‘Where were you when the monster hit?’ Media convergence, branded security citizenship, and the trans-media phenomenon of Cloverfield

Abstract

This article uses the concept of media convergence to examine several aspects of the successful 2008 motion picture Cloverfield. I discuss implications of the film’s interaction in an increasingly convergent media landscape, such as its internet marketing campaigns, and interface with technological discourses of citizenship and surveillance. I explore the extent to which movies produced with digital technology, marketed through the internet, and increasingly viewed in private homes are best considered through media convergence literature. I investigate the extent to which this multi-platform, trans-media phenomenon, synergizing with numerous cross-promotional product marketing initiatives, constructs citizen-spectators through narratives of security, post-9/11 citizenship, and surveillance, and the extent to which consumer activity (such as purchasing cell phones) is implicated in this process. Lastly, I discuss concerns of labour and subjectivity pertinent to this media phenomenon, specifically how this film utilized unpaid audience labour in its construction, circulation, and construction of a trans-media presence.