The transmedia designer should be aiming for active participation across all elements of the transmedia narrative in order to sustain a high level of user engagement. Active participation increases the users’ incentive to migrate across the media and platforms and reduce the friction associated with that migration.
The degree of mental processing the audience uses distinguishes passive from active participation (Screven, 2000, pp. 166-167). This spectrum of participation is closely related to the user’s attention, which can range from “mindless” (casual and unsystematic) to “mindful” (focused and active) (Screven, 2000, pp. 166-167). Mindful attention is characterized by viewer behaviors that include making comparisons, raising questions, looking for interdependent relationships, making connections to personal knowledge or experience, noting contradictions, and searching for specific information or categories of information (Screven, 2000, p. 152).
Mindless attention, on the other hand, is more scattered, focusing randomly on a variety of items without apparent purpose or direction until something catches the viewer’s eye. Attention is brief and erratic and viewers are easily distracted (Screven, 2000, pp. 152 – 153). Screven found that “fun formats” like visual media and games are ineffective in motivating viewers to pay mindful attention and at times have a negative impact on attention (Screven, 2000, p. 157).