Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

“Bandersnatch,” the first Black Mirror full-length movie aired by Netflix on 28 December 2018, allows viewers to choose how the actions unfold by picking one or more options at certain points using the remote control. It offers not only a unique audience experience for movie production, but also demonstrates the prospects of audience immersion in transmedia story experiences. This paper discusses the elements of audience engagement in the transmedia production of Black Mirror, arguing that it goes beyond literary analysis that confines the digital transformation of literary human expression to the multimodal capabilities of technology. In this context, it is worth noting that most business studies place audience responses or interaction at the heart of their analysis as they employ the terms user experience and audience immersion. The study claims that the same principles that govern priorities of audience engagement are the main forces behind transmedia storytelling, which experiments with digital expressions of a single story or story experience. The model of Black Mirror revolves around the dystopian implications of human-technology relationships, while the title itself evokes the black reflective screens of cell phones, television screens, and computer monitors. This paper claims that modern literary expression yields the same dynamics of audience engagement termed user experience in the world of transmedia storytelling.