Transmedia Storytelling

In his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, MIT professor Henry Jenkins describes transmedia storytelling as storytelling across multiple forms of media with each making distinctive contributions to a fan's understanding of the story world. By using different media formats, transmedia creates "entrypoints" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world. The aim of this immersion is decentralized authorship, or transmedial play.



To companies selling products, transmedia storytelling is an experience of telling stories across multiple platforms and formats, to develop media franchises. Marsha Kinder writes that "transmedia intertextuality works to position consumers as powerful players while disavowing commercial manipulation." In 2003, Jenkins used the term in his MIT Technology Review article "Transmedia Storytelling," where he reflected Kinder's assumption, via analysis of mass-market entertainment, that the coordinated use of storytelling across platforms can make the characters more compelling. Stephen Dinehart suggests "true" transmedia is designed in preproduction with the intent of immersion for maximum return on investment (ROI). -- Wikipedia 2011

On another note: The writer's guide to making a digital living, a report from the Australia Council for the Arts, looks at writing, collaboration, copyright, marketing and distribution and business models, and how to develop projects from concept to commercial. It includes case studies from Australia's rising generation of poets, novelists, screenwriters, games writers and producers who are embracing new media and contains audio and video content from seminars and workshops, as well as extensive references to resources in Australia and beyond.