Marathoning and Parasocial Relationships

Post from Student Kelly Oliver: Everyone has their own favorite actors or actresses. Whether its because you believe Julia Roberts can transition into any character flawlessly, or because you have a secret crush on Channing Tatum’s six pack we all have our own favorite that we love to watch. These relationships we form with our…

What’s Your Media Marathon Ritual?

From Steph Cerio: When it comes to watching my previously marathoned television series Pretty Little Liars, I have come to realize I am very selective when it comes to where I choose to watch the show, who I’m with, what I eat, etc. As you sit down to watch our favorite television series (my chosen…

Why Would Anyone Re-Run a (Media) Marathon?

From Amanda Davis Gatchet: As I work through the interviews with our marathoning participants, it strikes me that people who marathon often “re-marathon,” returning to much loved characters and storylines again and again. This resonates with my own marathoning experiences—at least with the marathons I do for me, not for research. I don’t even want…

Star Wars and the Velveteen Rabbit

In last night’s Media Marathoning class, we discussed what it means to take an “active audience” approach after reading Henry Jenkins’ chapter “How Texts Become Real” in his 1992 book Textual Poachers.  I consider this to be one of the most illustrative quotes from the chapter: “The text is drawn close not so that the…

Media Marathoning: Short-Lived Happiness?

Note: This is the first of many posts that will be made by students in Lisa Perks’ Media Marathoning course at Nazareth College. From Student Elise Miklich: This evening I attended my first ever Zen meditation class. The instructor took the participants through several steps to ultimately learn how to “be in the now.” “The…

Guess the Font

How well do you know marathoned texts? Our “media marathoning” banner is a composite of 12 fonts from marathoned texts. All of them can be found in our list of “commonly marathoned texts.” See how many you can identify (without Google’s help). The “i” is very tricky, but many people will probably have the same…

Buffy Lunch

As Amanda and I work on understanding what makes a text “marathonable” (or “thonetic,” as I prefer), we have a LOT of viewing and reading to do. After taking notes on the Lord of the Rings books, the Back to the Future Movies, and the (real) Star Wars movies this summer, I’m now turning to…

Welcome to the media marathoning blog.

Viewers and readers are commonly immersing themselves in the serial stories of movies, television, and books through the practice of media marathoning. This trend of media marathoning has gained prominence due, in part, to content delivery digital technologies that enable immediate, user-controlled access to desired mediated texts. The popularity of media marathoning not only marks…