Pottermore

Pottermore

     Harry Potter, which is now shockingly close to 20 years, has seen a lot of changes within the franchise. Even after J.K. Rowling stated that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows was the final book, the story continued with the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. A five-film series is being planned based on The Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book trilogy. Even the fan site, Pottermore, has changed through the years. Cassie Brummitt’s article, Pottermore: Transmedia Storytelling and Authorship in Harry Potter, shows this change.

     The author of this piece, Cassie Brummitt, was proven to be a creditable source. Besides the Midwest Quarterly, she has contributed to other academic journals, and holds a position part-time lecturer for media studies at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. To add to the credibility of her paper, she has admitted to be a devote Harry Potter, and has often incorporated the series into her lectures at De Montfort. Not only does she have the perspective of a professional, but the perspective of a fan as well.

     The article focuses on the fan website, Pottermore, created in 2011 after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2011). The site’s purpose was original to keep the Harry Potter fandom going after the series ended. Brummitt studies how as the franchise changed, the site Pottermore changed as well. As stated before, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2011) was suppose to be the end of the series as a whole. However, in recent years the story of Harry Potter has continued in movies and books, causing the site to undergo changes.

     For instance, in Pottermore, author J.K. Rowling was meant to interact with the fans and the site was meant to be more of a social experiment. These changes accrued when it was announced the Harry Potter series would continue with new books and movies. The main focus of the article is how other forms of media can affect each other. The format for Pottermore had to change with the addition movies and books being added, as well as how the Harry Potter franchise changes as a whole. 

    Brummitt’s themes and ideas do hold up, and she does do a good job at explaining how they connect. She does not over simplify it or complicate the answers. What she does is presents the facts and goes into great detail explaining them. As for what part of the course does this article fit into; the best case is History of the Internet and the Digital Future by Johnny Ryan in Module 10. The assigned chapter as well as the book as a whole went into the changes the digital world saw changes due to other forms of media, slightly mirroring Brummitt’s article. 

    If a franchise is to survive, it must change with the times. Big name franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter have all changed too accommodate the current times. Whether these changes are welcomed or not depends on the opinion, but change never the less is inevitably. The Harry Potter franchise is going to change, whether people like it or not, and as any fan would say, “We’re with them to the end.”

Work Cited

Brummitt, Cassie. "Pottermore: Transmedia Storytelling and Authorship in Harry Potter." Midwest Quarterly 58.1 (2013): 112-32. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.