Coming Up: Transmedia Storytelling

Worldbuilding, mythmaking, over-design: these are just some of the terms that characterize the emerging world being dubbed "transmedia storytelling," a concept best explained by Henry Jenkins, who in 2006 described transmedia in a book titled Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. The book outlines the cultural shifts that affect media production, highlighting, for example, the increased role of fans, who now form social and creative communities around certain kinds of works (such has the Harry Potter franchise). Jenkins notes that the aesthetic goals of convergence culture projects include serving as "cultural attractors" by bringing people together, and as "cultural activators" by providing opportunities for participation. Works that combine attraction and activation might also offer raw materials for continued fan remix, as well as a means for monitoring and amplifying these activities so that fans gain recognition from peers. Even in this very simple, four-part elaboration, it's clear that the work of "authoring" in convergence culture is vastly different from simply writing a great book or movie script. Jenkins, along with his colleague Denise Mann, will host an all-day symposium tomorrow at USC titled Transmedia, Hollywood: S/Telling the Story to talk about the implications of this new form of creativity, asking, for example, if this is an entirely new way of thinking about storytelling, as well as, simply, how do you imagine, design and create these sprawling story worlds that move from one medium to the next? (Image: from the cover of Convergence Culture