Analyse and reflect on ‘Shrek’ as a contemporary cross-platform media phenomenon/text that exemplifies media ‘in transition’, across ‘time’ and/or ‘space’. In doing so critically apply the key concepts of, Paratexts and Audience Participation as introduced within the unit.




(Picture from: http://www.sfrevu.com/ISSUES/2001/0104/9907%20Shrek/Shrek.htm)

Shrek is an animated fantasy-comedy film with the tag line, “The Prince isn’t charming. The princess isn’t sleeping. The sidekick isn’t helping. The ogre is the hero. Fairy tales will never be the same again.” Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson directed Shrek; it was produced by DreamWorks and released by DreamWorks Pictures in 2001. It is loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book, ‘Shrek!’, meaning arguably it serves as a parody film. A parody film is ‘a comedy that parodies other film genres or films as pastiches.’
Shrek follows the story of a giant green Ogre who lives in a swamp and in the first film is sent on a quest to rescue a damsel in distress for the king. He meets friends and foes along the way and it is a funny family film with a great soundtrack. Here is the trailer of the first film to help introduce the film and my key concept of this essay: 


(shrekonline, 2010)There are now 4 main films and the success of these films led to many more Paratexts being created. For example, there are now also two holiday special films; ‘Shrek the halls’ and ‘Scared Shrekless’, a spin off film ‘Puss in Boots’, video games, rides, action figures, ‘Shrek Adventure’ in London, a comic book and the stage musical. This is why through this essay when analysing the text ‘Shrek’ I will be analysing it through the key concept of Paratexts, along with Audience Participation.
Shrek is many 90’s kids childhood and has become a world phenomenon. It spreads over many age ranges and is just an all round great film. It has adult humour but is accompanied with a simple story line for children. Personally it was a main part of my childhood and I am shocked when I hear some people have not seen it. It is a must see film and brings a lot to the world of animated comedy. It is not just I exclaiming its success, it made $484.4 million at the worldwide box office, making the film a critical and commercial success. It also won the very first academy award for best-animated feature.

A contemporary cross-platform media text/phenomenon is a text, for example, a film or music video which has been created recently and is spread in some way over different platforms, making it a cross-platform media text. These platforms could include, a film, the Internet and in print. It is proving more and more difficult to find a piece of media that is not spread in some way over a cross-platform. For example when you think of something like, the Barbie and Ken dolls most 90’s kids played with, for a select few these dolls are all that springs to mind when you speak about ‘Barbie’ and ‘Ken’. However, there are now multiple films including these two characters, magazines and they even star in films such as ‘Toy story’. (Another example of a classic cross-platform media text.) This has all happened so quickly and easily that most people watched these films and read these magazines without even considering that ‘Barbie and Ken’ are anything other that those beloved toys you played with when you were young.

As cross-platform media is a lot more common now and it is so much more usual to see media provided on more than one platform, audiences are more likely to understand the texts, as a clearer understanding can be gained from the different aspects of an original text that we are shown.  This also means the text is more likely to succeed and develop as it is likely to have a larger audience. The audiences nowadays can be linked to different aspects of the text that without the availability of cross-platforms they would not have know existed.

Dwyer explains how “Convergence is understood as an ongoing process or series of intersections between different media systems and not a fixed relationship.” (Dwyer, 2010, p.24). If we look at this as the convergence between texts and Paratexts, it shows us how Paratexts can continue to develop, and as they do, they consequently develop the original text. It also explains how the Paratexts do not have a ‘fixed relationship’ and this looks at how a texts Paratext can differ from the original. For example with Shrek the film it has a fixed story line but if you go to ‘Shrek Adventure’, one of their main selling points is that the audience drive the story and their own adventure, meaning every persons experience is different, even though they have each gone in with the same original view of the text. This is a great way of showing that Paratexts help mould an individual’s interpretation of an original text and make it successful because its audience enjoys it for their own individual reasons.

A media text being spread and used across cross-platforms is quite a modern concept. The creation and evolution of The World Wide Web and Web 2.0 has made it more possible for the media texts to become phenomenon’s as their Paratexts can be spread and found more easily.  The World Wide Web was created by Tim Burners Lee in 1989 as a platform upon which software can be distributed. Then came the development of Web 2.0, coined by Darcy DiNucci in 1999. Which made it even easier for texts and Paratexts to be spread across the Internet as well as in other forms. It meant there was a large development in how media is spread and viewed on the Internet, mainly due to the increased uses of things such as, social networking sights, online magazines, e-commerce and websites such as YouTube. The World Wide Web and the development of Web 2.0 have aloud us to create such successful cross-platform media texts in the 20th and 21st century. It is increasingly difficult to find one of these media texts, which does not have some kind of Paratext linked to it. This shows just how successful they can be and make the original text. For example if an original text is a film, someone may only go and watch this film because they found a figurine of one of the characters in their happy meal from McDonalds. This figurine is an example of a Paratext and an example of how successful they can be.

