Wired TV Wired TV Laboring Over an Interactive Future EDITED BY DENISE MANN Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wired TV : laboring over an interactive future / edited by Denise Mann. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8135-6454-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8135-6453-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8135-6455-5 (e-book) 1. Television broadcasting — United States. 2. Interactive television — United States. 3. Social media — United States. 4. Mass media — United States. I. Mann, Denise, editor of compilation. HE8700.8.W57 2013 384.3'1 — dc23 2013013408 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. Vincent Brook, “Convergent Ethn icity and the Neo-Platoon Show: Recombining Diff erence in the Postnetwork Era” originally appeared in Television & New Media 10, 4 (July 2009): 331 – 3 53. Derek Johnson, “Authorship Up for Grabs: Decentralized Labor, Licensing, and the Manage- ment of Collaborative Creativity” is adapted from material in Derek Johnson, Media Fran- chising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries (New York: New York University Press, 2013). Th anks and acknowledgment go to NYU Press for the kindness in allowing this material to be repurposed here. Th is collection copyright © 2014 by Rutgers, Th e State University Individual chapters copyright © 2014 in the names of their authors All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permis- sion from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. Th e only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defi ned by U.S. copyright law. Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction: When Television and New Media Work Worlds Collide 1 DENISE MANN 1 Authorship Up for Grabs: Decentralized Labor, Licensing, and the Management of Collaborative Creativity 32 DEREK JOHNSON 2 In the Game: Th e Creative and Textual Constraints of Licensed Video Games 53 JONATHAN GRAY 3 Going Pro: Gendered Responses to the Incorporation of Fan Labor as User-Generated Content 72 WILL BROOKER 4 Labor of Love: Charting Th e L Word 98 JULIE LEVIN RUSSO 5 Th e Labor Behind the Lost ARG: WGA’s Tentative Foothold in the Digital Age 118 DENISE MANN 6 Post-Network Refl exivity: Viral Marketing and Labor Management 140 JOHN T. CALDWELL 7 Fan Creep: Why Brands Suddenly Need “Fans” 161 ROBERT V. KOZINETS v vi • Contents 8 Outsourcing Th e Offi ce 176 M. J. CLARKE 9 Convergent Ethnicity and the Neo-Platoon Show: Recombining Diff erence in the Post-Network Era 197 VINCENT BROOK 10 Translating Telenovelas in a Neo-Network Era: Finding an Online Home for MyNetwork Soaps 223 KATYNKA Z. MARTÍNEZ 11 Th e Reign of the “Mothership”: Transmedia’s Past, Present, and Possible Futures 244 HENRY JENKINS Notes on Contributors 269 Index 273 Acknowledgments I undertook this collection thinking it would be a quick and easy endeavor — a cleansing of the palate, if you will — a ft er the long and arduous task of com- pleting a single-author book. Aft er putting this project aside multiple times to attend to various pressing demands, I looked up and realized that nearly a dozen scholarly books had been published on the topic of television in the dig- ital age. Th e presence of such strong and compelling works — all from unique and valuable perspectives — made the task of compiling this collection that much more daunting. Th erefore, I’d like to thank the fi rst-rate editorial team at Rutgers University Press and give a special acknowledgment to editor Leslie Mitchner for her early support of the project in its proposal stage and for her helpful comments, encouragement, and provocative suggestions on the manu- script when I fi nally delivered it. Situating this project in such a cluttered research space was made easier because of the original and insightful work of my contributors. In particular, I’d like to single out Henry Jenkins, who added yet another responsibility to his already overfl owing “to do” box by agreeing to co-chair our annual Trans- media Hollywood conference. Th is forum provided the perfect backdrop for researching this book’s themes by bringing together cutting-edge media makers and thought leaders from diverse corners of the entertainment indus- try and academia to debate issues attending the future of entertainment. Th e fi rst conference year was the most daunting. We had timed our launch in Los Angeles to coincide with the arrival of hundreds of media scholars in March 2010 to attend the annual Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) con- ference. Given our zealous desire to share the riches of our proximity to Hol- lywood, we also assembled a SCMS workshop at the Bonaventura Hotel and dubbed it “Th e Geek Elite Debates the Future of Entertainment.” Th e work- shop convened a truly elite group of television writer-producers — C arlton vii viii • Acknowledgments Cuse and Damon Lindelof (Lost), Tim Kring (Heroes), Kim Moses (Th e Ghost Whisperer), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Th e Middleman), and Mark Warshaw (Smallville, Heroes). All of them were laboring over the central questions that inform this collection: how to challenge themselves and their creative teams to embrace the transformative implications of the Internet and Web 2.0 in the context of an oft en rigid, opaque, and risk-adverse bureaucratic system like the network television industry. I remain indebted to each of these prominent cre- ators for their ongoing support as I continued to ply them with questions and requests for follow-up interviews while assembling this collection. Next, I’d like to thank my UCLA colleagues: Teri Schwartz, dean of the School of Th eater, Film, and Television, and William McDonald, chair of the Department of Film, TV, and Digital Media; my immediate workplace family, UCLA Producers Program faculty members Barbara Boyle, Ben Harris, and Myrl Schreibman, as well as my extended workplace family of over thirty busy, top-tier industry professionals, who agree to teach classes on behalf of our next-generation producers. I’d like to thank my adopted workplace family, the Cinema and Media Studies faculty members Janet Bergstrom, John Caldwell, Allyson Fields, Stephen Mamber, and Chon Noriega. In addition, I’d like to thank all the MA, MFA, and PhD students at UCLA for their direct and indi- rect contributions to this project through their insightful works and original ideas delivered during my seminars. In particular, I’d like to thank my research assistant and doctoral student Jessica Fowler for her careful copyediting and helpful suggestions. In addition, I’d like to thank several current and recent UCLA doctoral students — M. J. Clarke, Lindsay Giggey, Felicia Henderson, Drew Morton, Jennifer Porst, and Ben Sampson — whose exacting research and writing on the contemporary entertainment industry make teaching such a continued source of pleasure. Wired TV