English 115
Element Web
AMC’s popular TV series, The Walking Dead, is both spooky on TV and online. Upon entering The Walking Dead’s website, one immediately encounters a dark, somber surface. There is nothing happy about the website but rather it is depressing and intimidating. The title of the show, The Walking Dead, actually refers to the survivors of the zombie apocalypse rather than the zombies themselves. This is portrayed on the website through the images of “The Governor”, who is a tyrannical leader of a town full of survivors, and Rick, who is widely-known as the show’s protagonist and leader of the small group of characters which viewers of the show are very familiar with. How do images of The Governor and Rick exemplify that the survivors are actually the walking dead? In the image of Rick and The Governor, both characters show signs of fatigue, and The Governor has a rag wrapped around his head, which could be there due to an injury which he may be trying to heal, and he appears to have an injured eye (which he lost during combat) that is covered by an eye patch. However, beyond the dark appearance of the website and the rugged images of Rick and The Governor lies a more profound picture, one bigger than the zombie apocalypse itself. That issue is racism within The Walking Dead. Although it may not be obvious at first, one can’t help but notice the lack of diversity of characters on the show and upon noticing that it isn’t too hard to see that on the website. This becomes even more obvious one entering the cast member’s page, in which only three characters are non-white, and from those remaining three, one is dead, one no longer appears on the show and the remaining character was recently going to be used as a trading item. Apart from the cast members list, on the website the main focus is on Rick and The Governor, both white. In the social aspect of the website, there are various interviews with cast members such as Norman Reedus, Laurie Holden and of the various interviews conducted many of the questions asked in these interviews are in regards to Carl, Rick, the Governor, or one of the other white characters. The only minority characters that receive attention in the blog & talk portion of the website are Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, and Michonne, who doesn’t actually get interviewed but is rather displayed as an object, the object being an action figure on display. Apart from the cast list, it is apparent how marginalized the minority characters are portrayed, or rather, not portrayed, on the website. The main focal points are on Rick and the Governor. T-Dog, played by Irone Singleton, African American, was on the show since the very beginning and was a full-time cast member for two seasons before his eventual death in season three, appears nowhere on the