Research Question

Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story." - Henry Jenkins. Discuss

Introduction

In the past few years transmediality and transmedia storytelling has totally altered the way in which film makers set about creating a world. It is now longer the norm to simply focus on a single film but rather, create something that can prosper and thrive in an ever expanding media entertainment market. Transmedia storytelling focusses on continuing narrative or characters or other aspects of a story across multiple means of media such as television, comics, video games to name a few. For the purpose of this essay we shall be conducting our research using Henry Jenkins' theories as a basis, he explains transmedia storytelling as,

"Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story." -Henry Jenkins

This essay will explore the in depth world of transmedia storytelling with relevant works, discuss some comparison works and how transmedia storytelling is seen in modern Hollywood with an example of the Star Wars franchise.

Main Concepts

Henry Jenkins on Transmedia Storytelling

This part of this essay will attempt to deconstruct and assess Henry Jenkins’ definition and overall thoughts on transmedia storytelling. Particular attention will be paid towards Jenkins’ article ‘Transmedia 202: Further Reflections’, which has also been deconstructed into note form in the ‘Main Concepts’ section of this wikipage. Other works of Henry Jenkins will be looked at as well to offer more support to the concept of transmedia storytelling within this collaborative essay.

Jenkins opens his article by saying, “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience,” which is the main discussion point of our collaborative essay. What Jenkins is saying here is that transmedia storytelling is a way in which a story unfolds through various forms of media, whether that is in films as well as video games, or even TV and books. Each form of media offers their own unique storytelling experience and when put together, offer a more complete narrative. Jenkins also borrows a term from video game designer Neil Young – ‘additive comprehension’. This refers to the degree in which each new medium adds our understanding to the story as a whole. Jenkins then breaks down transmedia storytelling into a more concise way of thinking. He believes that transmedia offers the following to a narrative: backstory, world mapping, other character's perspectives and also a deepening of audience engagement. All of this clearly allows a narrative to have more depth and create an immersive world for audiences across multiple mediums. This idea is of world building is discussed again in Jenkins’ book Convergence Culture. Jenkins says that “more and more, storytelling has become the art of world building, as artists create compelling environments that cannot be fully explored or exhausted within a single work or even a single medium.” In this article, Jenkins highlights some criticisms that have been raised by others about his thoughts on transmedia storytelling. A lot of criticisms seem to highlight that transmedia storytelling is simply just a way of corporatizing a franchise. For example, he talks about how some people believe that transmedia storytelling is simply a form of branding. Jenkins then discusses how he feels it is better to see branding as one specific part of transmedia storytelling, but should not be the main focus of transmediality as a whole.

To allow for a clearer idea of what transmedia storytelling is, Jenkins uses ‘The Matrix’ as a useful example. As a franchise, ‘The Matrix’ particularly benefits from transmedia storytelling due to the amount of world building it creates. Audiences can experience the main body of the story through the three theatrical films that were released. However, if further investment is desired, audiences can experience the world of ‘The Matrix’ through various other mediums such as video games, short films and comic books. All of these extra platforms add more layers to the world of ‘The Matrix’ and it is clear why Jenkins uses this franchise as a prime example.

To see just how big a part transmedia storytelling plays in ‘The Matrix’, it is important to begin to look at specific mediums within the franchise. More world building is offered with the video game ‘Enter the Matrix’ with tie-ins to the original theatrical film ‘The Matrix’. In the film, we encounter two characters named Ghost and Niobe. These characters offer little impact to the overall narrative of the film and are simply supporting roles. However, if fans of the franchise play ‘Enter the Matrix’, they in fact get to journey through the narrative of the game playing as either character. The game offers side-stories that run linear to the overall plot of the film, therefore more in-depth story elements are experienced by the player. Jenkins, as mentioned before, believes that transmedia storytelling offers other character's perspectives. Since audiences get the chance to experience these characters role in the story allows for a deepening of audience engagement and more backstory. Also, players will get a sense that these supporting characters in the film now have a newly found greater impact on the overall story.

Further transmedia storytelling is shown within ‘The Matrix’ through various other mediums. A series of animated short films were also released to create a deeper narrative within ‘The Matrix’ franchise. ‘The Animatrix’ featured stories which intertwined with the main body of ‘The Matrix’, and featured new narratives with side characters audiences may have already been familiar with. Jenkins talks about other ways in which transmedia storytelling can exist. He talks about how various characters move between different plots but still all exist within the same medium. This is known as ‘radical intertextuality’ and is particularly relevant within comic books. Jenkins talks about Marvel Comics as an example. Many characters within Marvel Comics will encounter each other within different stories, and other characters may not. Marvel's ‘Civil War’ was used by Jenkins as another example. Within this comic book story, various characters encounter each other who audiences would never have expected to ever meet. The characters can exist within their own standalone adventures and then can also crossover into greater, more populated storylines.

