Session five

One of the most interesting discussions in Hollywood Gamers is the discussion of intertextuality.  The notion of intertextuality draws from literary theory and media studies. Audiences have relationships to characters and texts that go beyond what is in the text. This concept covers a range of these relationships. Brookey shows how this notion can explain videogames and industry-wide practices. He shows how these practices are shared among videogame and film industries for the economic and commercial reasons. The word synergy captures these reasons well.

Brookey, drawing on writings by John Fiske, makes a distinction between primary textual materials (actual content of games), secondary texts (materials that are used to promote the games) and tertiary texts (content generated by fans and consumers). Intertextuality, in Fiske’s definition, describes the relationship among primary, secondary and tertiary texts. An additional distinction is made between intertextuality that is produced by fans and interpretative activities and intertextuality that is produced by the media creators themselves. Intertextuality that is created by media producers contributes to the kind of specialized knowledge that invites more consumption of media created around the original text. This is one effective way, as Brookey says, producers create fan cultures “from the top down.”

A factor that leads to further creation of fan cultures and increase in the creation of user-generated content is digital media or new media. Media industries have realized that digital media are important in addressing fans, as Brookey argues. “Digitextuality” is a term that helps us understand this context better: new media have contributed to “new interactive protocols, aesthetic features, transmedia interfaces, and end-user subject positions” (Everett cited in Brookey, p. 73).

Once again, what is unique in Brookey’s presentation is that he shows the commercial features and economics of the industrial practices in film and videogame industries, the aesthetics of the games, and the choices available to audiences are related in specific ways.

Mel Brooks satirizes intertextuality as he comments on “merchandising,” where “the real money” is made from the movie!