The Walking Dead (Patterson)

Introduction
The “wired world” has created many new possibilities for authors, texts and readers. The most notable is its accessibility. Before the internet the only way a reader would be able to connect with an author would be to mail a letter to the author’s publisher or a face to face meeting at a book signing. Now authors can actively seek out their readers or fans on websites, and social media networks. This has caused a shift in the way authors and readers interact. No longer is the interaction just author writes text and the reader reads the text. Now the reader can interact with texts and can even interact with the author. This has narrowed the gap between the author and reader. This has even changed what we call the author text and reader. The author has become the creator because they are no longer limited to story writing. The text has become the mediation because the form of media that is bringing people together is no longer limited to words on paper. Finally the reader has become the consumer in regards to how they now interact with the medium. This new “wired world” has changed the way people interact and what is defined as a text or literature. The definition of text has expanded to include music, video games, art, film and TV. Books are no longer seen as the only forms of literature there is now electronic literature.



With the rise and the accessibility of the internet it has become increasingly easy for people to interact with texts. Throughout this semester we have discussed in great detail the pro's and con's of technology and how it changed they ways in which people interact with literature today. It is only fitting that for our final projects we are allowed to analyze almost any medium that fits our newly acquired broad definition of a text. So for my final project I have decided to analyze the fan communities around The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is a very popular TV show on AMC that is based off the graphic novel of the same name. Due to the immense popularity of the show there is a fairly large online presence. In this Wiki I will discuss how the fans come together to discuss interpretive disputes, for example the Jenner whisper. I will also discuss how the show has inspired different remediation’s in such forms as fan fiction and memes. Lastly I will discuss how fans created knowledge communities such as The Walking Dead Wikia to pool their knowledge for communal and spoiling purposes.



The themes of the course that apply to my final project are remediation and the idea of Promethean forbidden knowledge. With technology continuing to evolve it is natural that certain media forms would also evolve. Whether or not this is viewed negatively for positively is dependent upon two different viewpoints. The positive viewpoint is that this new media both replaces old media and / or as in Douglas Rushkoff’s argument in “A Computer Ate My Book”, it gives the reader a greater appreciation for the old media. An example of the negative viewpoint comes from The Reading at Risk Report and it states that “electronic media, such as video games and internet, foster shorter attention spans and accelerated gratification.” Another major theme from this course is the idea of Promethean knowledge or knowledge within bounds. The Promethean theme is the idea that there is acceptable knowledge and forbidden knowledge and that Prometheus steals knowledge from the haves and gives it to the have not’s. This theme has been discussed in such readings as Paradise Lost, Frankenstein, and the Promethean mythology, as well as in the readings on Wikipedia and Spoiling Survivor.

The Jenner Whisper
There was much speculation as to what Jenner whispered to Rick in the season finale of the first season. There have been many debates as to what could have been said ranging from "Lori is pregnant" to the virus is airborne to the group is immune to the virus.

Shortly after the first season finale there was much speculation about what was said. On screened.com’s Walking Dead forum the subject was debated starting with a post from user CraigAA. His hypothesis was the Lori is pregnant idea. The posts that followed afterwards seemed to agree with the OP with the exception of a few who thought the show was going to follow what the comics did with the whisper and the two users who wrote sarcastic replies. The overall tone of the forum is courteous in how they communicate with each other and how they used spoiler warnings. There also did not seem to be any animosity between the posters who had read the comics and those who have not.



On the website Roamers and Lurkers, which is specifically dedicated to The Walking Dead community, one topic is “Is Jenner’s whisper really big news”? One commenter named backwoodsroamer expressed his apathy at the whole “Jenner whisper” mystery stating “With all the hype and speculation about "the whisper," no matter what the secret is we'll be disappointed. Nothing could be exciting enough to top the expectations we've built up. We're expecting a pony for Christmas. We're going to get a bucket of horse manure.” Anger is the feeling, on this site, that seems to be taking over the curiosity of the mystery of the Jenner whisper.

The producers of the show decided to follow the same storyline of the graphic novels almost to a tee and “the whisper” was no exception. The viewers who had read the graphic novels knew beforehand that Jenner told Rick that everyone was already infected with the virus. In the end the revelation of the “Jenner whisper” mystery was more of a whimper than the mind blowing explosion the producers of the show most likely thought it would be. Jason M. Wester lamented on his blog “I've read the comics, too, but this series has pleasantly deviated from the comics so much that I'd hoped the everyone-has-the-virus would have been dropped. I don't like that bit of zombie lore because, again, it doesn't really make sense if Zombie bites cause infection. What, the bite accelerates infection? Come on. I wish the secret had been more profound.” This quote appears to surmise a large portion of the opinions about the revelation of the "Jenner whisper" in that some fans wished that the show would have deviated from the original source a little bit more.

Fan Fiction/ Memes (Remediation)
Remediation is defined as a representation of one medium in another medium, or when a new medium replaces an old medium. Like any other form of media the television show “The Walking Dead” is subject to remediation. The TV show itself is a remediation of the graphic novel and the TV show inspired a video game as well. What I will be focusing on here is Fan fiction, Memes and the music video called “Carl Stay in the House!”

