© 2011 Behice Ece Ilhan TRANSMEDIA CONSUMPTION EXPERIENCES: CONSUMING AND CO-CREATING INTERRELATED STORIES ACROSS MEDIA BY BEHICE ECE ILHAN DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Cele C. Otnes, Chair, Co-Director of Research Professor Robert V. Kozinets, Co-Director of Research, York University Professor Kent Grayson, Northwestern University Professor James Hay Associate Professor Tiffany White ABSTRACT Marketers and consumers alike are experiencing immense changes in the way entertainment is conceived, consumed, produced, distributed, and marketed as a result of intensifying socio-cultural, technologic, and economic convergence (Jenkins 2006, Dena 2004). Transmedia storytelling, aesthetic and product of this convergence culture, is the systematic dispersal of narrative elements across multitude of media for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated consumer experience (Jenkins 2006). To respond to the increasingly cluttered mediascape, producers of entertainment and non-entertainment brands are under pressure to develop engaging experiences for consumers and also to manage brand stories that integrate various media platforms. Transmedia storytelling becomes a relevant and lucrative solution that helps producers achieve these ends. Adapting and extending on the idea of transmedia storytelling and grounding transmedia to the consumer behavior and marketing fields, this dissertation seeks to develop transmedia consumption (TMC) –– transmedia logic –– that focuses on the consumer practices and processes around transmedia narratives. This dissertation is guided by the following research questions: What constitutes transmedia consumption experiences and practices? How do consumers consume and co-create these consumption experiences? The findings detail the key practices, boundaries, and important processes of TMC. The findings maintain that TMC experiences entail broader and diverse consumption and co-creation practices than the mere consumption of media texts. Building on the works of DeCertau (1984) and Jenkins (1992) on nomadic behavior of fans, this dissertation identifies migration –– consumers' navigation behavior across media platforms –– as one of the salient processes of TMC and explores patterns, motivators, and barriers of transmedial migration. The findings of ii this study have implications for marketing scholars and practitioners about creating and managing unified and coordinated brand narrative experiences across multiple traditional and social media. iii Dedicated to my parents and my grandmother, They define me… Bismillahirrahmanirrahim iv ACKOWLEDGEMETS It has been a long journey where many people made this moment possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor and my chair Professor Cele Otnes for her support and guidance through my studies at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am grateful that she generously gave her time and attention when she read numerous drafts of this dissertation. Cele, I promise, one of these days I will learn how and where I should use the ‘the’s. I extend my sincerest thanks to my Yoda, Professor Rob Kozinets, for agreeing to be a part of my dissertation journey as my Co-Director of Research. His faith in my skills and academic potential from day one on and his unlimited zeal encouraged me to pursue my passion. I also would like to thank my other committee members –– Professor Kent Grayson, Professor James Hay, and Professor Tiffany White –– for their encouragement and insightful advice on my dissertation. I especially thank Professor James Hay for his contributions in the communication field and for helping me keep my critical perspective on the issues. I also owe a special note of gratitude for those Losties who let me in their lives, without whom this research would not be possible. It has been truly a fun and educating experience to get to know them and hear their fan stories. I would like to thank the entire UIUC Marketing faculty for molding me into a great scholar with their classes, presentations, and suggestions. I feel lucky to be coming out of such a great program with the skills and resources I would need for a great academic career. Particularly, I would like to thank William Qualls for his wisdom and mentorship that he generously offered on several occasions during this long journey. It was a pleasure and privilege to be his student and work with him as his research assistant. I also would like to thank all the Business Administration department staff, particularly Julie Monroe, Claudia Gaston, Arshad v Saiyed, Margo Robins, Jeff Headtke, and JE Miller for making my life easier with their expertise and endless support. They diligently and patiently helped me on so many occasions. I also would like to thank my parents for everything they did for me. Without them, this moment would not have been possible. My father’s love for learning, unquestionable work ethic, commitment to his country, his disciplined productivity, his values, and his legacy are torches that enlighten my way as an Ilhan. Suat Ilhan, you are my all time hero! I am also overwhelmingly grateful to my mom, Nurgun Ilhan, for her unconditional love and all the sacrifices she has done for me without any spot of resentment. Because of her endless support and guidance, I became a better person and a successful woman for which I will be eternally grateful. I am lucky to have you as my parents and I am proud to be your daughter. I owe a heartfelt gratitude to my grandmom, Ismet Yigit, for being the strong and visionary woman she is and for making me feel her support over the oceans. Her faith in me, in my mind, my character, and my potential makes me a stronger person at every step. I would like to thank my aunt, Cigdem Taner, for keeping me grounded in everything I do and for being one of my moms. I also thank my sister, Almila Dogan, and her newborn Efe for making my life complete with their existence. I also would like to thank my friends and colleagues who have been a part of this journey at different times and places and enriched my life personally and professionally. I especially would like to thank Paca Nyugen for being my ‘IT Angel’ and writing me a program for my netnographic data collection. I am grateful to Hilal Atasoy for her friendship, plenty of laughs, and above all being a great confidante along this long journey. Her patience, her delicious food, and her great company made this small town a more bearable place. I am thankful to Bengu Sevil Oflac and her husband Cagdas Oflac for touching my life and my heart in such a memorable way vi in such a short time. I consider myself very lucky to be their friend. I would like to thank all my colleagues and friends in Urbana-Champaign for their company and the great memories, particularly Guzel Tulegenova, Nick Bronn, Erik Bushey, Colleen Cook, Liam Nelson, Ugur Uygur, Lecloma Riley, Mert Bay, and many more I cannot list here due to space issues. My Turkish friends who are also Marketing scholars have always been closer than close. I especially would love to thank Gokcen Coskuner, Burcak Ertimur, Eminegul Karababa, Berna Tari, and Gulnur Tumbat, aka Turkish Mafia, for every way they have existed and will exist in my life. I am also grateful for the endless support of my long time good friends Belma Namli, Begum Seckin, Tugba Mizrak, Elif Selcuk, Sibel Yilmaz, and Oyku Yalcin for finding ways to make me feel special across the ocean. I am what I am because of the great teachers, mentors, and professors I had along this long education journey. I am overwhelmingly grateful to Lisa Peñaloza for her mentoring, her support, and her friendship. Lisa, you are not only an extraordinary intellectual but also a great human being. Thanks for opening your house and life to me and also for transforming me into the heretic scholar I desire to be. I would like to thank Norman Denzin for just being the great person and scholar he is. My experience in his class was the highlight of my UIUC student life. Denzin and his class were everything I thought they would be and more. I also owe a heartfelt gratitude to Alladi Venkatesh, a great thinker and an exceptional scholar, for his confidence in my potential and for being such a great person. His classes taught me the core of marketing and consumer behavior. But more importantly, he sets an example for me how to make a difference as a person and as a scholar. I also would like to thank Guliz Ger for introducing me to the field of Consumer Culture Theory, exposing me to her passion and knowledge of interpretive research, and solidly training me on the Qualitative and Research Methods. I would like to thank vii Amar Cheema for his mentorship for his guidance and mentorship at different stages of my program. I also would like to acknowledge two very early but also very remarkable teachers I had among the many great ones. I would like to extend my thanks to my elementary school teacher Sule Simsek and my middle-high school English teacher Filiz Akmete for helping me start this journey couple of steps ahead with their new and effective ways of teaching and leading. I thank them for being the strong and visionary women and educators they were. Last but not least, my greatest gratitude is to Allah for His blessings and guidance. viii TABLE OF COTETS PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................