Transmedia Storytelling

I recently remembered that a little while back someone asking for more information about transmedia. I'll try to give a basic overview of what is has been here. Since this type of storytelling is still in the exploratory stages (but what isn't on the Internet?), be aware that there's still a lot to explore. This blog post can be a starting point for you.

Root words can be an informative way to start: "trans"=across, "media"="means of conveying something" or "system of communication, information, or entertainment" (thank you, m-w.com). So transmedia storytelling is telling a story using different means of communication. Examples of how this has been done will probably be more helpful than an abstract definition.

Examples of Transmedia Storytelling

Collapsus.com
This is a documentary-style transmedia story about several young adults during a major breakdown of energy sources in the world. The audience is young adults, and the purpose is to raise awareness about alternative energy. The user experience includes a cool interface with three panels, 1-with a game about energy sources that updates 2-as you watch the video in the middle panel and 3-a news story that broadcasts as the video in the middle progresses.

The Book of Jer3miah
This was a project BYU professors (including Jeff Parkin, who is going to talk to our class this week and gave this TED talk) put together. It has the core of a narrative through webisodes. Then they created a website for the bad guys in the show, called "The Davenport Papers" where they would plant information about what was going on on their side of the story.

The Beast
This was an advertisement campaign for the movie A.I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(game)

WhySoSerious
This was an advertisement campaign for the Dark Knight. http://whysoserious.com/

Further Reading

"What Is Trans-Media Storytelling?"
This post has a list of other articles that discuss different aspects of transmedia storytelling.

"Transmedia Storytelling: What's the Alternative to Alternate Reality Games?"
The concluding idea of this article is "We need to stop creating more closed narratives and finite tales, and instead concentrate on fragmenting the stories we already have into a million pieces and sparking the imaginations of our audiences so they want to put them back together in the way that feels right to them."






Transmedia storytelling is about giving the audience ways to participate besides watching a screen. People have found different ways to make that happen, including weaving ARGs into the story that participants can then put together by connecting online with other followers of the story.