What is global theater? or, What does new media studies have to do with performance studies?

This piece summarizes some key historical points of connection between new media studies and performance studies, beginning with Marshall McLuhan's concept of telecommunications networks as constitutive of a global theater. In combination with Kurt Lancaster's and Francesca Coppa's theories of fan works as performances, the global theater model can yield new insights into the nature and purpose of Internet fan fiction and fan fiction archives