Tag: transmedia

Transmedia storytelling is a term used to describe stories which are told across multiple mediums.

A few years ago it was all the rage for Ontario media companies and everyone wanted something to do with transmedia, now, it’s a little passé. Still, it’s something to be aware of and can still be used for telling stories.

Henry Jenkins has a good writeup on how to tell stories this way in his post Transmedia Storytelling 101. There are ways that writing a story for multiple mediums at the same time differs greatly from writing for a single medium. Here’s a snippet:

3.Most often, transmedia stories are based not on individual characters or specific plots but rather complex fictional worlds which can sustain multiple interrelated characters and their stories. This process of world-building encourages an encyclopedic impulse in both readers and writers. We are drawn to master what can be known about a world which always expands beyond our grasp. This is a very different pleasure than we associate with the closure found in most classically constructed narratives, where we expect to leave the theatre knowing everything that is required to make sense of a particular story.

In this viral-info-snack he discusses the power of media in a 21 century trans-mediated world. A world where converging technologies and cultures give rise to a new media landscape.