Against Henry Jenkins: Christian Fuchs

Christian Fuchs has several issues with Henry Jenkins’ ICA Talk “Spreadable media” and tries to undermine his theory laying out the flaws of Jenkins’ argument drawing attention to Jenkins’ definition of ‘participation’, and his engagement with other theorists. Critical Studies scholars’ criticisms have influenced Jenkins work, according to Jenkins, however Fuchs questions how much he has engaged with other scholars’ work and how much Jenkins has actually changed his analysis. He refers to social media users as like a Habermasian public sphere. However Fuchs believes that Jenkins’ notion of Habermasian public sphere is incorrect. Habermas asserts that corporate social media are declarations of the limits of the bourgeois public sphere in contrast to Jenkins’ definition. Fuchs furthermore questions if he has truly engaged with Critical Studies scholars as he makes a critical error in misnaming scholars such as Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Mark Andrejevic. He uses quotations from Enzensberger however presents a different view on corporatism and participation to him tainting his argument. Jenkins furthermore miss-references a quotation from Enzensberger's work in 1970, stateing it was from the 1960s. Fuchs points out that Jenkins does not mention several important issues such as what role social media and media in general has in protests, political rebellions and revolutions, and does not touch on WikiLeaks, where he ought to as he is a leading scholar. Jenkins focus’ on the aspects of pleasure and creativity without giving much thought to exploitation which is a dominating issue in relation to Web 2.0 and therefore does not grasp the dialectics that is being created. Fuchs asserts that we need to take into consideration not only what phenomena we find on social media, but how they interconnected and to what degree they are present. It is clear that Web 2.0. users are creative but we need to consider to what extent they are active and to what extent of creativity their practices have. It is considered that Cultural Studies scholars such as Jenkins have tendency to exaggerate the creativity and activity of users on the web. Creativity does not lie out with exploitation to web 2.0, but is its very foundation. Fuchs brings particular attention to Jenkins’ notion of ‘participation’ which is about expressions, engagement, creation, sharing, experience, contributions and feelings which Jenkins has continuously argued that “the Web has become a site of consumer participation”. Fuchs’ issue with ‘participatory culture’ lies within the assertion that participation is a political science term that is heavily linked to participatory democracy theory. Jenkins has a culturalistic notion of participation and dismisses the notion of participatory democracy: he ignores questions of ownership of companies or platforms, joint decision-making, profit, class and the dispensation of material benefits. Fuchs argues that if anything, users and employees of corporate platforms such as Facebook are excluded from economic decision-making, they do not ‘participate’. Jenkins, in Fuchs’ opinion has a reductionist comprehension of culture that dismisses contemporary culture's political economy. He ignores the wide concept of participatory democracy and its issues for the internet focusing his notion of participation to a cultural dimension. The web is controlled by corporations that gain capital through exploiting and commodifying individuals therefore can never be participatory according to participatory democracy. It can only be participatory where there is opposition to corporate authority and where users are involved in non-profit, non-commercial internet projects for example Wikipedia. Fuchs asserts that Jenkins dismiss questions of who dominates and financially benefit from cooperate social media. Tga00002 (discuss • contribs) 10:48, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Will Brooker: Dawson's Creek

Will Brooker presents in his article ‘Living on Dawson’s Creek: Teen viewers, cultural convergence, and television overflow’ difficulties of cultural convergence associated with the televising show Dawson's Creek and its viewers, arguing that modern television is increasingly overflowing from the original script across several platforms, and that the programme seeks participatory engagement which builds the programme as an extended, invested experience. Viewers can follow the television show Dawson's Creek on websites such as Dawson's creek.com which includes features such as ‘slam book’, ‘summer diaries’, e-postcards, show playlists and bulletin boards, drawing them into the Dawson Creek experience. These are in place so that the narrative continues when the show ends; the show is not limited to the television medium. Brooker makes a significant amount of references to Henry Jenkins work, specifically his notion of convergence and his ‘black box’ analogy: Brooker has clearly been influenced by Jenkins’ work. The article draws attention to Jenkins example of convergence – his son owning a laptop, a CD player, and a big screen TV are privileges, so Brooker questions whether less privileged individuals have the same opportunity to participate in cultural convergence? Furthermore, geographical differences also make it more difficult to participate in convergence due to time lag issues: the airing time of Dawson Creek is very different to the UK presenting media convergence issues. The Dawson's Creek fan sites creates a problem for Jenkins’ stern distinction between owner-produced and fan-produced convergence: the official site could be viewed to encourage creativity and community through its many features, or perhaps these interactive forums purely propose an advanced process of incorporation by the producers. The site could be argued that it is effectively maintaining fans in its own playing fields and restraining resistance by attracting ‘folk’ culture within cooperate boundaries. Brooker argues that Dawson Creek's audience participation is confined to Jenkins’ notion of media convergence, instead of folk art. It is clear that Will Brooker has been highly influenced by Henry Jenkins and his notion of media convergence, and Brookers example of Dawson's Creek is an excellent example of this. Tga00002 (discuss • contribs) 10:50, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Jenkins in Hollywood