Fan Fiction
Fan fiction is a broad term for any fan labor that uses or references any character or storyline from another source. It can range from a fan writing a short story about a character in a novel or TV show to a reimagined movie of the original material. These works are always considered to not be apart of the orginal canon. Authors of fan fiction seem to follow two paths for their storyline, either fantasy or comical. In the fantasy storyline the author attempts to change the storyline from the original material to suit what they felt should have happened or they try to put themselves into the original content.The comedic style of fan fiction is when the author attempts to change to storyline with a humorous tone.

There is also the question about whether or not a remediation of the the original content by its original creator can be considered fan fiction. For example the writer of the comic, Robert Kirkman, is also one of many writers of the TV show. The question is that since Kirkman is a part of both mediums would the TV show still be considered fan fiction? The argument for the TV show being fan fiction is that there is some major changes to the original storyline and therefore the show is not a part of the original canon. The argument against the show being fan fiction is the fact that the creator of the comic is an executive producer of the show and therefore it can not be fan fiction if it is by the same author.

The type of fan fiction that I will be analyzing is the written story. The written story style of fan fiction seems to have more of the immediacy factor to it.The goal of immediacy is to make the reader forget that he or she is viewing a medium and therefore they become wrapped up into the story. This form of fan fiction enables the reader to become wrapped up in the story because the only thing that is reminding them that this is a media is the computer screen or the piece of paper, thats if the author of the story decided to print it.

On the website Fanfiction.net there is 364 stories written by fans about the TV show. I decided to analyze the first story on the website which is written by user KTGates. Her story follows the same plot line as the show but she added an extra character to the storyline. This character seems to follow the fantasy role frequently used by authors of fan fiction. KTGates main character is a young female who becomes a romantic interest of one of the original main characters. The author never really states her intentions as to why she wrote this story she just says "I wanted to write it and thought someone else might enjoy it." When she says that someone else might enjoy it she is most likely referencing a common theme among female fans of the show which is "Shane is hot", for evidence see the picture below. She does however state that she is not sure if she will finish the story because "SPOILER, Shane dies" at the end of season two. This story has 15 reviews, all of them are positive and as far as I can tell all the reviews are written by female members of fanfiction.net.

Memes
Another form of remediation is the meme. Memes are described as “a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena.”

The type of meme that is frequently used by fans of The Walking Dead is the internet meme. An internet meme is an idea that is formed and spread throughout the internet. Examples of this are hyperlinks, pictures, videos and hashtag’s. Memes are seen as an evolution of culture and are often humorous in nature.

The "Laughing Dead" is on tumblr where fans of the TV show post their memes and where tumblr users can like and reblog the images. The most frequently used meme on this tumblr is the image macro. An image macro is a picture that is superimposed with text that is humorous in nature.(see gallery for examples) The format for each macro usually follows the layout as a picture with the text added either at the top or bottom of the picture or both. Normally the text is in capital letters and the color is usually white. Sometimes the picture is framed by a black vignette and the text is in the bottom portion of the macro, which is a parody of motivational posters. What is interesting about this is that there seems to be some unspoken rules about what can or cannot be done to an image macro. There does not seem to be any official rules for tumblr other than their spoiler policy which states:


 * “SPOILER POLICY: Spoilers about the show will be posted here. However, any images with spoilers won't be posted until the first Thursday after the episode airs (in the USA) to give you a chance to catch up if you missed it. So you've been warned.”

Other than the spoiler policy, there does not seem to be any rules or codes of conduct.

The general themes of Memes that I found on The Laughing Dead was, Carl stay in the house, Lori is a slut/whore, Daryl the badass/ is awesome, T-Dog the lone black guy/silent, ninja zombie, and finally Hershel’s shotgun with infinite ammo. The humor in all of these memes are derived from love or hatred of certain characters, and complaints about the show. The "Carl stay in the house" and "Lori is a slut/whore" memes are examples of fans hating certain characters in the show. The fans hate Carl because of his tendency to wander off and get other characters killed, see Otis and Dale. The hate for Lori stems from the fact that she had relations with her husband and another man and does not seem to know who the biological father is. The "Daryl is a badass/awesome" meme comes from the fans love for a character that is under utilized in the show. These memes showcase his manliness in the season two episode Chupacabra, in which he killed two zombies by himself eventhough he had a arrow through his side and after killing said zombies he took their ears as trophies. The "T-Dog, Ninja Zombie and Hershel" memes all fall into the category of complaints about the show. For the T-Dog meme fans are humorously venting about the lack of diversity in show in that for a long portion of the season T-Dog was the only african american character on the show and to add insult to injury fans felt that T-Dogs character was marginalized on the show with maybe one line a show. The "Ninja Zombie" meme started after the eleventh episode of the second season when Dale was killed by Zombie that was inexplicably able to sneak up on a character that has been pulling guard duty the whole run of the show. The last major theme is the "Hershel has infinite ammo for his shotgun" meme, which started after the second season finale. During the zombie onslaught of the farm it appeared to fans that Hershels shotgun had an infinite amount of ammo which seemed to have angered fans due it not being based in reality, see Wonka meme for a rebuttal.

