Temporality of online reactions to fictional characters’ death

Abstract

In the digital era, online reactions to broadcast media are an important feature of audience engagement. Although central, the question of the temporality of audience online reactions has been understudied. We investigate this question by exploring the temporal patterns of online reactions to fictional characters’ deaths. More than 3,500 forum reactions to Game of Thrones characters’ deaths were collected over 5 years. Temporal patterns of reactions to expected deaths displayed more long-term patterns, while reactions to unexpected deaths displayed more spontaneous patterns. These results further our understanding of death reactions’ temporality in cyberspace, in a multimedia and transmedia storytelling context.