Transmedia Storytelling in Star Wars

Now that we have established Henry Jenkin's theories surrounding transmediality and transmedia storytelling it would be apt to show how this is established in 21st century Hollywood. As an example this essay shall focus primarily on the Star Wars franchise and Disney's involvement in the franchise. Disney's involvement in the Star Wars franchise caused an international eruption in an already mammoth universe when they purchased LucasFilm in 2012. The franchise is now heavily featured in every sort of medium, from the successful blockbusters to travel mugs in the local supermarket. It is a transmedia phenomenon and a contender for world's most profitable entertainment franchise. A characteristic of Star Wars that makes it the masterpiece that it is, is largely through its use of transmedia storytelling, in which there are few other franchises that could rival Star Wars for top place. This is where Henry Jenkins features and we are reminded by the essay question,

“Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience” (Jenkins 2004: 31)

Star Wars is an excellent example of transmedia storytelling as it uses various mediums of output such as blockbuster films, television series, comic book, novels and video games to name a few. A reason that Star Wars is able to take full advantage of this type of storytelling is largely due to the incredibly rich and prosperous world that George Lucas created back in the 1970s. When Star Wars came out in 1977 it single-handedly managed to change to entire film industry, showing how a film could be turned into a merchandising and branding juggernaut, and then turning into one of the most successful entertainment franchises to date. We discuss the topic transmedia storytelling today, however Star Wars has been using this method over the last four decades, creating discussions between storytelling, participatory audiences and ever-changing media-industrial practices.

Jenkins on Lucas and Star Wars

Henry Jenkins discusses his experiences of Star Wars in the foreword for Star Wars and the history of Transmedia Storytelling. He explains how he was not necessarily enthralled by the concept as, at the time, he was a Star Trek fan, however he has now been totally encapsulated by the franchise as it not only met the needs of young fans but allowed genuine discussion between more mature film goers, even meeting his wife over a Star Wars fueled debate.

“There’s no question that George Lucas was a founding figure in the evolution of modern transmedia storytelling.” (Jenkins 2018:17)

Jenkins explains some of the reasoning behind the franchise becoming a transmedia masterpiece. When Lucas sought out funding for the original film he opted to waive his director fee in turn for a percentage of the gross of supplementary products. As this was to be his source of income it meant that it became important for Lucas to create a world where extra merchandising products and spin offs could take place and as this interest was so important for his revenues it meant that it was also important to the stories that were created. As a result of this decision it meant that the Star Wars story could continue off the screen and throughout other sources of mediums when the blockbusters were not being shown. This was unheard of at the time as no other science fiction franchise had managed to so fully saturate and entire generations media experiences, a genre that was merely a sub category, now being recognized as base for mass entertainment spectacle.

Synergy and Disney

Star Wars also falls under Jenkins’ ideas surrounding transmediality and synergy. The notion of Synergy is that one means of production owns or has economic interest in various media outlets. With these rights to ownership it allows them to better use transmedia branding and storytelling as a narrative structure in order to spread narrative, characters and settings across the multiple mediums and therefore maximize their returns invested. In the case of Star Wars and Synergy, Disney is the nucleus of the operation. Walt Disney Studios distributes the films in the cinema, Star Wars: Rebels is distributed on the television on Disney XD channel, the comics and graphic novels are distributed through Marvel Comics (which is now owned by Disney) and finally the narrative is continued through video games such as Star Wars: Battlefront. This allows for different ways in which to read Star Wars, one being as a world of its own, a world that you can explore different areas and gain in depth new background information as if it was a part of the main story. Each of these different areas being transmitted and told through the multiple mediums discussed. This means that fans are able to attempt to achieve a superior knowledge of the franchise as the information is out there but means that we, as the audience, have to search across all platforms for the much needed knowledge.

Conclusion

Overall, after delving into Henry Jenkins thoughts on transmedia storytelling, it's clear that he offers a clear, concise idea of what transmediality is in his article. His opening statement, “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience,” which is also the main focus of this essay, is broken down further and given clarity through his dissection and use of ‘The Matrix’ as an example. The other sections of this essay will include a more focussed look and some criticisms of Jenkins’ work, as well as a discussion about how ‘Star Wars’ exists as an example of transmedia storytelling.

Star wars managed to set a new bar for transmedia storytelling, a claim that Henry Jenkins himself would agree with. It is continually paving the way for ingenious methods of both storytelling and merchandising and setting examples for other franchises to follow. Now with the success of the more recent exploits of Star Wars one can only speculate what the future will hold for the franchise.

References

Guynes, S. Hassler-Forest, D. (2018) Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling. Amsterdam University Press B.V: Amsterdam
Jenkins, H (2004), “The cultural logic of media convergence”, International journal of Cultural studies, 7(1) pp. 33–43 London: SAGE Publications
Jenkins, H (2006) Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide
Jenkins, H. (2008) Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling, chapter 3, pages 93{130. New York University Press, New York and London.
Lucas, G (1977) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. USA. LucasFilm
Lucasfilm (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/4/18. from Lucasfilm
Bury, R., & Li, J. (2013). Is it live or is it timeshifted, streamed or downloaded? Watching television in the era of multiple screens. New Media & Society, 17(4), 592–610. doi:10.1177/1461444813508368
Christian Fuchs. (n.d.). From http://fuchs.uti.at/570