Transmedia and Henry Jenkins

From this week’s reading, we can turn to media and cultural scholar, Henry Jenkins work, particularly his book Convergence Culture, to focus in on how narratives of all types are now appearing across multiple media. As he states through his concept of transmedia storytelling, a story or narrative can unfold across multiple media creating a richer experience of the story by these media working together, rather than functioning as separate entities.

Henry Jenkins is well known to the people working in the field of transmedia storytelling. He is a Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts, which is a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Previous he was a Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program, where he started his research on the concept “transmedia storytelling” and wrote articles and books about his research. Quite the overachiever!

He describes transmedia as the following:

• A unified and coordinated entertainment experience with each medium used making its own contribution to the unfolding of the story
• Reflects economic concerns for the entertainment industries by spreading or franchising the brand of something (e.g. Batman) — but does this point can be a bit of problem for some transmedia artists, which we will look at later. It can however create different avenues to gain greater audiences through the use of different media (capturing various audience markets that they wouldn’t normally)
• Does not focus on a single plot or character, rather creating more complex and rich fictional worlds through multiple media
• Generally, each part of the story told through each medium can stand alone as well as unify and add elements to the overall story

Overall, it is an extension to the narrative in various ways, therefore this idea of the continuing narrative is an important argument for Jenkins in his transmedia model. Let’s begin with this idea and work through some of the other characteristics that Jenkins includes in his theory.

Continuing narrative

The continuing narrative is very important to Jenkins’ model. This about the extension of the story through multiple media that produces an ongoing and richer experience of the story itself.

Using The Matrix universe as an example:

In one of the Animatrix (2003) short animated films, “Final Flight of Osiris”, character Jue is despatched from the ship Osiris to warn Zion about the machines drilling into it. She drops a package into a mailbox.

The package is the prologue for the video game Enter the Matrix — with Niobe and Ghost retrieving the package left in the short film.

At the beginning of Matrix Reloaded (2003), Morpheus receives a message from Niobe and Ghost. The message is from the package warning the city of Zion that the machines and Sentinels are approaching.

Here we have the world of the Matrix films continuing via other media and outwards with minor characters and their storylines. Audiences of the Matrix can get involved in the expansion of the universe through these narratives.

Repurposing

Jenkins argues that transmedia does not repurpose already existing intellectual properties, but can extend them through multiple media. Let’s look at some examples to illustrate this idea.

Example 1

Repurposing: Queen’s We Will Rock You (musical theatre)

We Will Rock You is what has been labelled a “jukebox musical” where a storyline has been loosely added around the band’s previously released songs. The songs were selected from Queen’s back catalogue, and a futuristic story about a man who will bring back the power of rock was written to string them together in some cohesive narrative. One of the main criticisms of this musical when it was first staged was that the plot line was confusing due to it perceived unrelatedness to the music it was set to. While diehard Queen fans may have been happy with just seeing and listening to these songs performed live satisfied, the musical did nothing to expand upon the messages and themes of the band, rendering it a missed opportunity to strengthen and expand the group’s ageing fan base.

Extension: Green Day’s An American Idiot (musical theatre)

This musical was also based on the concept album (An American Idiot) and was jointly created by Green Day and director Michael Mayer. Vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong has stated that the original album was written with a plot arc in mind, and recorded it with the desire to one day adapt it into another form. The musical allowed the narrative concerning disillusioned young men trying to find a sense of self in post-9/11 America, to be fleshed out and explored in a way that takes the album’s originals aims and themes further. Audiences were able to experience the complete characters on stage, rather than just hear about them through the songs on the album. As a result, fans of the band were able to appreciate the music further through the different medium.

When considering a transmedia extension for musicians, it is important to understand the difference between extension and repurposing. Of all the artistic expressions, music is the easiest to toss onto another platform without much thought or intent, often as the background score to unrelated content. In the case of We Will Rock You, it may have proved popular enough to draw in a nice profit, but it did nothing to expand our relationship to the music itself.

