This case study and ‘The Walking Dead’ contextualised

This case study will study the cross platform media text ‘The Walking Dead’, which was a comic book that has branched off into many other platforms. In this case study, it will be argued through evidence given from research, whether the development of technology has been the key reason as to why the media text has been spread over the multiple different spaces that it occupies from originally being a comic book. This argument could be supported by the analysis of multiple different theories and concepts about the technological advancements of technology and how they can dictate the movement of a media text over space to become a cross platform media text. It will also be argued, whether the participation and interaction of the audience is the reason for the media text to have spread across multiple platforms. This case study will research examples of other media texts that this may apply to, and apply theories of the relationship between the audience and the media texts, to see if audiences are creating their own content known as paratext’s, which ultimately allows the text to exist on other platforms. It will be determined at the end of this case study, which argument has most evidence. ‘The walking Dead’ is an on going comic book, created by Robert Kirkman, set in a world in which a zombie invasion has taken place, which follows the survivors and their journey’s through the new post apocalyptic world. The comic book follows a police officer Nick Grimes after he wakes up from a coma, and begins to try to find his wife and son. Throughout the story, new characters are introduced and killed off, new villains such as ‘The Governor’ are introduced and other characters are brought in to join the main group of survivors. The AMC TV series, while following the same characters, does tend to be quite different to the original comic book plot, such as the character plot of Shane Walsh, which features a lot more in the TV series than the comic book. It can be said that this was done as it allows the audience to witness the character development of the character Shane, which engages the audience of the television series, whereas it might not have been as important to do so in the comic books. On the other hand, the video game of ‘The Walking Dead’ follows an entirely different group of survivors, following the protagonist Lee Everett, a history teacher being sent to prison for the murder of a state senator, helping a young girl called Clementine, reach her father Hershel Greene, who does feature in both the comic book series and the television series but has been adapted into the game plot.

(Wikipedia, 2014)