The concept of Paratext is simply that other materials often surround the main text and these materials are known as the Paratext. These extras added to the original main text can change the audience’s perception and interpretation of the original text. As said, the Paratexts of Shrek include, the two holiday special films; ‘Shrek the halls’ and ‘Scared Shrekless’, a spin off film ‘Puss in Boots’, video games, rides, action figures, ‘Shrek Adventure’ in London, a comic book and the stage musical. Davidson has said, “Cross-media communications have to start somewhere. The idea forms and the process begins. Often, cross-media is considered after some media event is successful enough to become a tent pole and support other related media experiences” (Davidson, 2010, p.10). This can relate very well to media Paratexts as they follow the same concept and life. Without an original text there would be no need or way of creating any Paratexts, let along successful ones.

Paratexts enable a text to become a phenomenon as they spread the text over multiple platforms and reach out to a wider audience. The theorist Evans explains how, “the term ‘transmediality’ describes the increasingly popular industrial practice of using multiple media technologies to present information concerning a single fictional world through a range of textual forms” (Evans, 2011, p.1). This shows that Shrek having so many Paratexts, spread in different ways across so many different media platforms has helped increase its popularity, it has helped make it more well known and therefore made it more successful. This is backed up by Grossberg, Wartella and Whitney who explain, “People engage with specific products because in some way or form, they are interesting, they provide a certain measure of enjoyment, and they are pleasurable.” (Grossberg, Wartella, and Whitney, 2006, p.254). Showing that different people will engage with the different new aspects of Shrek, for example, theatregoers and gamers, not two people who usually associate with each other.

Leading on from analysing Shrek through Paratexts and how they effect it as a text, I also wanted to look at its Audience Participation. The concept of Audience Participation is that, it is the active involvement of an audience. Jenkins states that; “the circulation of media content across different media systems and competing economies - depends heavily on consumers’ active participation.” (Jenkins, 2007, p.3) This basically explains how without an audience let alone an active one a text would not survive and continue to expand.

So understanding the importance of a texts audience is key but also looking into the audience now as an author and thinking about were the power lies, looking into authorship and ownership. This has come about due to consumers becoming producers ‘prosumers’ and audiences textual poaching and the creation of fandom. This is where an active audience member takes the text and recreates it. For an example: 

(cherriemycheerios, 2014) but as I said this then leads to a power argument and discussions as to where the rights of the text lie. However surely by publishing the text the author passes the rights/power to the audience so the audience now have free will to do what they want with the text as it is out there and they can use it however they desire. Another example of where this happens is when audiences are creating these parodies and text mash ups they can and have lead to a variation in the texts canon. The audience has a huge power even without having the rights to a text. They have the power of opinion and the author/producer then gets to evaluate whether they think these opinions better their work and if they do, how they could change it for these audience opinions to take effect on their text. So yes, whilst the audience can create their own text through fan fiction, the author of the text still owns it, no matter who’s tweaking it and whether the author, producers, writers and or directors are happy with it. If you have created something it is yours, if someone then goes away and uses what you have created and adapted it, that is then his or her text. This textual poaching whilst it just sounds as if someone is cheating and stealing someone else’s work, it is not. It can in fact be great publicity for a text/company. In the same way that Paratexts help widen a texts audience, fans and their adaptations of Shrek spread Shrek as a character and even though it may not be as the author intended the story of the character to go, the image is still being spread and publicity is being gained. Overall one of the main reasons a text is made is to please its audience and the success of the text is down to the audience’s opinions and reactions to the text, so an active audience play a huge roll in a texts future even though they may not know it.

Every day of our lives we are an active audience within the media, whether it be looking at posters on a bus stop or watching a film, even subconsciously it is happening to us all the time. Abercrombie and Longhurst look at ‘simple audiences’ ‘mass audiences’ and ‘diffused audiences’ and I think this is an important part of thinking about audience participation because audiences are in such a wide range now, for example; listening reading and watching, there is not just one category of an audience anymore. So Longhurst and Abercrombie have split up and defined them into three categories; first, ‘the simple audience’ this is face to face, direct communication normally in public, it could be for example in the theatre or at a political meeting. The second is ‘the mass audience’ this spreads to many more people but is usually more private, it is for example reading the newspaper or watching television. The third is ‘the diffused audience’, this one relates to pretty much everyone but not necessarily on purpose, it is merged into people’s daily routine for example using the Internet or having the television on in the background.
Now looking into some media theory models for example, Uses and Gratifications model and The Pluralist model, both of these explain how as an audience we use and interpret the media in different ways but that is not wrong. It just shows how as an active audience we create our own experience of a text. The Uses and Gratifications Model explains that it sees the audience not as a mass but as individuals and these individuals actively consume texts for different reasons and in different ways. The Pluralist model suggests however that as the media is diverse and there are so many available choices for an audience, that they have an active role to play in understanding and therefore creating meaning from this specific text. Shrek Adventure London is a good example of how audiences do this.