Example 2

Repurposing: Rock Band (video game)

The Rock Band games series allows the player/s to create a band to play established songs using instrument-like controllers. As the player/s progresses, the band moves to larger and larger venues and unlocks new songs. The series allows for bands to reach new potential new audiences by having their tracks in the game, which is good for them, however the game itself only uses the already recorded music in its own format of gameplay without adding any details or contexts to the band (e.g. history, biography, etc).

Extension: The Beatles: Rock Band (video game)

This was the first Rock Band game that focused on a specific band and its development was assisted by Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s son. Some of the settings and places players can perform in include Abbey Road studios, but what makes this example different is the load screens. Permission was given to the game developers to use never heard recordings of the band talking in the studio, as well as some outtakes of music that builds upon what we know of the Beatles history and mythology. Here is what defines this as an extension through the game medium.

So to understand the difference between repurposing and extending is to consider whether the new medium is giving more information or a new angle or viewpoint to what is already known about the original work/artist. If it does, then it is extending and therefore, in Jenkins’ terms, is a part of the transmedia experience.

Adaptation and extension

Jenkins has spoken of the distinction between adaptation and extension as fundamental to understanding of the transmedia work. He argues that adaptation characteristically takes the same story and translates it from one medium to another, while, as we have seen above, extension seeks to add something to the existing story. However, games designer and transmedia scholar Christy Dena (cited in Jenkins, 2011) has challenged this distinction, essentially believing it too simplistic. She argues that adaptations may be highly literal or deeply transformative, as they are interpretations of another work and not simply a reproduction. Therefore, to adapt a work of fiction like a novel into a film (one of the most common forms of adaptation) means to add a range of potential new meanings brought about by the visual representation of the story. For example, the art director/production designer significantly expands and extends the story by visually creating the world in which it is set. The actors bring a physical embodiment to characters that were only described on paper, which can add new meanings and subtexts to the story as well. We could look at examples like the Harry Potter series or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in this category, for instance. As Dena notes, the shifts between media means that we have new experiences and learn new things (cited in Jenkins, 2011).

What Jenkins wanted to acknowledge, though, in making a distinction between adaptation and extension was what he has called ‘additive comprehension’, a term borrowed from game designer Neil Young, to “refer to the degree that each new text adds to our understanding of the story as a whole” (Jenkins, 2011 [online]). Therefore, additive comprehension adds the story world by extending it out in various directions — what we call world-building. It can come in various forms and using various techniques which deepen audience engagement, such as:

• Offering backstory
• Mapping the World
• Offering other character’s perspectives on the action/events

We will be looking at some of these techniques further next week.

Intertextuality

Throughout his model Jenkins makes clear he is talking about the different possible relations between media when building on and extending the narrative world. He argues that, transmedia storytelling has to combine principles of radical intertextuality and multimodality that allow us to understand something more about a story. He describes ‘radical intertextuality’ as a “movement across texts or across textual structures within the same medium”, like DC comic characters, let’s say Batman because he’s awesome, that appear and move through different comic series over time (Jenkins, 2011 [online]). With intertextuality then, Batman’s story extends over multiple comics.

Jenkins then adds to this understanding of intertextuality with the concept of ‘multimodality’, which takes into account the different interactions audiences have with different media forms. So with our Batman example this would be looking at the ways in which each medium that he has been represented in (TV, films, games, comic books) changes the way we interact with his story and follow along due to its unique formal characteristics. Therefore, for Jenkins a transmedia experience MUST be both intertextual and multimodal, otherwise the same story is either simply rehashed in different media formats or only extended in one medium. This is not transmedia.

Marketing

Early transmedia theories were all about franchises and ways of marketing around a specific intellectual property. For example, the Tron arcade game was just marketing the Tron (1982) movie — it didn’t really extend or continue the film’s narrative.

