Multi-Mediated Texts

Many have discussed the transition from text, such as comics, to the Internet; but, one thing I have found interesting is the interactive role of the audience with television shows, and the transition television shows can take across other forms and media. For example, Passions is a soap opera. Shortly after it began airing in 1999, the soap had a call in and Internet space to vote off any characters the audience disliked. The character of Kay was changed because of this. The authorship of the show seemed to change as the audience had a more overt role, however brief, in the show (similar to American Idol, but the difference was that show was founded on audience votes, whereas soaps do not readily employ this interaction). Now Passions not only existed as a series of fixed plots and characters because the audience had a say (at least in the beginning). Even though the show was the highest rated among my age group, its network was facing financial trouble with its two soaps, so it went for greater audiences. Passions' website was revamped and advertised, and many characters created blogs to interact with audience members. The soap opera was no longer limited to its air spot, and it was reaching beyond the realm of a soap opera (a pre-made show that simply aired, nothing more). It was now showing daytime, online, and you could talk with your favorite actor/actress. Then, the show faced cancellation, and network sold the show. When the show moved, a new part was added: a call-in talk show. Now Passions had expanded its space of existence from a soap opera to a talk show. Audiences now didn't have to settle for conversing with their favorite soap stars, they could talk to the "actual" characters. The actors and actresses stayed in character throughout the talk show, answering fan calls about their characters, and interacting with other characters who were on the talk show that day. (Unfortunately, its new network was seeing the end of their contract with the show and pondering the fan-hated word "cancelled," and the talk show ended.) Passions lived as a script, a fixed television show, a fan-informed television show, an Internet space, and a talk-show. Certainly, its authorship shifted and transformed through those mediums. But, in general, I think because this show emerged in a technologically advanced time around and of the new millennium, its harder for us to say that, though Passions has changed mediums and may continue to do so, its still a network product than it is to take an iconic text (such as Sherlock Holmes or Peanuts) that is so readily identified with a particular author or medium and accept those authorship and medium changes as equally valid or acknowledged.