Research Overview
Although my home department has been Comparative Literature, my exploration of narrative theory led me to examine the particulars of the medium. Such a line of research necessitates an interdisciplinary approach which includes textual studies, cultural studies, and the examination of the participatory culture that cross-media works elicit in the age of media convergence. This age of collaborative production, one marked by the intersection of old and new media, represents a radical cultural shift that blurs the lines between media producers and consumers. Adopting such a cross-disciplinary approach to narrative studies allows me to revisit the traditional understanding of narrative that emerged in the print era and develop more adaptable models for storytelling.
While these tendencies existed prior to the Internet technologies, I argue that they intensified with emerging online platforms. My dissertation, The Business of Storytelling: Production of Works, Poaching Communities, and Creation of Story Worlds, is an inquiry into the production of collaborative narratives across media. My analysis that begins with some experimental novels that challenge the capabilities of the print medium moves to an in-depth investigation of alternative forms of storytelling, mostly based on social media platforms, including video and image sharing sites, online games that use various Web sites, online forums, as well as chat channels, and virtual worlds. Accordingly, I investigate how stories evolve in video-sharing sites. Specifically, my study examines how Lonelygirl15 transformed YouTube into a legitimate storytelling platform by mobilizing a community-based narrative in which its fans not only generated various extensions to the story, but were also able to affect, albeit in a limited fashion, the direction of the story. Additionally, I explore the possibilities of chaotic fiction in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) which are used in alternative forms of marketing campaigns in promoting feature films, videogames, cars, and other new products. ARGs are an experimental gaming genre that blurs the lines between reality and fiction by conveying a fractured narrative through Web sites, text messages, snail mail, phone calls, and even real-life interactions. Finally, I explore the narratives generated by the disruptive activities of the griefer groups in Second Life, a 3D virtual world based on user-generated content, who attack the virtual world to not only spoil the experience of others, but render the virtual economy dysfunctional. I maintain that the activities of the griefer groups of Second Life, although they cause disruption, ultimately become agents of cultural production marked by vernacular creativity.
Currently, I am extending the research I have done thus far to focus primarily on the social, cultural, and economic repercussions of the production of these works. The ultimate goal behind such an endeavor is to examine how these repercussions are transforming communication, culture, and interpersonal relationships. As apparent from my dissertation, my research adopts a broader understanding of virtual spaces that includes not only 3D environments but also printed fiction and social media because, ultimately, these platforms generate virtual spaces in which users can produce and share various visual representations and experiences. As such, the collaborative storytelling initiatives that are taking place through these platforms facilitate the online performances of any given work, thereby enabling it to come alive, albeit within slightly different contexts.
Seeing how television has become relevant for online audiences, I plan on expanding my analysis to include how television shows are being extended through the distribution of online videos and games to develop story franchises and how these franchises, in turn, are negotiated in online communities.
The effects of collaborative production, however, are far more extensive than just engaging in alternative modes of storytelling. Such activities bear the potential to transform our society as they change the way we communicate and take part in cultural production. The role that emerging technologies play in dramatically transforming our mode (and the level) of participation in artifacts distributed through multiple channels also complicates this production process. In view of this, investigating the impact of the emerging participatory culture, and the technologies that facilitate such an impact, to better understand how stories, games, and images can go beyond the mere production of artifacts is my primary research question.
My previous research suggests that one such alternative mode of engagement emerges from the disruptive behaviors of the griefer communities in virtual worlds which have given birth to a particular type of cultural formations that display subcultural tendencies. These activities play out across a wide variety media and platforms, specifically, within non-elite contexts. I am also currently developing my research on how these anti-social activities give birth to a cultural production of a different kind and act as a catalyst that facilitate variegated transformations in virtual worlds. I am primarily examining the social, political, and economic strife that exists amongst the griefer groups themselves, in addition to the one that exist between the griefer groups and the locus of authority.
