The nature of transmedia narratives brings with it a host of information design challenges. The individual elements of a transmedia narrative – text, images, audio, video, and other forms of media – present their individual opportunities and challenges. “Each medium has its own affordances, its own systems of representation, itsContinue Reading
Creating a transmedia narrative can be a complex, time consuming, and frustrating task. So why bother? Aren’t books or film or stage productions or any of the other older forms of telling stories just as good? The full possibilities of transmedia narratives have yet to be realized, but the transmediaContinue Reading
I’ve been a writer in one form or another for all of my working career, starting out as an “ink-stained wretch” in the daily newspaper business. I’ve written lengthy feature articles for magazines, scripts for interactive video projects when the video was still played on 12-inch analog laser discs, andContinue Reading
The term “fiction” has been used in a number of definitions of transmedia narratives (Dena, Transmedia Practice: Theorizing the Practice of Expressing a Fictional World Across Distinct Media and Environments, 2009; Fahle, 2011; Kinke, 2011). Transmedia narratives, however, are not restricted to fiction; non-fictional narratives can also use transmedia techniques (Miller,Continue Reading
The definition of “transmedia narrative” is still being hotly debated, with some defining it as a single story told across multiple media platforms, while others see it as many stories based in a single “story world” being told on multiple media platforms (Clarke, 2011). Adding to the confusions is a proliferationContinue Reading
The term “story” has been defined as a sequence of events involving characters and settings;(Szulborski, 2005, p. 37), an account of an event or series of events that are fictional or non-fictional;(Simmons, 2006, p. 31), and a portrayal of characters caught in a dramatic situation, with a series of eventsContinue Reading
The emergence of a new field inevitably brings with it an argument about how to define it. The emegence of “transmedia narratives” has certainly provoked such an argument. In order to write about transmedia narratives, it is necessary to define what they are and are not. Let’s start with theContinue Reading
Each advance in information and communications technology (ICT) has brought with it an increase in the sophistication of how we communicate with each other. Transmedia narratives are emerging as a major new form of communication. Transmedia narratives – also called transmedia storytelling – present multiple components of a story acrossContinue Reading