Thought We Wouldn't Notice, but We Did': An Analysis of Critical Transmedia Literacy Among Consumers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

As transmedia, or what Jenkins (2010) describes as a “new mode of storytelling” (p. 948), the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) thrives on its ability to drive consumers to continue to invest in its network. However, the MCU’s lack of diversity compels marginalized MCU consumers to try to gain the attentions of Marvel Studios’ creators, whom they hope will enact changes in the future MCU. The purpose of the following thesis was to analyze both the MCU’s non-inclusive Avengers narrative, and the attention-seeking counter-narratives that its critical consumers construct in response. This analysis reassesses the MCU’s hegemonic narrative construction through the lens of its transmediated framework. Applying Althusser’s (1971/2007) concept of ideological interpellation, this analysis concludes that the MCU’s massive framework belies a limiting discourse of heterosexual, cisgender white male privilege that disempowers women and/or other minorities. In turn, marginalized female and/or minority MCU consumers use their visible difference as leverage; affronted by the gaps in representation that distinguish the MCU’s fictional world from their real world experiences, they construct digital counter-narratives that emphasize diversity and inclusion. This strategic reworking of transmedia to redress critical concerns entails a dramatic change in the relationship between media creators and their global audiences, and portends media creators’ irreversible loss of power in the digital age. Still, in order to recognize the purpose of critical MCU consumers’ practices in their full context, it is best to develop a new theoretical understanding of transmediated discourse and consumers’ digital interactivities, one identifiable as a new mode of resistance: critical transmedia literacy.