes between various forms of [...]

Filed under: Academia, Fandom, New Media, TV Shows, Technology, Television, Viewers   |  2 Comments
Tags: Lost, lostpedia, wiki

Going Back to the Island

31Aug09

One of my summer projects has been rewatching Lost. When I started the show back in Fall 2004, my wife watched the pilot with me, but found it too creepy for her anti-horror tastes, so I’ve been viewing solo for the past five seasons. I finally convinced Ruth that the show rarely traffics in scares [...]

Filed under: Narrative, TV Shows, Television, Viewers   |  4 Comments
Tags: Lost

Previously On: Prime Time Serials and the Mechanics of Memory

03Jul09

As is typical for me at the end of the school year, my to-do list has a pile of publishing projects that I’ve put off to the last minute. So I’ve spent the last month knocking things off the list with general success – I revised an essay on Lostpedia that will be coming out [...]

Filed under: Academia, Media Studies, Narrative, TV Shows, Television, Viewers   |  10 Comments
Tags: Arrested Development, Battlestar, Lost, memory, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Veronica Mars

To Spread or To Drill?

25Feb09

I was invited by Henry Jenkins, Josh Green, and Sam Ford to contribute to a book project they are working on, Spreadable Media: Creating Value in a Network Culture.You can see an outline of the project posted serially on Henry’s blog, emerging from a research paper drafted as part of the Convergence Culture Consortium. The [...]

Filed under: Books, Fandom, Media Studies, Narrative, New Media, Television, Viewers   |  6 Comments
Tags: Battlestar, bsg, complexity, Lost, lostpedia

Producer vs. viewer bibles

18Jan09

In today’s NY Times, there’s an interesting profile of Gregg Nations, the script coordinator of Lost, whose job includes maintaining the continuity bible for the show. For me, the most interesting part is this paragraph:
Had he a background in computer science, Mr. Nations now says, he might have approached the Lost project differently. “The best [...]

Filed under: Fandom, Narrative, TV Shows, Television, Viewers   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Lost, lostpedia

Life Imitates TiVo

04Oct08

One great feature of TiVo (and potentially other DVRs, but I’m an exclusive TiVotee) is that live broadcasts are always buffered for 30 minutes, allowing you to rewind or pause on the fly. A quirk in the system allows you to press a button and go back to the beginning of the buffer (or the [...]

Filed under: Technology, Viewers   |  6 Comments
Tags: random thoughts, tivo

The Texture of Remix

23May08

I’ve written some about vidding before – it’s an area of fan culture that I’m not too familiar with, but I’m interested when I find examples that speak to me. So I found this video, via Jason Sperb’s blog, quite interesting. It’s a vid of Punch Drunk Love set to Radiohead’s “No Surprises,” done by [...]

Filed under: Fandom, Film, Viewers   |  3 Comments
Tags: punch drunk love, radiohead, vidding

Turn on your TV (again)

23Apr08

In honor of TV Turn-Off Week, I wanted to link to my dissenting comments from last year for any newer readers – my opinions haven’t changed, so I’ll be dutifully watching!

Filed under: Television, Viewers   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: tv turn-off

Playing Along with Fall TV

21Sep07

The Fall television season has launched, and oddly enough it’s got me a little stressed out. One of the perks of my job that provokes jealousy in many is that I can honestly say that watching TV is research. However, the downside is that the television schedule keeps going, and if I fall behind it [...]

Filed under: TV Shows, Television, Viewers   |  6 Comments
Tags: back to you, big bang theory, fantasy sports, kid nation, private practice, pushing daisies, Television, viva laughlin, women's murder club

Fun with ratings

26May07

The 2006-07 Nielsen Ratings chart is out. I always love perusing these lists more than the weekly Top 20s, as the deeper recesses of the schedule shows many of the ambiguities and randomness of the television industry and their decisions to renew or cancel a series. While the measurement of ratings itself is pretty questionable [...]

Filed under: TV Industry, Viewers   |  5 Comments

LOST spoiler fans explained!

14May07

As I’ve discussed in a couple of other posts, Jonathan Gray and I have been researching the phenomenon of spoiler fans of Lost. Our article has now been published at Participations, and because of the glory of the internets, you can read it online now! Below is the abstract to see what you might be [...]

Filed under: Media Studies, Narrative, New Media, Spoilers, Viewers   |  1 Comment
Tags: Lost

Constructing an older audience

06May07

As summer approaches, I’ll need to shift into more formal writing, as I’m going to try to complete three articles & 1/3 of a book over the next few months (I still feel optimistic!). So to avoid making the blog completely dormant, I’m going to embrace the logic of the television industry itself: repurposing & reruns! [...]

Filed under: TV Industry, Viewers   |  2 Comments

MIT5: Spoiling my Paper

28Apr07

Given the topic, I thought it would be appropriate to allow conference goers to “spoil” my presentation on Sunday morning, “Speculation on Spoilers: LOST Fandom, Narrative Consumption & Rethinking Textuality.” So if you happen to read this blog, and simply cannot wait to know what my presentation will be, check out my slides on SlideShare [...]

Filed under: Media Studies, Narrative, Viewers   |  1 Comment
Tags: Lost

Turn On Your TV

24Apr07

This week is “Turn-Off Your TV Week” here in the U.S., the only week I know of designed to disengage and disparage a major aesthetic and information form. For years I’ve tried to get people interested in sponsoring a “Music Free Week” or “Week Without Reading,” but I’ve yet to get traction.
As you might gather, [...]

Filed under: Viewers   |  5 Comments

More on Lost and casual vs. dedicated viewers

03Apr07

So I recently saw a link to a radio show interview that Lost producers Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse did recently on the NPR show On Point. You can listen to the whole show online, where they take call-in questions from viewers and explore some really interesting stuff. But I’m mostly interested in this clip, [...]

Filed under: Narrative, New Media, TV Industry, TV Shows, Viewers   |  3 Comments
Tags: Lost