Television as a traditional medium has been changing for a number of
years due to the development of a complex scenario characterized by the
growing proliferation of platforms across which multiple forms of media
are deeply interconnected. In this multi-modal environment, traditional
and modern media platforms have started to combine, revolutionizing both
the technology and the manner in which audiences engage with media
content of interest. Indeed, the progressive digitization of media
content and the fragmentation of television delivery and reception have
been affecting the ways in which media are accessed and consumed to the
point that the construction of textual boundaries has shifted from
producers to media consumers.
The research in the book is structured as a comparative study between
two distinct countries: Italy and New Zealand. These two countries have
been chosen as reference contexts for the investigation of audiences'
consumption behaviors because they represent non-dominant media markets,
both Anglophone and non-Anglophone, that remain to be properly studied
and explored. Although they tend to be conflated in generic audience
studies, national audiences represent strategic markets for the
circulation of international fiction. In investigating the consumption
modes that characterize the distribution of American television programs
in these cultural contexts, the aim is to provide insights into the
culturally specific similarities and differences that distinct audiences
disclose in consuming the same texts.
Game of Thrones and Mad Men have been selected as case studies
because they are substantial examples of trans-media narratives that
tell multiple stories over multiple platforms that together tell one big
pervasive story, attracting audience engagement. The methods employed
for gathering useful data for the comparative analysis were both
quantitative and qualitative. The first phase of data collection
consisted in the production of four online surveys: two in English for
Game of Thrones and Mad Men, respectively, and two in Italian. The
second phase of data production consisted of the organization of the
focus group sessions in, respectively, the city of Milan (Italy) and
city of Auckland (New Zealand).
