Transmedia Storytelling

Transmedia storytelling is essentially what we do on social media, where the individual is the “story” that is being told. This relates back to my third blog post where I talked about how people display and highlight different facets of their personalities on different social media platforms. We utilize transmedia storytelling methods without even realizing it, using several social media platforms to create a more accurate representation of ourselves in the virtual world and extend our stories. Some have even made careers of selling themselves as a story, such as YouTube celebrities, who usually maintain accounts with YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. While YouTube acts as the main platform for storytelling for these individuals, the other social media platforms contribute to their own story in different ways; Twitter allows them to promote projects or offer insight on particular topics whereas Snapchat lets their audience see them in their daily lives.

 The author often mentions that transmedia storytelling is closely related to marketing and argues that this form of storytelling can be used to do much more. While I agree that transmedia storytelling can be used for a variety of purposes, I think that there is always a marketing element to it. The author supports her argument by citing some of her own projects and others like educational docudramas and YouTube channels. On the surface, these are not made for marketing purposes, but documentaries and other campaigns with media presence often try to push the viewer/consumer into forming certain opinions or thinking in a certain way. Even on social media, individuals “market” themselves to other social media users, trying to depict their lives in a particular way. Some of the examples have more obvious marketing elements, such as the Half the Sky Movement encouraging the audience to join in the fight to end oppression against women or Bernie Sander’s presidential campaign, but even "Welcome to Pine Point" had messages about the importance of community and place. Every message has some importance or meaning to it that contributes to a larger idea. 

One example of transmedia storytelling that I thought about while reading was Pottermore/the Harry Potter franchise in general. Starting out as books, film adaptations and video games were created to progress the story. After the books were all written and the films were coming to an end, Pottermore was created as an interactive way to read the books with new information. Harry Potter has been brought brought to the stage, with a new play in the works. Even in 2016, Harry Potter fans can expect a new spin-off film series and a new book.