Abouelnasr 1

The American University in Cairo

New Media and Participatory Democracies

The extent to which new media web series’, namely ​Lonelygirl15​ and ​The Lizzie

Bennet Diaries,​ have ushered in an era of participatory democracy

Maya Abouelnasr

RHET 1020 (Research Writing)

December 2018
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Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Remediation and Convergence 4

Interactivity and Participatory Culture [Web 2.0] 6

Connectivity 9

Evaluation 12

Conclusion 14

Works Cited 16
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Introduction

Since the 1990s, the way in which people from all corners of the globe communicate with

each other has greatly evolved. Some of the markedly evolved characteristics include easier and

cheaper accessibility to information and faster communication. Moreover, this has allowed for

the sculpting of online cultures, wherein content is user-generated, interactive, and participatory,

especially on online video-sharing websites, such as YouTube. In 2005, YouTube was launched

as a video-sharing website and most of its content included amateur productions, vlogs, cat

videos, and little skits prior to the multinational technology company Google’s purchase of

YouTube in 2006 (Hall 133). In 2006, the video-sharing and rising social media platform’s

storytelling capabilities were made evident when the web series ​Lonelygirl15​ debuted on the

platform, even though it was perceived to be content from a real vlogger and not a web series

initially (Lonelygirl15).

Lonelygirl15​ follows Bree, a 16 year-old girl, as she documents her quest to escape from

The Order, a secret organization affiliated with her cultist religion, the Hymn of One, with the

help of her best friend, Daniel, and others she meets along the way through her video blogs or

diaries on YouTube. ​Lonelygirl15​, in recognizing and exploring YouTube’s storytelling

capabilities, paved the way for several web series that came after – many of which have

accredited ​Lonelygirl15​ as a source of inspiration. A notable web series that came out after

Lonelygirl15​ and built on its storytelling techniques was the 2012 ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,​

which is a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s ​Pride and Prejudice​ that employs a stationary

vlog-style narrative storytelling method to heighten immersion (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries).
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Both ​Lonelygirl15​ and ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries​ transformed the way in which fans

communicated and participated within their fandoms and niche groups. This paper will be

investigating the extent to which new media web series’, namely ​Lonelygirl15 a​ nd ​The Lizzie

Bennet Diaries​, have ushered in an era of participatory democracy through their remediated and

convergent, interactive and participatory, and connected online culture.

Remediation and Convergence

“Remediation,” coined by American new media scholars Jay David Bolter and Richard

Grusin, is a theory that aims to offer a complex framework for “repurposing” within new media

(Bolter et al. viii). Remediation theory is dictated by a double logic, which is comprised of

immediacy and hypermediacy (Bolter et al. 5-6). According to the theory, immediacy, or

heightened immersion, and hypermediacy, a reminder of artificiality, are thought to yield a

degree of verisimilitude due to the awareness of the unnaturalness of what is being viewed

heightening the audience’s diversion and entertainment whilst fulfilling tension release needs

(Tepper 47). Recently, there has been a shift in the way creators target audiences, wherein the

focus has evolved from being distribution-oriented to being circulation-oriented, which has aided

in fostering participatory cultures​ ​through high spreadability and transmediality (Jenkins et al. 3).

Transmediality, otherwise known as transmedia storytelling, which means “across media,” is

meant to enhance storylines and create a cohesive and systematized form of entertainment, albeit

within the same platform or through the employment of several different platforms (Jenkins,

Convergence Culture 9​ 6).

Remediation is aided by transmedia storytelling in repurposing or rather, remedying the

limitations of old media whilst converging with the old to have a foundation to stem from.
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According to Henry Jenkins, an American media scholar, this merger and repurposing cycle

results in the fostering of convergence cultures, collective intelligence, and participatory cultures

(Jenkins, ​Convergence Culture 2).​This is accomplished through targeting niche audiences,

which, in turn, creates collective intelligence, or power that fosters media creators, producers,

and shapers out of audience members and can then be applied across several fields in the media

(ex. recreational purposes or vocational purposes).

In ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,​ the same key plot points occur as in ​Pride and Prejudice,​

such as Mrs. Bennet desperately wanting her daughters finding eligible, wealthy bachelors to

marry, Elizabeth meeting Darcy and allowing her prejudice to blind her in her judgment of his

actions and behaviors, and so on (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries). Notable changes include

modernizing Mr. Collins’ marriage proposal into a job proposal and Lydia’s eloping with Mr.

