The Arts
March 2021
Watching Game of Thrones
How audiences engage with dark television
by Martin Barker, Clarissa Smith, Feona Attwood
Game of Thrones was an international sensation, and has been looked at from many different angles. But to date there has been little research into its audiences: who they were, how they engaged with and responded to it. This book presents the findings of a major international research project that garnered more than 10,000 responses to an innovative 'qualiquantitative' questionnaire. Among its findings are: a new way of understanding the place and role of favourite characters in audiences' responses; new insights into the role of fantasy in encouraging thinking about our own world; and an account of two combined emotions - relish and anguish - which structure audiences' reactions to controversial elements in the series.
