The World of The Walking Dead

An accessible introduction to the world of The Walking Dead, this book looks across platforms and analytical frameworks to characterize the fictional world of The Walking Dead and how its audiences make use of it. From comics and television to social media, apps, and mobile games, utilizing concepts derived from literary studies, media studies, history, anthropology, and religious studies, Matthew Freeman examines the functions and affordances of new digital platforms. In doing so, he establishes a new transdisciplinary framework for analyzing imaginary worlds across multiple media platforms, bolstering the critical arena of world-building studies by providing a greater array of vocabulary, concepts, and approaches. The World of The Walking Dead is an engaging exploration of stories, their platforms, and their reception, ideal for students and scholars of world-building, film and TV studies, new media, and everything in-between.

Introduction: Beyond Literary and Media World-building 1. Comics and Television: Historiographical World-building 2. Augmented Television: Sociological World-building 3.Social Media: Religious World-building 4. Mobile Games: Philosophical World-building Conclusion: Towards a Transdisciplinary World-building Framework

Matthew Freeman is Reader in Multiplatform Media and Co-Director of The Centre for Media Research at Bath Spa University, UK. His research concentrates on cultures of media production across the borders of platforms, cultures, industries, and history, publishing extensively on the cultural histories and industrial workings of transmediality. He has also published on such topics as media branding, convergence cultures, and methodological approaches to media industry studies.