by Derek Johnson
about Derek Johnson
Derek Johnson is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of Transgenerational Media Industries: Adults, Children, and the Reproduction of Culture and Media Franchising: Creative License and Collaboration in the Culture Industries, the editor of From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels, and co-editor of Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail, A Companion to Media Authorship, and Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries.
LEGO Dimensions
Abstract: Giving players control over characters from many different media franchises, the toys-to-life game LEGO Dimensions marshaled a complex structure of co-branded relationships and licensing agreements across entertainment industries and modes of digital and material experiences. That industrial conjuncture, argues Derek Johnson, produced a game most centrally concerned with the mediating power of LEGO in entertainment licensing where the mechanics of interchangeable, articulated LEGO play provided the in-game means of transcending boundaries of intellectual property ownership.
The Toy Box
Abstract: As a competition reality series, The Toy Box offers a productive site for analyzing the commercial partnerships between the toy and television businesses, as well as industry strategies relying on the transgression of boundaries between childhood and adulthood to determine the value of work. Exploring the partnerships among ABC, Mattel, and Toys “R” Us that drove the series, this essay reveals how reality television supports “transmedia” industry strategies based in licensing, cross-promotion, and intellectual property management, making these strategies legible through the “transgenerational” articulation of adulthood, childhood, and creative labor.