When talking about social networks in general, one rarely considers the sheer number of times they are with certain people. Sure, we can probably count the extremes, “I’ve only met my boyfriend’s parents once” or “I’ve seen my boss every weekday for the last 6 months,” but generally our day-to-day encounters with others are innumerable.

However, literary and cinematic meetings between actors are much more easily documented. By proceeding slowly through a narrative, one can literally count the number of times any two actors are near each other in a scene.

This data can be useful to researchers looking to quantitatively analyze a text or film in order to understand character networks, narrative themes, and pacing, among other things.

For example, in the pilot episode for the television show Once Upon A Time, Snow White, a female character, appeared in a scene with another female character four times. Meanwhile, Emma, a female character set in a different “universe” from Snow White (one that keeps them from meeting), appeared in scenes with other female characters eight times.

What does something like this tell us, as researchers? Well, it could be any number of things, as this is a very small sampling. However we could make a few very general assumptions: 1) that Snow White lives in a place where women are not as social with one another and 2) that Emma does.

More data might be needed to make further assumptions and, as researchers, we can begin to look at conversations between characters and the quality or nature of those conversations in order to make more substantial hypotheses. But for now, it is an example of how character interaction and network analysis in general can help researchers to develop meaningful conclusions about fiction and non-fiction works.