Transmedia Storytelling is Awesome.

A Disclaimer.

As Jenkins says about The Matrix, I am sitting here scratching my head over these chapters--but not in a confused, befuddled way.  Instead, I am scratching my head over the fact that this book seems a tad bit outdated--at least in some of the things Jenkins mentions.  So, I will ignore that, while writing here, and instead focus on the major issues--the changing advertising game, participatory television, and transmedia storytelling.

Buying into American Idol     

       

    In “Buying into American Idol,” Jenkins picks up on two different topics; he dwells upon the topic of advertisements, as well as focusing in (again) on the topic of reality television.  Advertisers are terrified that they are losing their stronghold on television advertising, especially as people move more and more into TiVo and other such recording forms of television.  They are scrambling for some sort of foot hold, trying to lock viewers into their product.  Coca-Cola has transitioned itself to be seen as “more of an entertainment” (69) than a soda company, inserting itself into various events such as reality tv and sporting events.  In the case of American Idol, Coca-Cola sponsors aspects of it such as “the red room” where contestants wait.  Coca-Cola, along with other advertisers, are beginning to see the need of rethinking how they operate, how they capture their audiences. 

                But, Jenkins does not merely speak about advertisements within television shows (or, for that matter, their integration into the entire ).  Instead, he revisits the reality tv phenomenon with American Idol.  Within this convergence culture, reality tv stretches far beyond just our television.  Like with Survivor, we get to discuss and gather around with others in a communal way (akin to the 1950s family dinner concept perhaps).  We get wrapped up into a story that is propelled by forces sometimes outside of the writers, and in American Idol, we have the ability to affect that outcome.  Perhaps more so than Survivor, viewers of American Idol vote at the end of each week for the singers they want to win.  Phone companies become clogged and text messages are returned to viewers who are then often disappointed, angry, furious, that their votes weren’t counted.  We, the audience, get to participate with the show in ways we have not been able to before. 

           Transmedia Storytelling

    

 That concept of participatory story telling leads me to two topics.  The first is more of a video than a topic.  While we speak a lot about convergence culture in the realm of tv, movies, and video games, buzz about convergence culture has hit the book industry too.  Oh, we can see it acting sometimes, such as with the e-readers and book forums such as GoodReads.com, but there have been companies who have speculated on a more immersive, interactive type of reading.  Check out the video on the right to see how great this could be—especially as an example of convergence culture.

                However, it is Jenkins’ next chapter which really seems, to me, to exemplify convergence culture.  Transmedia storytelling, or storytelling that takes places via a large collection of various platforms, makes the basis for this chapter.  The Matrix, the epicenter of this chapter, is a prime example of transmedia storytelling.  The story takes place over the course of three films…but, if you watch those three films alone you might very well walk away from the movie scratching your head, wondering what in the world you just saw.  The Wachowski brothers did not intend for this movies to be watched by their lonesome and so, in order to get the whole story, to understand a bit better what is going on, the viewer must watch the animated shorts, read the comics, explore the website.  There are story goodies to be found throughout the entire experience, bridging the boundaries between film, text, cartoon, and others. 

                In many ways it seems like this has started—the transmedia storytelling.  For instance, the Harry Potter books came out and while the movies did not stray too far from the story, or introduce too much new matter, we are able to delve deeper into the world via the games, fan fictions, rpgs that have sprung up, and the various random music groups that have begun (such as The Parslemouths).  We have the Harry Potter story, but what seems to be capturing the audience attention is the world.

                Jenkins concludes his paragraph with a discussion on world building.  We have characters, sure, and these characters may pull on our heartstrings or our emotions.  We might be pulled into “Team Jacob!” or “Team Edward!” (terrible movie, by the way), but they are, as Jenkins puts it, “vehicle(s) for [their] direct experience of the game world” (125).  The story world would perhaps be more accurate.  For instance, in Harry Potter fandom, there are several role playing sites for fans.  Many of these sites have the “no canon character” rule, which basically pushes aside the characters we may know and love and causes the players to inhabit the world Rowling created, extending the story through these various means.

Questions

1) Jenkins says that those who view dramas are more likely to do their television watching alone.  However, do you feel as though those who view alone are less likely to engage in discussion/participation regarding the show?

2)  On page 132, Jenkins discusses how he is a participant rather than an expert, and yet, we look to this book as some sort of expertise (otherwise, why would we be reading it in a class?).  If the defining boundaries of experts and participants are becoming blurred, is anyone really an expert anymore?

3) Can you think of any more recent examples of transmedia storytelling within "mainstream" culture?