Wickham into a sextape scandal, which will be discussed later in the paper. As the adaptation is

told through vlogs in a first-person manner, as opposed to the novel’s third-person manner,

retellings of particular instances seek to emphasize Lizzie’s prejudice and her inability to

overlook her prejudices due to her pride, which is often commented on by her sister, Jane, and

her best friend, Charlotte. One way that her exaggerated and skewed retellings of events is

depicted is through costume theater, wherein Lizzie recreates these events and impersonates the

person or people whom she is gossiping about. This is done alone or with the help of other

characters, such as Lydia, Charlotte, and Jane. Remediation’s double logic was, thus,

accomplished through modern alterations to late 18th Century-early 19th Century values in the

novel in order to heighten relevance and consequently, immediacy whilst hypermediacy was

accomplished through costume theater and through, as previously mentioned, the nature of the
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web series as an adaptation, thus reminding audiences of the set-in-stone fictitious nature of the

story.

Meanwhile, in ​Lonelygirl15​, remediation’s double logic was accomplished through a

heightened degree of immediacy in fan involvement in solving puzzles and cracking codes to aid

Bree in her escaping The Order whilst hypermediacy was made evident through the more science

fiction and supernatural aspects of the characters’ mission whilst enhancing the levels of

immediacy, or immersion, and therefore, resulting in verisimilitude (Lonelygirl15).

According to Henry Jenkins, “convergence is both a top-down corporate-driven process

and a bottom-up consumer-driven process” (Jenkins, ​The Cultural Logic of Media Convergence

37). This means that media companies or corporations are attempting to increase circulation and

the flow of content by utilizing, for instance, transmedia, wherein consumers are immersed in an

interactive and participatory world that they then share with others across multiple platforms.

Meanwhile, consumers are acquainted with and introduced to these heightened

immersion-evoking platforms, or Web 2.0 platforms, and learn how to take control of the

content. Whilst this is usually encouraged, it can also be viewed as overstepping boundaries, if

viewers attempt to insert themselves in a manner that has not been implied or suggested by the

creators. In doing so, this can make consumers unsure as to the extent their participation extends.

This comments on the simultaneous exploitative and empowering consequence of involvement

of audiences, which will be elaborated on further in the next section, with transmedia.

Interactivity and Participatory Culture [Web 2.0]

As previously mentioned, transmedia storytelling is often employed in web series’ to

heighten the fan-character relationships and immediacy/hypermediacy within the series’

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participatory audiences. This, however, is not native to new media and can be traced as far back

as the 1700s with communal book readings and extractable paraphernalia that resulted in

heightened immersion (Prior). Interactivity is aided by the platform’s functions and capabilities.

For instance, this can be seen in YouTube comments sections and their effect on remedying

limitations pertaining to the limited feedback and distance barriers of the past. This aids in

fostering participatory cultures in which audiences are also media creators and are immersed into

a world where they can interact with other fans and the characters. These sites where

participatory cultures and user-generated content is made are also referred to as Web 2.0.

Transmedia in ​Lonelygirl15​ was a somewhat mandatorily viewed aspect of the world to

fully partake in the "community-based collaborative storytelling" that the creators sought

(Bakioğlu 186). This included several YouTube channels and a forum. The ​LG15 ​characters

often asked the viewers to help solve puzzles, of which the viewers willingly participated

through the ​LG15​ forum and comments sections, alongside doing research on their own accord

and uploading to the forums for fan and character community discussions. Whilst fans helped

solve puzzles and interacted with the characters on ​LG15​ forums, they were not involved in the

construction of the story and the ultimate outcomes, which could be seen through the failed

attempts of some trying to insert themselves into the world and write themselves in as canon

characters – a form of participation they believed they had through the creators referring to the

series’ storytelling method as “community-based collaborative storytelling” (Bakioğlu 186). The

backlash received from having been deceived on the grounds of Bree being a real person and not

having been explicitly informed of the extent to which participation extended amounted to

viewers expressing disappointment in the comments sections and on the ​LG15​ forum.
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Conversely, Allegra Tepper, an arts and entertainment journalist, demonstrated how ​The

Lizzie Bennet Diaries​ employed and incorporated transmedia and fan engagement without

misleading viewers or having them overestimate their role through the heightened degrees of

immersion through mirroring relevant, real-life happenings (Tepper 45). The creators of the web

series ensured there were fan engagement opportunities wherein fans interacted with the

characters and co-created the atmosphere in which the story resides by discussing with other fans

and devoting their time to the series, but they were made aware that they could not co-write. This

was also already likely known through the nature of the web series as an adaptation of a

pre-existing story with modernizing alterations. Transmedial elements included all characters’

Twitter accounts, Lizzie and Lydia’s YouTube channels, various other YouTube channels, Jane’s

Lookbook, and various characters’ Tumblr accounts, and the books that provide written versions

of Lizzie’s video diaries with more details and Lydia’s life after the video diaries and sextape

scandal. In using more than one platform and using platforms that serve different purposes, the

creators targeted niche audiences within an already narrowcast audience. This can be seen in the

example of Lookbook, which appeals to viewers who like fashion and thus, allows them to

interact within other niches in the same world simultaneously. Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium

is the message” can be applied here to explain the value of employing various platforms, as the

forms and functions of each evoke different responses and serve to add to the world-building in a

different manner (McLuhan 7-9).

