Henry Jenkins is a respected scholar, author and expert in the field of media, communications and popular culture. His Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide book was groundbreaking. It explored media audiences, participatory culture, the new nature of commercialized culture, and how the “fanboy” economy is imperative to the operation of culture industries in our highly networked society.
I learned about his work and contributions as an SFU Communications student and am continually amazed by his work on media theory. Recently I read up on his fascinating ruminations about transmedia storytelling from 2007 and his new update: Transmedia 202: Further Reflections. We see the evolution of transmedia entertainment happening almost everywhere now as comic books/adult graphic novels get greenlighted and turned into movie franchises and it trickles down into aspects of our culture. He expands upon the previous notions to explain that transmedia storytelling is much more than branding and franchising and rather a logical extension of the content process.
According to Jenkins: “Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” Jenkins describes it as a process of being interconnected with its various iterations and to be multimodal. Transmedia storytelling offers:
- a backstory
- maps the world that is created in the story
- offers other character’s perspectives on the action
- works to deepen audience engagement
I encourage you to explore this topic and let me know your thoughts. What are your favourite transmedia products? Glee? The Matrix? Harry Potter? There are so many!