Identifier

etd-03162014-191410

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Communication Studies

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Processes of creative adaptation no longer fit traditional, culturally sanctioned forms, like commercial book-to-film adaptation, or vice versa. Meanwhile, internet users are demonstrating how noncommercial, creative text adaptation using video technology has become an everyday art form, a skill set, a form of communication, and a means of cultural commentary. Internet video adapters physically perform in their own videos and they create videos that work performatively online. Negotiating the slippery spaces between copyright, creativity, and cultural commentary, these creators adapt videos in myriad ways, and find spaces to share their adaptations online, despite (for most) a lack of financial return for their creative work. Yet, little scholarship addresses this type of online adaptation. Current studies of internet video memes do not explicitly address how memes work as adaptation or as performance. We are also at a loss for theories about adaptation and performance that serve contemporary, internet-literate publics. In this dissertation, I explore how traditional notions of the processes and products of adaptation are changing. I argue that internet video memes and “sweded” videos are performances of adaptation. Focusing on four case studies, each of which represents types of adaptations that do not fit well into current adaptation theories, I develop a typology for online video-to-video adaptation that could be useful in multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary academic and/or public conversations. Using this typology, I map some of the (mostly uncharted) terrain of online video adaptation performances, elucidate the limits of and expand upon contemporary theories of adaptation, and clarify some major problems and paradoxes of current US copyright law, as it pertains to online video adaptation. Throughout, I show how the adaptations in this study create, sustain, and/or upend contemporary culture, concluding that most (if not all) online video-to-video adaptation trends carry creative potential, along with potential ethical quandaries.

Date

2014

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Secure the entire work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a period of one year. Student has submitted appropriate documentation which states: During this period the copyright owner also agrees not to exercise her/his ownership rights, including public use in works, without prior authorization from LSU. At the end of the one year period, either we or LSU may request an automatic extension for one additional year. At the end of the one year secure period (or its extension, if such is requested), the work will be released for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Suchy, Patricia

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.360

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