Communications Question

Story TellingInteractive Story Making & Telling
• Interactive:
For our purposes –
Digital
• Story Making:
Creating stories
• Story Telling:
Distributing stories
Digital Landscape 1
Digital Platform Convergence
Platforms come together:
Exhibition space,
Internet, movies, TV,
radio, music players,
games, books,
magazines
Media Convergence:
Media types come together:
Print, still images, animation, video,
audio, interactive digital objects
Digital Landscape 2
Digital and Media Convergence:
New Questions & Issues:
• Separation of content and
platform
• What should user experience be?
• Search for next “big thing”
• Information immortality
• Long-tail content market
• Information Fog/Soup
What is an interactive story?
Examples
http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint
http://www.inanimatealice.com/episode4/
1. Affords user input but input might be
minimal
2. Usually highly polished
3. Uses multiple media types (text, video,
illustrations, timing, etc.)
What is a Transmedia Story?
1. Cross-media branding
2. Adaptation: Stories can
exist on multiple delivery
platforms
3. Distribute story elements
across media platforms
a. Each element pushes the
narrative
b. For some, idea is to make
person change platforms in
the middle of the story.
Transmedia Story Elements
• Plot: A good story is essential
•
Character: People
come for the story;
they come back for
the characters
• World-building:
* Negative capability
Allowing holes, cracks in
the narrative for people
to imagine their own
fantasies and ideas.
Transmedia Story Principles 1
World Building
• Complex characters
• Layered narrative
• Believable graphic environment
• Desire to fill in between parts
• What is happening off screen?
About the world…
Leave room for the User
Negative capability
Allowing holes, cracks in the narrative for
people to imagine their own fantasies and
ideas.
Transmedia Story Principles 2
Seriality
There is a time quality:
This happened, that
happened, and then this
finally happened.
The story can be extended
into episodes, prequels,
and/or sequels
Transmedia Story Principles 3
Subjectivity
– Map of the world
– Characters have different
different points of view
– Perspectives of secondary
characters
– Missing “chapters” or
material
Transmedia Story Principles 4
Performance/Participation
W
– Extracting content to users’ worlds
– Social marketing
– Reinterpretation and reinvention
– Gotham City, for example
Transmedia Story Principles 5
Canonicity vs Multiplicity
Canonicity
There are strict rules
about how the story/
content unfolds, as
established by the
rules of the story or
world.
Multiplicity
The story unfolds in a
variety of ways and
according to multiple rules,
providing different
perspectives on the
story/content, some of
which may violate the rules
of the story or world
Transmedia Story Principles 6
Drillability and/or Spreadability
Drillability: Deep
The content allows
users to drill down
to deeper layers.
Spreadability: Wide
The content lends
itself to being spread
to multiple platforms,
sites, and pages.
More about spreadability…
• Must be available
• Must be transportable
• Someone must want to spread it
• Meaningful to them
• A gift to others
• Media moves between market economy
and gift economy
Transmedia Story Principles 7
Immersion
Immersion
The story/content
brings reality (the
real world) into the
story or game.
vs Extractability
Extractability
The story/content
moves the fiction
from the story into
the real world.
The Blurring of the RW and the Digital World
▪ Real Reality: The Real World, or RW
▪ Immersive – Virtual reality: Second Life
▪ Alternative reality games: ARGs
 A subset of TM that makes it seem as though the story is really
happening now. Users send communications in real time, usually
with direct communication with characters or puzzles.
▪ Augmented reality: AR
 Augmented reality is the interaction of superimposed
graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a realworld environment that’s displayed in real-time.
▪ Internet of things: IOT
 Opposite of AR – the awareness, availability, and management of
real things on the Internet
AFFORDANCES: MEDIA PLATFORMS
Television
One-way moving images, audio
Lean back, emotional
content
Radio
One-way audio
Mobility
Landline
telephones
Real-time two-way audio
Voice communication
Mobile telephones
Real-time two-way audio
Mobile voice
communication
Newspapers
Text, B&W still images
Dense information
Magazines
Text, color images
Dense info, long form
Internet
Text, moving and still images,
audio
Lean forward, active
choice,
communication
Facebook
Text, images, UGC
Rich communication
Twitter/text
140-character text messages
Immed. presence
AFFORDANCES: MEDIA
Film
One-way moving images, audio
Dreamscapes
Video
One-way moving images, audio
Realityscapes
Photos
A single point in time
Examination of
images
Drawings
Interpreted images
Examination of
images
Audio-voice
Human and computergenerated
Personal testimony
Audio-music
Acoustic and electronic
Emotional response
Audio-effects
Acoustic and electronic
Versimilitude
Print/online
Text
Dense information
Online
Universal carrier/medium,
interactive
Power to users
Twitter/text
Addressable text
Personal, immediate
information
COMMUNICATION FLOW: INTERPERSONAL
Message flow
One to one
One to few
Few to few
Control
Shared
Knowledge of audience
Audience segmentation
Detailed
Personal, direct knowledge or indirectly
through personal contacts
Interactivity
Feedback
Yes
Immediate, reciprocal, direct feedback
Asynchronous/synchronous
Emotional vs Task-related content
Privacy
No
Both
Yes
COMMUNICATION FLOW: MASS MEDIA
Message flow
Control
Knowledge of audience
One to many
Few to many
Source
Scant
Audience segmentation
• Demographics
• Psychographics\Lifestyle
• Behavioral
Interactivity
Feedback
No
Delayed, receiver to source, inferential
feedback
Yes, with DVR
Emotional
Sometimes
Asynchronicity
Emotional vs Task-content
Privacy
COMMUNICATION FLOW: ONLINE
Message flow
All directions: One to one, one to few, one to
many, few to one, few to few, few to many,
many to many
Control
Knowledge of audience
Audience segmentation
Receiver
Detailed, targeted
Demographics, psychographics\ Lifestyle
Behavioral, Person-provided (opt-in)
Micro-segmentation via multiple databases
Interactivity
Feedback
Yes
Immediate, reciprocal, direct or inferential
Asynchronicity
Yes
Emotional vs Task-related content Both
Privacy
No
Reading and Viewing:
How to Start a Blog: The Definitive Guide
https://www.wix.com/blog/2021/02/how-to-start-a-blog
Wix Tutorial I: Website Format

Wix Tutorial II: Website Format

What is Transmedia?

Why storytelling is so powerful in the digital
era

Part One:
Discuss your planned Wix transmedia story. Discuss the storyline in 1 – 2 academic paragraphs. In a 3rd
academic paragraph what digital assets (photos, voice, music, video. etc. do you plan on using in your Final
Project, why?
Part Two:
1. Create a blog page on www.wix.com. You can do this by clicking the ADD button and selecting the blog
layout you would like. Make sure you make your website available for public access and enable comments so
your classmates can post their comments.
2. At the top of your blog, you will tell a single transmedia story.
3. Then tell more aspects of the same story on at least two of these platforms: Facebook, Instagram
4. Add photos, video, music, or other multimedia elements that enhance your story. You can embed those
elements in your blog post or link readers to where they are posted on other sites.
5. The deliverable… (what you will submit): In a Word doc, write a one-page explanation of how you decided
to put which aspects of your story on sites other than the main www.wix.com site. Describe your experience
creating these sites and pages.
About photos, music, and video: My advice is to use your own photos or videos, but if you retweet or repost
something that is OK. Just make sure it is clear to everyone that you did not claim to have created something
that someone else created.