Transmedia
About the Book Series
This series provides a platform for cutting-edge research in the field of media studies, with a strong focus on the impact of digitization, globalization, and fan culture. The series is dedicated to publishing the highest-quality monographs (and exceptional edited collections) on the developing social, cultural, and economic practices surrounding media convergence and audience participation. The term ‘media convergence’ relates to the complex ways in which the production, distribution, and consumption of contemporary media are affected by digitization, while ‘participatory culture’ refers to the changing relationship between media producers and their audiences. Both developments have required substantial (and still ongoing) redefinitions of existing media platforms, as the rapid interactions between technological developments and socio-cultural practices continue to pose challenges as well as offer new opportunities for media scholars from a variety of academic disciplines.
Interdisciplinary by its very definition, the series will provide a publishing platform for international scholars doing new and critical research in relevant fields. While the main focus will be on contemporary media culture, the series is also open to research that focuses on the historical forebears of digital convergence culture, including histories of fandom, cross- and transmedia franchises, reception studies and audience ethnographies, and critical approaches to the culture industry and commodity culture.
The series revolves around the following key themes:
The effects of digitization and media convergence on global, national, and transnational popular culture(s)
Shifting cultural hierarchies in the media landscape
Cultures and histories of fandom in the context of globalization and digitization
Media archaeology and (pre-)histories of media transformations
New storytelling practices in the context of convergence culture, franchising, and world-building
The political economies of global digital culture
Fanfiction and the Author: How Fanfic Changes Popular Cultural Texts
1st Edition
By Judith Fathallah
January 10, 2026
The production, reception and discussion of fanfiction is a major aspect of contemporary global media. Thus far, however, the genre has been subject to relatively little rigorous qualitative or quantitative study-a problem that Judith M. Fathallah remedies here through close analysis of fanfiction ...
World Building: Transmedia, Fans, Industries
1st Edition
Edited
By Marta Boni
January 10, 2026
Thanks to modern technology, we are now living in an age of multiplatform fictional worlds, as television, film, the Internet, graphic novels, toys and more facilitate the creation of diverse yet compact imaginary universes, which are often recognisable as brands and exhibit well-defined identities...
Adaptation in the Age of Media Convergence
1st Edition
Edited
By Johannes Fehrle, Werner Schäfke-Zell
January 09, 2026
This collection considers new phenomena emerging in a convergence environment from the perspective of adaptation studies. The contributions take the most prominent methods within the field to offer reconsiderations of theoretical concepts and practices in participatory culture, transmedia ...
Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures
1st Edition
By Nicolle Lamerichs
January 09, 2026
To dismantle negative stereotypes of fans, this book offers a media ethnography of the digital culture, conventions, and urban spaces associated with fandoms, arguing that fandom is an area of productive, creative, and subversive value. By examining the fandoms of Sherlock, Glee, Firefly, and other...
A Transmedia Archaeology of Film Promotion Online: Horror Ballyhoo and Fantastic Nostalgia
1st Edition
By Kim Walden
January 08, 2026
At a time when more films are released annually than there are days in the year, films must compete for audience attention. As a result, promotional budgets have risen exponentially with online becoming the fastest growing sector. Film websites don’t just promote films, they chronicle backstories, ...
Doctor Who and Gay Male Fandom: A Queer(ed) Transmedia Franchise
1st Edition
By Mike Stack
December 01, 2025
Doctor Who is a BBC transmedia franchise that has lasted over sixty years. Its fanbase boasts a substantial following of gay men. This book asks why this should be. Through examining four core components, the Doctor, the TARDIS, the companion and the Daleks, this book traces the trajectory of ...
Fanvids: Television, Women, and Home Media Re-Use
1st Edition
By E. Charlotte Stevens
December 01, 2025
Fanvids, or vids, are short videos created in media fandom. Made from television and film sources, they are neither television episodes nor films; they resemble music videos but are non-commercial fanworks that construct creative and critical analyses of existing media. The creators of ...
Film Authorship in Contemporary Transmedia Culture: The Paratextual Lives of Asian Auteurs
1st Edition
By Wikanda Promkhuntong
December 01, 2025
Film Authorship in Contemporary Transmedia Culture: The Paratextual Lives of Asian Auteurs examines film authorship in the transmedia era whereby film directors have become public figures through a wide range of textual, material, and performative practices. The book draws on the notion of paratext...
Making European Cult Cinema: Fan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy
1st Edition
By Oliver Carter
December 01, 2025
Fans of cult films don't just watch the movies they love-they frequently engage with them in other, more creative ways as well. Making European Cult Cinema explores the ways in which that fandom could be understood as an alternative economy of fan enterprise, through a close look at how fans ...
Music Generations in the Digital Age: Social Practices of Listening and Idols in Japan
1st Edition
By Rafal Zaborowski
December 01, 2025
What do we do when we listen? The act of engagement with music in everyday life may seem simple on the surface but participation, interpretation, circulation and cultural production in the digital age are more complex and entangled than ever before. It is especially so in Japan, with its vast ...
Theme Park Fandom: Spatial Transmedia, Materiality and Participatory Cultures
1st Edition
By Rebecca Williams
December 01, 2025
Theme Park Fandom argues that serious study of theme parks and their adult fans has much to tell us about contemporary transmediality and convergence, themed and immersive spaces, and audience relationships with places of meaning. Considering the duopoly of Disney and Universal in Orlando, the book...
Theoretical Perspectives on Fan Scholarship in the Franchise Era
1st Edition
By Sophie Charlotte van de Goor
December 01, 2025
This book is a practical and theoretical guide for anyone interested in researching popular media, popular culture, audiences, and fans. Unlike most books, Theoretical Perspectives does not talk about media texts or fan communities. Instead, it critically explores the workings of fan scholarship: ...