Extratextual Immersion

4.2. Extratextual Immersion

Far less has been written about the potential for extratextual immersion, a mode of engagement that reflects the viewer’s desire to experience a show’s production process, and to be involved in (or, failing that, intimately familiar with) the people, places, practices and details that are generally available only to the

17 Mackay, D. The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art. 2001, 29. 18 Lancaster.

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(relatively) small group of individuals who participate in the show’s production. In many cases, viewers who pursue extratextual immersion demonstrate a strong desire to interact with, and be acknowledged by, a

program’s “celebrities.”

In the past decade, extratextual information has evolved to serve multiple purposes, and in particular, has been used to generate both audience interest (e.g., through interviews, and public

appearances) and additional revenue (e.g., DVD bonus materials, fan magazines). As a result, the audience has grown more conscious of television content’s dual-role as both entertainment commodity and

professional product.

Production “bloopers,” episode commentaries and “making-of” featurettes are among the most common forms of extratextual content. Each of these ostensibly has a different appeal: bloopers, to

humanize the performers in the midst of their professional settings; commentaries, to give the viewer some private insight into what celebrities were thinking during production, or even during the moment of

performance shown on screen; featurettes, to carefully replace the illusion that a television’s diegetic world is real by exposing the “more realistic” process by which the diegetic illusion is accomplished. Yet despite their

apparent differences in focus, all three types of content serve a similar function: by “pulling back the curtain” and giving viewers some insight – however constructed it might be – into the personalities, preferences and

lives of the various celebrities involved in a show’s production, extratextual materials give the illusion of access.

Over time, viewers who consume large quantities of extratextual content may come to feel that they ‘know’ a show’s celebrities, and feel – if only on a subconscious level – that they have become part of an

insider community. In many cases, of course, the extratextual materials available to viewers may be as fictional as the television programs they relate to, with a show’s participants putting on a different

performance – as “themselves” – for the audience. Nevertheless, such material helps establish life “behind the scenes” as a universe that viewers can immerse themselves in and aspire to enter.

Furthermore, a growing number of opportunities for vertical social interaction – those that allow a limited degree of direct contact between viewers and celebrities – are often designed to capitalize on the desire for extratextual immersion and privileged connection. While most vertical interactions seem unlikely to have

a lasting impact on their celebrity participants, the experience of direct interaction with a show’s celebrities

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In practice, the desire for extratextual immersion can appear very similar to the desire for extratextual mastery, since both modes of engagement compel the viewer to acquire and internalize as much extratextual

information as possible. The difference, then, is in how this information is applied. When extratextual knowledge is used to deconstruct and interpret the show’s narrative, the information is serving the

intellectual desire to master the text; when this knowledge is used to help the viewer feel “closer” to the show and it’s participants, or to enable a sense of parasocial familiarity, belonging, or possession, it is helping

create an experience of immersion.