We can think back to when we were small children growing up with particular franchises that could be animated TV shows, but come along with merchandise, games and films that we needed to have or go and see. They’re designed to be collected and consumed.

From what you understand of transmedia so far, do you think there is a difference between marketing a franchise in these ways and a transmedia experience? Do you think that transmedia experiences now go beyond simple marketing strategies? This is something we will be discussing in class, so have consider what the similarities and differences are between these two things, as well as some contemporary examples of media franchises that use multiple media to market themselves.

To take this a step further, theorists such as P. David Marshall refer to works like The Blair Witch Project (1999), labelling them as “new intertextual commodities”. Marshall describes the new intertextual commodity as a complex relationship between the text (the work) and its marketing, where the promotion of a work is deeply connected to its content. He states, “the line between forms of promotion and the cultural product is blended and hybridized in contemporary production” (Marshall in Harries, 2002). This means that it can be difficult to distinguish between media work’s promotional or marketing campaign and the text/story itself, particularly since the introduction of things like the Internet that has opened up new channels for creative media promotion. In the case of the Blair Witch Project, the online marketing campaign focused on the myth and mystery of the Blair Witch to create consumer word of mouth and hype around the film itself. It used multiple ‘fake’ websites that included the legend of the Blair Witch, found footage by the missing students, photographs, and other media that created an elaborate backstory to the film. It therefore may be argued that viral marketing campaigns, the new intertextual commodity, are transmedia experiences that also serve a promotional function.

Now think back to Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero project. Is it a really clever way to market the new album or a more artistic endeavour designed regardless of economic influence? Consider this quote from Reznor…

The term “marketing” sure is a frustrating one for me at the moment. What you are now starting to experience IS Year Zero. It’s not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record — it IS the art form… and we’re just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride.

(Reznor cited in DeRogatis, 2007)

History of transmedia

To conclude this week some acknowledgement of transmedia as not an entirely new phenomenon is needed, although perhaps we can argue that it has become more common place and taken to another level with the introduction of new, digital media. Some early theories, concepts and movements utilising multiple media in creative practice include:

Gesamkunstwerk (total work of art): “In this Drama, each separate art can only bare its utmost secret to their common public through a mutual parleying with the other arts; for the purpose of each separate branch of art can only be fully attained by the reciprocal agreement and co-operation of all the branches in their common message.”

(Wagner 2001 [1849]) — Composer, theatre director and author

Art collectives like the Surrealists or Futurists in the early 1900s worked in multiple media but exploring the same interests and themes; the Surrealists were interested in the unconscious and the Futurists explored technological progress.

The Futurists: “We shall set in motion the words-in-freedom that smash the boundaries of literature as they march towards painting, music, noise-art, and throw a marvelous bridge between the word and the real object.”
(F. T. Marinetti et. al., 1916) — founder of the Futurist collective in Italy.

Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy investigated in the interplay between painting, sculpture and photography aesthetics in the Theater of Totality.

“The Theater of Totality with its multifarious complexities of light, space, plane, form, motion, sound, man — and with all the possibilities for varying and combining these elements — must be an ORGANISM.” (Moholy-Nagy, 2002 [1924])

Artist Dick Higgins focused on ‘intermedia’ as a form of art that deconstructs generic and formal boundaries of traditional media formats to then investigate the intersections between mixed-media works.

Intermedia Art: “Much of the best work being produced today seems to fall between media. This is no accident. The concept of the separation between media arose in the Renaissance…” (Higgins 1984 [1965])

Higgins view suggests that separation of media is a construction. The joining them together is to counter that artificial state.

Conclusion

By looking at the above historical examples, the consistent theme we can ascertain is the interest in how the characteristics and technique of different media can be combined to create a new and rich media experience. We can also consider this in terms of what it means to be a creative practitioner, especially today when a lot of media is inherently combined and transmedia experiences are on the rise in both small and large scale projects. Consider your own work and entry into the creative media industries. Can you be a filmmaker, designer and audio producer? Can you be a master of all trades?