As per remediation’s double logic of hypermediacy and immediacy yielding a degree of

verisimilitude, the employment of transmedia in heightening fan-character relationships accounts

for the heightened interactivity, empowerment, and engagement in participatory cultures in the
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case of both ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ​and ​Lonelygirl15​. Meanwhile, the framework can also

serve as a way to explain the feeling of betrayal and exploitation as a result of misleading claims

and overestimating involvement due to the yielded verisimilitude and heightened levels of

immediacy prior to the merger of immediacy and hypermediacy when it was found out that

Lonelygirl15’​ s Bree was not a real person.

Connectivity

Connectivity and high scope of reach is a new media characteristic that has remedied the

limitations of old media in which timely audience feedback was limited to immediate proximity

and excluded international audiences, whose feedback was received much later. This can be seen

in old media through the example of the letters to the editor of a newspaper, wherein letters from

outside of the origin country would be inserted weeks or months after having been sent. This

heightened online connectivity can also be referred to as the “global village,” a term coined by

Marshall McLuhan in which he states that the world has become a community as a result of

electronic media eliminating audience distance and isolation barriers in communications

(McLuhan 106).

In the case of ​Lonelygirl15​, the audience initially thought Bree was a real person until

fans began to fear for her safety as the issues she discussed in her videos escalated, alongside the

fact that some fans picked up on inconsistencies that detracted from the authenticity of the show

(​jm42892; ​Lonelygirl15​). Fan websleuths proceeded to search for her in order to ultimately prove

or disprove the character’s authenticity. The search led websleuths to find out that Bree was an

actress named Jessica Rose through an embedded IP address on her character MySpace page,

which redirected websleuths to a talent agency in Los Angeles (Hillrichs 72). This also
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comments on the invasive nature of social platforms, wherein users are able to become adept at

coding and tracking online in order to conduct such a search. Moreover, despite finding out

about this deception and despite being misled into thinking they could insert themselves as canon

characters due to the creators introducing some of the canon characters as mere viewers and fans

at first, those who had committed themselves to the series and overlooked the truth being

withheld stayed and watched the rest of the series, during which they helped Bree and her friends

solve puzzles and interacted with the characters in the comments sections and ​LG15​ forum

(Bakioğlu 194-197; CourtxKnee, and Terryfic). This can be seen in the following posts from

viewers on the ​LG15 ​forum on the day that the creators of the show sent out a message, thanking

fans for their support after the nature of the channel as a web series had been revealed,

(CourtxKnee, and Terryfic)

In Jane Austen’s ​Pride and Prejudice​, one of the key events that take place is when

Lydia, the youngest Bennet, and George Wickham, Mr. Darcy’s childhood friend-turned-enemy,

elope (Tepper 49). A modern retelling of this event occurs in the form of Lydia being misled by
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George into thinking that he loved her at a time when her sisters, Jane and Lizzie, seemed to be

neglecting her, thus bringing up her insecurities about being inadequate in comparison to her

sisters (TheLydiaBennet). George harps on their lack of appreciation by assuring her of the

opposite to win her over and he eventually succeeds. As their relationship progresses, he coerces

her into making a sextape, which is later posted online and has a time stamp on it. When fans

found the link to this site, which was functional for the purposes of transmedia and interactivity,

they were enraged, as they were aware of Wickham’s deceitful personality from the novel and

the series up until that point. Some fans in the comments sections repeatedly asked if anyone

knew how to perform a DDoS, or distributed-denial-of-service, attack on the website to

overwhelm its traffic and make the servers crash before it was expected to go live, as far as they

knew. This type of response also made its way to Tumblr, as seen in the following,

(The iBetch)
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One of the co-producers, Bernie Su, and the transmedia producer, Jay Bushman,

responded to The iBetch’s Tumblr post, urging everyone to not execute a DDoS attack, as it

would cost the production money and time, alongside ruin the series’ plans for the storyline (Su).

Though heightened connectivity is established, a ceiling of participation is placed, which,

in the case of ​LG15, p​ erplexed​ ​the viewers as to what they could do to insert themselves into the

story, albeit on a helping basis or acting basis. This led to a form of exploitation and betrayal

occurring amongst viewers, but was short-lived. Meanwhile, ​LBD ​viewers had wanted to seize

an opportunity, but knew the conditions beforehand. In both cases, viewers wanted to connect on

a deeper level than what transmedia alone provided them with, namely by attempting to, in the

case of ​LG15​, or implying an attempt to insert themselves, in the case of ​LBD,​ to add to the

narrative and portray their dedication to the series’ and their characters.

