When beginning reading "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Cultures" by Henry Jenkins the term 'transmedia' sent me off on a journey of thinking. Does anyone else do that ... you start reading something and then, find something that catches your interest and before you know it you are miles away, on a journey you didn't intend to take, but one that has really captured your interest. And then, sometime, later you realise you haven't taken any of the journey that you intended to take? And, does that matter?
This new journey, exploring 'transmedia', got me really thinking about the role of literacy, the more familiar term multiliteracies and also National Standards of Reading and Writing - not much in the way of 'transmedia' there. (Transmedia and National Standards will be a later post.)
As transmedia (or transmedia storytelling/transmedia narrative) is a relatively new term there are a range of definitions but for the purpose of my thinking transmedia storytelling it is more than just retelling a story in lots of different ways, using different media such as traditional text, movies, games etc. Rather it is a lot more complex and uses different media to communicate unique parts of a story which are linked together and explored as part of a participatory culture. Many books are turned into movies and as such explore transmedia to some level - Disney is a perfect of example of this. They take a story, create a movie, songs, games and a multitude of other media. But, the journey for the consumer is still linear, the orientation is around product and there is are clear lines separating the creator and the consumer. And lets be honest - the purpose is not really to engage readers in stories but to create entertainment franchises.
Transmedia explores the idea that all our personal media network is connected, - Fb, Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, traditional television, books, posters, comics and even worlds such as Minecraft. Traditional storytelling tends to have a linear plot and the reader is a consumer. But what if the plot wasn't linear, and the reader participated, giving feedback to the characters and interacting with them via social media and this impacted on the storyline. The focus then becomes process orientated rather than product orientated and this in itself changes the whole nature of storytelling.
I have to admit that thinking about this new paradigm for storytelling is challenging. The control of the story moves from the writer or creator and the whole story becomes a lot more organic, immersive and participatory. Throughout time the latest technologies have changed the ways stories have been told. The oral tradition moved to the written tradition then came along the age of the movie, games and now, with the connected nature of the Internet being a conduit between a variety of media types, rather than a single entity on its own, how stories are constructed and develop allows us to totally reimagine the process of storytelling.
Storytelling itself though, still has core elements: a great plot, well developed characters, conflict, resolution, quality language, imagery etc. As an educator my challenge is to explore how I can involve students in transmedia approaches to the creation of stories, while still ensuring they get to further develop their understandings and experiences of storytelling core elements. My gut instinct is that these core elements will be able to be explored in a much deeper way through a transmedia approach, but the nuts and bolts of how this will happen still requires much thought on my part.
This new journey, exploring 'transmedia', got me really thinking about the role of literacy, the more familiar term multiliteracies and also National Standards of Reading and Writing - not much in the way of 'transmedia' there. (Transmedia and National Standards will be a later post.)
As transmedia (or transmedia storytelling/transmedia narrative) is a relatively new term there are a range of definitions but for the purpose of my thinking transmedia storytelling it is more than just retelling a story in lots of different ways, using different media such as traditional text, movies, games etc. Rather it is a lot more complex and uses different media to communicate unique parts of a story which are linked together and explored as part of a participatory culture. Many books are turned into movies and as such explore transmedia to some level - Disney is a perfect of example of this. They take a story, create a movie, songs, games and a multitude of other media. But, the journey for the consumer is still linear, the orientation is around product and there is are clear lines separating the creator and the consumer. And lets be honest - the purpose is not really to engage readers in stories but to create entertainment franchises.
Transmedia explores the idea that all our personal media network is connected, - Fb, Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, traditional television, books, posters, comics and even worlds such as Minecraft. Traditional storytelling tends to have a linear plot and the reader is a consumer. But what if the plot wasn't linear, and the reader participated, giving feedback to the characters and interacting with them via social media and this impacted on the storyline. The focus then becomes process orientated rather than product orientated and this in itself changes the whole nature of storytelling.
I have to admit that thinking about this new paradigm for storytelling is challenging. The control of the story moves from the writer or creator and the whole story becomes a lot more organic, immersive and participatory. Throughout time the latest technologies have changed the ways stories have been told. The oral tradition moved to the written tradition then came along the age of the movie, games and now, with the connected nature of the Internet being a conduit between a variety of media types, rather than a single entity on its own, how stories are constructed and develop allows us to totally reimagine the process of storytelling.
Storytelling itself though, still has core elements: a great plot, well developed characters, conflict, resolution, quality language, imagery etc. As an educator my challenge is to explore how I can involve students in transmedia approaches to the creation of stories, while still ensuring they get to further develop their understandings and experiences of storytelling core elements. My gut instinct is that these core elements will be able to be explored in a much deeper way through a transmedia approach, but the nuts and bolts of how this will happen still requires much thought on my part.
Some complex angles there that I feel I need longer to digest. I wonder what hangs all those particles together when the fragmentary and diverse nature of some of its components E. G. Someone's Facebook Postings as part of that idea. I've often reflected on that aspect of digital living -where a host of shorts comments maybe a blog an update with visuals on Facebook interaction on a specialist list group - and so on: all that can add up to quite a lot of writing in a day. Maybe more than I'd have felt inclined to produce if I were not intertwined digitally that way. Yes interesting article. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue, I agree it is complex and you are correct that it would need to hang together. I think most of us would be surprised how much many people post in a day across a variety of media and the trick, I think, is how we can weave that together into a cohesive story.
Delete