Carl Stay In The House
Another example of a remediation of the TV show is the song and video for “Carl stay in the house”. I found a link for the video on The Laughing Dead tumblr and the link directed me to YouTube. It is an original song written by an independent band called H2awesome and it plays on the fan popular meme “Carl stay in the house”. The “Carl stay in the house” meme reflects on how in the show Carl is almost always wandering around in the woods and this has led to other characters being killed. What makes this video interesting in respect to remediation is how it utilizes clips and stills from the show as well as still’s from other genres in pop culture. The video is a mesh of different forms a media such as video, music and photography. It has primarily positive reviews with 166 likes and 4 dislikes.



The video has 31 comments and most of them share the same sentiment that Carl sucks and this is funny. The only negative comment I found was from a poster called Missericcartmen and she seemed more concerned with continuity errors she stated “"it really sucks to have to shoot your best friend" Rick never shot Shane, he stabbed him.. Then Carl shot﻿ him..” Other than this comment everyone seems to have enjoyed the odd humor behind the song and video.

Collective Knowledge
Wikipedia and Wikias are websites that function as a base for collective knowledge on any specific subject. These websites function as a community, bringing together people with shared interests and hobbies. These communities rely on the participatory culture of their users to provide information on the specific subject and the users do not have to be considered legitimate experts in this field. Contributors to any form of a wiki does not have to have any formal education in the subject that they are contributing to, but they do have to have some form of specialized knowledge. This breaks down the "expert paradigm" in that anyone can become a specialist, and each person can have something to contribute. This is especially true for The Walking Dead. It is very unlikely that there are any Rhodes scholars who are writing their dissertation on the comic or the TV show but Wikia users are constantly adding more information to the Wikia.

The Wikia for The Walking Dead covers all forms of remediation starting with the Comic, then TV show, and finally the video game. At this point there is a total of 869 pages on this wikia. The knowledge community that I will be focusing on in this Wiki is for season three of the TV show. The page for the third season contains mostly development history such as when the show was renewed for a third season all the way to where and when the season will start shooting. Although there seems to be a large amount of information about when and where the season will start a large portion of the information that was added to the Wikia is not cited. However of the information that is cited all of them appear to be from official interviews from the producers and not any leaked information. I expect that once the show starts filming at the end of the month there will be more activity on this part of the Wikia.

Spoiler Culture
As with any media, fans will try to find any piece of information or spoilers about the fiction of their choice prior to its official release. This has created the spoiler culture, in which fans come together almost obsessively to figure out these spoilers. In Henry Jenkins: “Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Culture”, he discusses the spoiler culture using examples of how far people will go to find out about the sixth season of survivor and he also discusses how it works and what holds it together. Jenkins argues that spoiling communities work best when “people are contesting every claim that gets made, taking nothing at face value”. Jenkins also argues that what holds the spoiling community together is not just the possession of knowledge, which is fleeting, but “the social process of acquiring knowledge, which is dynamic and participatory, continually testing and reaffirming the groups social ties." This seems to indicate that spoiling is an ongoing process and that there is no finishline so there can be no winners or losers in spoiling.

There is also the link between the spoiler culture and the Promethean theme. Those who post spoilers on any website for any medium are doing the same thing that Prometheus did for humans. The posters steal the information (fire) from the producers (Titans or Gods) and give them to the fans (humans). This information is also considered forbidden knowledge because the producers of the show want to keep the major spoilers under wraps until the point in which they want to reveal them. It’s this forbidden knowledge that makes fans go to great lengths to figure out this information not unlike an intriguing mystery.

On the CNN article “How the spoiler culture (mostly) spared ‘The Cabin in the Woods’” by Henry Hanks, It discusses how producers and directors of film and TV have to go to great lengths to prevent leaks of spoilers. Hanks discusses TWD plan for spoiler prevention, “ ‘The Walking Dead’ executive producer Glen Mazzara recently told reporters about a ‘security task force,’ led by producer Gale Ann Hurd, creator Robert Kirkman and ‘computer savvy’ Scott Kimple. Their job is to make sure leaks about the show's many secrets don't appear online.”CNN article. Hanks also goes into the producers plans of action if there happens to be a leak, he quotes Mazzara again stating "And we try to see where leaks are coming from and if they're accurate or they're not and then trying to get stuff taken down and it's really like trying to sweep back the ocean." The comment "its really like trying to sweep back the ocean" shows that the producer is well aware of the power of knowledge communities and spoiler culture on the internet and also he seems aware that he is outmanned and outgunned. So far this is the only information I could find discussing the producers game plan for when or if there are major spoiler leaks.

The spoiler culture for The Walking Dead Wikia is not as in-depth as other mediums can be, spoiling survivor as an example of a very in-depth spoiler community. This may also be a case of there may not be too much information out there to spoil at this time. The third season does not start filming until the end of May so once filming begins there could be a shift in the availability of information that could leak onto the internet.

Links and Resources
http://www.amctv.com/shows/the-walking-dead

http://walkingdead.wikia.com/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_Wiki

http://the-walking-dead-funny.tumblr.com/