Evaluation

In his 1973 book ​Democratic Theory,​ Crawford Macpherson, a Canadian political

scientist, stated that capitalism is built on exploitation and thus, participatory democracies and

cultures cannot be fostered (Fuchs 4). This paper aims to update that belief, as per the

technologies and advancements that have occurred since 1973, by exhibiting web series’ as one

of the many examples of Web 2.0 to prove that a participatory democracy can exist, albeit with

capitalistic undertones.

In her 2006 Eureka Street article, titled “Lonelygirl15 exposes the Net’s illogical sense of

community,” Marisa Pintado, a communications assistant, remarked that web series’ where

authenticity is questioned are subject to debate over whether or not communities on the internet

are logical or illogical with regards to their expectations of authenticity, as it has been made easy
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for individuals to craft personas on the Internet (20). Given that ​LG15​ aired in 2006 when

YouTube had only been founded a year earlier and online video was still fairly new as a whole,

its storytelling capabilities had not be considered by the public and especially not as a platform

for web TV, alongside the fact that the assumption was that authenticity was guaranteed as a

result of such ideas not having been widely discussed. This also adds a layer to the question of

whether or not online participatory democracy is fostered if deception is at play. Real-life

democracies are often thought to be flawed in the sense that as capitalistic systems oftentimes, in

line with Macpherson’s theory on real-life participatory democracies, the existence of a pure

democratic exchange of ideas cannot exist with a profit-oriented focus.

With the shift from distribution-oriented marketing to circulation-oriented marketing with

the introduction of Web 2.0 platforms, the goal is to achieve a high degree of spreadability; of

transmediality, wherein content spans several platforms to reach and appeal to different types of

people on different platforms in a narrowcast manner, rather than distribute to one, specific

platform. This heightens immersion and connectivity. Moreover, this shift has remedied, or

remediated, the former distribution-oriented focus, wherein the goal was to release and present

content on a general, broadcast platform. In the case of ​Lonelygirl15 ​and ​The Lizzie Bennet

Diaries​, this is exemplified through world-building and simultaneously allowing for viewers to

co-create the world through their interactions and participation during pivotal events.

Contrary to Macpherson’s belief that participatory democracy and culture cannot be

achieved under a capitalistic system, Jenkins, Ford, and Green, in their book ​Spreadable Media:

Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture,​ ​posit that audiences care more about their

social integrative, affective, and tension release needs, otherwise known as uses and
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gratifications, being fulfilled and are aware of exploitative elements, thus implying that

democracy is maintained through awareness in a manner that is unique to online media (Fuchs

4-11; Kane).

Conclusion

Today’s digital world can be broken down and defined as a participatory democracy by

employing multiple areas for evaluation. Web series production touches on the evolution of

online video and the transformation from being amateur productions and being employed as a

social media video-sharing site to a site that can be used to produce web serials and reimagine

television, alongside as an extension of the Web 2.0 concept in which tension release, social

integrative, and affective needs are fulfilled..

Through these vlog-style series’, the fourth wall is broken and heightened levels of

immediacy ensue. This is then accompanied by hypermediacy with the reminder of artificial

aspects, such as costume theater and sci-fi components, to fully transform the degree to which

verisimilitude is yielded, alongside overall heightened connectivity and the fostering of a

participatory, interactive online culture. The way in which these web series’ have ushered in a

participatory democracy can be investigated through looking to new media characteristics and

evaluating how they have become more about the consumer than the producer, even if

exploitation by producers is still a possible outcome. The specific new media characteristics that

apply include remediation, convergence, interactivity, participatory cultures, and connectivity. It

should be noted, however, that these are not native to new media, but they have been repurposed

within new media. The aforementioned characteristics aid each other in creating a multifaceted

online community or group of communities and have, in the case of web series’, allowed for a
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furthering of Web 2.0 within the broadcast medium with a web version of television, alongside

remedying the limitations of old media whilst converging with its programming strategies for

foundation’s sake.

The argument made in this paper is that participatory democracies ​do​ exist, but more so

as pseudo-democracies that build on the idea of Web 2.0 by employing the engaging aspects of

new media characteristics as a whole, using online video storytelling and transmedial web serials

as models. The aspect that makes these participatory democracies illusory is the fact that they are

strictly online, but that does not take away from their effect on audiences and the way in which it

has remediated old media. Whilst Macpherson’s 1973 theory accounted for technologies and

modes of communication prior to then, this paper examines more recent examples and seeks to

demonstrate how it can exist, largely in part to the advanced technologies and platforms that

have been created since. Regardless of whether or not this form of democracy is illusory, it still

provides audiences with the fulfillment of tension release, affective, and social integrative needs.

As such, it can be concluded that ​The Lizzie Bennet Diaries​ and ​Lonelygirl15​ web series’,

as examples of Web 2.0, have indeed ushered in a form of participatory democracy.

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