In this post, I will discuss how digital storytelling is
created for distribution over any digital device such as the internet and how
the fandoms and fan fiction have played a big role in transmedia storytelling. I
will argue how fans participate in the expansion of storytelling by applying
their own situations and characters in an already made universe and how the
original narrative embraces the cultural shift of the digital age.
Since the arrival of the internet, new forms of digital
communication over the digital age such as social media, games, chat sites and
blog sites have led to the further age of communication in the 21st
Century. According to Carlos A. Scolari,
he discusses that transmedia storytelling is “spreading from one end of the
media ecosystem to the other, taking old and new media in its stride (Scolari,
2).” This means that active user participation is vital as they expand from one
medium to another. User participation in this case are fandoms who are a group
of fans of any type of film, show or book.
Fandoms play a big part in
transmedia storytelling through their creation of fan fiction, in which they
expand the universe of a canon story that can include either the same
characters in new situations or new characters in different situations set in
the same original universe.
An example of this is the Doctor Who fandom. It is one of
the most successful attempts at evolving transmedia into reality. For example,
after the original airing of the show in 1964, Doctor Who has been turned into
various forms of storytelling in different platforms such as comic strips,
spin-offs and novelisations. All of
these provide fans with the ability to imagine and expand the universe of the
Doctor Who world by fleshing out their stories.
Neil Perryman discusses that “BBC Online spent considerable
amounts of money on developing its brand-specific products during the first
years of the 21st century and this included a second devoted to its
“cult” television output (Perryman, 6).”
The fandom is so big for Doctor Who that even the show
itself incorporates fan service to appease the fans. BBC themselves accepted
the massive fandom and created various interactive narrative just for fans.
Overall, overall while the world of films, shows, games and
books have a large following, the use of transmedia storytelling will always be
in the digital world where user participation by the fans or creators
themselves can expand the worlds over a series of platforms.
List of References:
Scolari, C. A, 2014. Transmedia Storytelling: New Ways of
Communicating in the Digital Age. AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report.
Focus 2014: Use of Technologies in the Performing Arts, [Online]. 1, 2.
Available at: http://www.xn--accionculturalespaola-tbc.com/media/Default%20Files/activ/2014/Adj/Anuario_ACE_2014/EN/6Storytelling_CScolari.pdf [Accessed
22 March 2017].
Perryman, N, 2008. Convergence: The International Journal of
Research into New Media Technologies. Doctor Who and the Convergence of
Media: A case study in "Transmedia Storytelling", [Online]. 14,
6. Available at: http://davidlavery.net/Courses/Doctor_Who/Readings/Perryman.pdf [Accessed
22 March 2017].
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