Transmedia and the Vagueness of Narrative Structure (original) (raw)

Resumen The growing multiscreen consumption of fiction content is key in the transformation of audiovisual media. The search for non-linear communication strategies to capture the audience through multiple platforms promotes the transmedia message. Transmediality is not limited to the way of narrating, but also to the way of producing and disseminating a story. The Laboratory of Radio Televisión Española, Lab RTVE, stands out in Spain for its innovative impulse in the production of audiovisual content, experimenting and developing new narratives and formats, as well as detecting trends. Examples of this are series such as El Caso, Águila Roja or El Ministerio del Tiempo. This text assesses the use of the transmedia storytelling of fiction contents of Lab RTVE in 2015 and 2016. A rubric is elaborated with elements that make a product narratively transmedia. In addition, each item is analyzed qualitatively establishing the degree of transmediality of the product. It emphasizes the tra...

The present Obitel Yearbook is the eighth of a series started in 2007 and it reflects the maturity of a methodology that combines quantitative study with the contextual analysis of television fiction, its transmediation into other screens and the sociocultural dynamics that are circumscribed to each of the different member countries. Obitel is made up of 12 national research groups that systematically monitor, throughout a year, fiction shows that are produced and broadcast through open television channels in their respective countries. The results of this monitoring are presented through the singularities and tendencies of fiction in each country and in a comparative chapter that provides a general overview of television fiction in the member countries. Fiction, as industry, genre, and format, is one of the most representative cultural and media products of television in Ibero-America. Its cultural and symbolic tradition is a place of agreement and disagreement that is now the setting not only of the main characters' loves and intimate secrets in the telenovelas and series but also that of public life, politics, and citizenship, since even more fiction has been anchoring its narrative on the multiple problems that affect us as a region and, at the same time, identify us as countries. The Obitel member countries chose as topic of the year for this 2014 Yearbook the study of the " transmedia production strategies in television fiction " , aiming to analyze how television networks have been incorporating transmedia strategies into their fiction productions, either through scripts that build stories, characters, products, and practices, which are characterized by the constant interaction with social networks, or through actions of transit and expansion of the original fictional universe to other screens and platforms. In other words, the analyses carried out in the Obitel Yearbook 2014 aim not only to map the transmedia productions strategies present in the 12 countries that make up the research team but also to address this current topic based on different theoretical and methodological approaches.

Ever since Henry Jenkins published his oft-cited article on “Transmedia Storytelling” in Technology Review (2003), transmediality has become a crossroads and a meeting place for researchers from different disciplines (Media Studies, Narratology, Visual Arts, Marketing, Comparative Literature, Semiotics, Theatre and Performance Studies, Game Studies, Sociology, etc.) as well as authors and the public that are involved in the emerging forms of multiplatform and distributed story creation, production and participation that such transmediality involves. Likewise, intermediality, with the phenomenon of adaptations at its core, crossmedia franchises and new theories on storyworlds, also form part of the space for reflection, discussion and the intersection of digital arts, communication media and interactive technologies that are put forward in this volume of Artnodes. The articles that make up this edition convey the complexity and variety of perspectives and objects of study and the need to revise or rebuild the methods and theoretical and critical tools that are used to construct cultural practice in the digital paradigm.

A short review of my Ph.D. research on transmedia narratives — subject, objective, personal statement, summary, quotes, some ideas and notes on further development.

Transmedia narratives are a rapidly emerging form of communication in which stories are told across multiple media. Transmedia narratives are being developed for a wide variety of applications including entertainment, education, marketing, advertising, organizational change, and activism. The integration of several different media into a cohesive and coherent narrative is a major challenge for the creators of transmedia narratives. Among those challenges are keeping readers/viewers interested in a narrative scattered across multiple media and providing a comprehensive framework to guide transmedia project design and development teams. The research question of this thesis focuses on how transmedia narrative designers and developers can tell effective stories across multiple media. An effective transmedia narrative is more than a collection of story elements or stories scattered across a number of different media and the process of creating them is a relatively uncharted area. Six online projects that use transmedia techniques were reviewed in order to develop a list of questions that identified key areas of transmedia narrative design. This preliminary list of questions was used to develop a framework for transmedia narrative design. Concept mapping–a graphical tool used to organize and represent knowledge–was employed to identify the concepts embedded within the questions and the relationships be-tween those concepts and develop a hierarchical structure of transmedia concepts and their associated properties. The final round of data collection consisted of a set of online interviews with three professionals experienced in the creation of transmedia narratives. They were asked to review these materials and provide feedback that was used to validate the set of concepts identified and determine if the design-related questions sufficient for creating a transmedia narrative design framework. This thesis develops an ontology for transmedia narrative design that defines the objects, entities, and concepts and their interrelationships. This ontology provides a frame-work that links together the diverse elements of narrative, user engagement, and interaction design. The ontology provides a common set of concepts and interrelationships that will allow the members of a multi-disciplinary team to speak a common language while working on various aspects of transmedia narrative design and development. A four-level process (transmedia project, storyworld, story, and scene/sequence le-vels) is also developed to document the steps involved in designing a transmedia narrative. The four-level process provides a structured framework that will help teams standardize their design and development approaches to transmedia narrative projects. This should help improve quality and efficiency and reduce costs associated with the development of transmedia projects. A comprehensive set of key design questions, when used in conjunction with the four-level process identified, provides a detailed framework for the design of transmedia narratives.