ABSTRACT
The most basic way in which media industries approach world-building is by way of the franchise, fully embracing the logic of brand culture as a way of claiming ownership and legitimacy in the context of participatory culture and media convergence. This chapter illustrates both these aspects of fantastic world-building and politics by foregrounding these two interlocking but identifiable levels: first, that of storyworld construction and tensions within the text that reproduce the contradictions of late capitalism; and second, that of the political economy that informs media-industrial practices of production and distribution, and the reception of these storyworlds by active and participatory audiences. It draws on Game of Thrones as a central case study. ?Game of Thrones offers a vivid illustration of the politics of world-building, both in terms of storyworld construction and in what it reveals about the political economy of world-building as a media-industrial practice.
