Audience Engagement and Transmedia Adaptation: The Case of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Introduction

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every Jane Austen fan wants to become the heroine of a Jane Austen novel. These fans, better known as Janeites, have always dreamt about the possibility of living in Regency England and meeting their own Mr. Darcy, and transmedia storytelling can be used to finally make their dreams come true.

In this chapter, the author will analyse how transmedia storytelling can be used to engage the audience ― both a digital new audience and viewers that are already familiar with a story. In order to do this, a review of transmedia theories will be included. There are many authors (Jenkins, Pratten, or Scolari, among others) that have studied different aspects of this phenomenon so their theories should be addressed. Moreover, the role of the audience will also be considered due to the fact that viewers can simply be consumers or actively participate and create more content related to the fictional world (Hernández & Grandío, Guerrero, Lastra). Finally, the relation between transmedia and adaptation will also be mentioned to introduce transmedia web series.

In the second section of this paper, the object of study will be presented. In order to do this, the author will firstly take into consideration Austenmania as well as previous books, films and TV series that deal with fan phenomenon and manage to go beyond traditional stories and representations of Jane Austen. These productions succeed in introducing modern characters into Austen’s universe both figuratively through problems and dilemmas that must be solved (The Jane Austen Book Club) and literally by creating themed resorts or including fictional elements (Austenland, Midnight in Austenland, Lost in Austen) so that readers could identify with their conflicts and even believe that becoming a Jane Austen heroine was possible. Then, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will be presented. This transmedia web series adapts Pride and Prejudice, one of Jane Austen’s most famous novels, and is the object of study of the chapter. Its plot and the different strategies followed by the creators in order to build the narration will be explored. This series uses different platforms to recreate the original novel in a completely new context, which should be analysed.

Finally, the plan followed by the producers of the web series will be explored. First, the use of several platforms to narrate the story will be analysed. The personal accounts that the characters have on social networks and the secondary channels on YouTube are key in order to disseminate and construct the story so they should be analysed. Furthermore, the producers fixed permanent dates to upload the different videos; thus, viewers always knew when to expect them. Then, interaction will also be studied. The employment of social media platforms allows communication between the audience and the characters themselves. In fact, people can send messages to them and even ask questions that will be answered by the main characters in special videos. Finally, Darcymania will also be addressed to understand how fan phenomenon can also have an influence on audience engagement. Mr. Darcy is one of the most beloved characters in Jane Austen’s novels; therefore, he could attract and engage a specific part of the audience who is already familiar with the original story.

Consequently, this chapter aims to explore the use of transmedia to engage the audience. The author will focus on a specific web series, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, to show how this new format could be implemented to engage the audience and how new media platforms can be used to attract a new digital generation and blur the thin line between fiction and reality. Moreover, this web series is an adaptation of a previous famous novel; therefore, the possibility of exploiting an already existing fan phenomenon to captivate those viewers who are already familiar to the story should also be analysed.