The Truth is Online: Digital Reality and Remediating The X-Files

Abstract

In my MA thesis, I argue that the remediation of cultural artifacts enables users of web 2.0 technologies to redefine their interactive experiences with mass media and to blur the line between digital and real. My research traces the way audiences have used internet technology to remediate The X-Files from its original television incarnation into a multimodal digital presence that illuminates and critiques fans’ relationship with the series. Through my study of an X-Files discussion board community and X-Files YouTube videos, we can understand how fans of a television show can use this sort of cultural artifact to create new communities that transcend the original artifact, and that take the new, digital artifact and make it useful offline. If we can understand how these artifacts are being remediated, we will have the ability to help students approach a variety of texts and make skillful, critical decisions about how to use them in their own lives.