Shrek Adventure London is ‘London’s newest family attraction! Step into the kingdom of Far Far away and enjoy a brand new madcap Shrek adventure where amazing DreamWorks animation, captivating story-telling and a good does of Donkeys cheekiness awaits.’ The idea behind Shrek Adventure is that you go as an audience member but whilst you are there you become one of the characters and it is your story and you which helps to move the story along, the audience becomes a participant. This means that each individual audience member depending on their choices whilst there, mould their own experience. Whilst everyone goes in with the same concept of Shrek they may depart with a different one and this is a great example of how an active audience are key to making this adventure and specific Paratext to Shrek, work and be successful.
You start your adventure with a 4D ‘DreamWorks Tours’ bus. Donkey is your guide and then you move onto be part of the 10 live fairy-tale themed shows where you can visit Shrek’s swamp, the crystal ball, the mirror maze, the muffin mans house and the poison apple pub! This is a unique experience and a great asset to Shrek to bring the audience closer to the text and create their own experience as a participatory audience. Here is the opening video on the website to help envision the experience… 

(Shreks Adventure, 2015)

(Pictures from: https://www.shreksadventure.com/london/)

De Certeau speaks about in what I will state as his ‘core arguments’, the progression of audience’s viewings, he looks into how he believes the public sculpt the content and it’s not the content sculpting the public. This point relates nicely to ‘Shrek Adventure’ in London and how it is down to the audience as to what ‘content’ they get out of their visit and any ‘content’ already given to them there is just a basis that will not change until the audience come and participate and create their own experience. De Certeau has some very interesting theories about who he thinks if anyone has any control. He thinks people in general, whilst they sculpt the content they have very little control over it, the upper class audience has slightly more control but that is just down to access of the media and what experience people can afford. This theory also links to the key concept of canon and looking at how audiences feed off these texts and take what they want from them. This links to canon as they then have some power to change the story and for it to then become the ‘correct’ ‘original’ storyline.

When thinking of my personal reflection to this text or any text, the first thing that springs to mind is the question, what does it actually mean to be an audience? Now the technical definition of an audience is that it is ‘the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event such as a play, film, concert or meeting.’ That’s pretty standard, the idea that people gather to view art. Now Ien Ang states that ‘audience hood is becoming an even more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences’ and John Hartley suggests that ‘Institutions must produce invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into relations with.’ This shows just how important an audience is to a text or media phenomenon and that producers and directors need their audience’s feedback to continue to develop their text. Meaning that as a group we are extremely important and each view counts.

As a personal reflection to this text I would have to say that it has moulded me from childhood, as cliché as it sounds, I use quotes from the films on a daily basis, I have a Shrek T-shirt, I still watch the films over and over today and given the opportunity I would always take up going to any of the Shrek related adventure days. I personally therefore am a fan of this text. I think it brings a lot to families, children, teenagers and adults, it is comical and makes people happy with its feel good factor. It also teaches children to love yourself no matter who you are or what you look like from a young age and I think this is especially important nowadays as children have such easy access to the internet and different apps which are riddled with pictures of ‘desired’ bodies and super models. It has so much going for it, not only being a great film which is obviously a great place to start, everything involved with it really adds to its greatness. The actors who voice the characters for a start, they have everyone from the extremely popular Eddie Murphy to the marmite style Simon Cowell.
I do find it hard to think subjectively about this film as I am such a fan, but obviously there will always be people who are just not a fan simply because of the genre and the fact that animated comedy is not for them. Or yes, maybe when they were younger they watched the film and enjoyed it simply as a childhood film and unlike me have not bought it with them through their adult life. They are happy with it being a children’s film and for them that is where it shall stay. There are always the children who watched it too young and were simply too scared of this giant green ogre and creepy castle, that the beloved comical sidekick that is donkey was not light hearted enough for them to continue watching the film and to this day they have nightmares about this giant green ogre.

To conclude, through analysing Shrek as a contemporary cross-platform media text phenomenon through the key concepts of Paratexts, Audience Participation and touching upon Fandom I have taken this text and shown how and why it is the phenomenon it is today, looking into how the media has developed it as a now global franchise. I believe it to be because of these Paratexts and its audience. This text exemplifies ‘media in transition’ across space and time, it has many texts which have been released over the years and focusing on the first Shrek film and the ‘Shrek adventure’, these both look at Shrek at a certain point in its history and how they make it what it is today and I have analysed them explaining how Paratexts and audience participation add to them as texts.
Overall, as this text uses cross platforms and has so many Paratexts this develops and sustains its audience and the way they view the text. Then with this audience it inevitably improves the franchises profits and general brand status as a whole. Therefore making the contemporary cross-platform media text of Shrek a worldwide phenomenon and a must see film. 
“That’ll do Donkey, that’ll do…” (Shrek).



Bibliography:

  •   Davidson, D., 2010. Cross-Media Communications: An Introduction To The Art Of Creating Integrated Media Experiences [online]. ETC Press. Available from: http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=etcpress [Accessed10th December 2015].

  •   Dwyer, T., 2010. Media Convergence. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press.

  •   Evans, E., 2011. Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media And Daily Life. New York: Routledge.


  •   Grossberg, L. Wartella, E. A. and Whitney, C. D., 2006. MediaMaking: Mass media in a popular culture. 2nd edition. United States: SAGE Publications.

  •   Jenkins H., 2007. Cultura convergente. Apogeo Education.

  •   Shrek (2001) Directed by Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson USA.





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