Harry Potter and the power of transmedia storytelling

For my narrative assessment the use of transmedia wouldn’t be suitable. Therefore, for this task I decided that I would look into how the franchise Harry Potter uses transmedia storytelling.

Harry Potter started out as a book series released by J.K Rowling in 1997, followed by the first Harry Potter movie, which was released in 2001. From these releases, a whole array of new transmedia story telling began, and has allowed fans to interact with each other and the story across multiple platforms.

• Fan fiction such as fan made videos (e.g. Harry Potter Puppet pals on YouTube)
• Social media fan groups (including the sharing of memes)
• Harry Potter Merchandise
• Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Florida
• ‘Pottermore’

For the Purpose of this task I have written about ‘Pottermore’, which is the the digital publishing, entertainment and news company from J.K Rowling. After the original books and films finished, the online site gave fans more of what they love. It also encourages a brand-new audience that may have not always been interested in the books, but have watched the films. For example:

• You can follow the lives of Harry, Ron and Hermione by enrolling online as a Hogwarts student
• Discover what Hogwarts house you are likely to have been put in
• Discover your ‘Patronus Charm’ by taking a ‘one time’ interactive quiz
• Stay up to date with the latest news within the world
• Read the online and interactive books
• Take quizzes to test knowledge

Pottermore recently closed (October 2019) and was replaced by wizardingworld.com, which has combined both Harry Potter with ‘Fantastic Beasts’ (prequel to the Harry Potter franchise) extending the wizarding world even further.

The idea of ‘spreadability vs drillability’ fits well, because it encourages the audience to dig deeper into the story to discover more about the Harry Potter world. By registering with the site, the audience gains access to news, features and articles as well as new and unreleased writing from J.K Rowling herself. There are a variety of interactive games and quizzes that have enabled fans to test their knowledge about the story, and about certain characters. You can also get even more out of the wizarding world by subscribing to ‘Wizarding World Gold’.

This online and interactive world is an extension to the original stories, and expands fan’s knowledge, and understanding of the original story. It also allows fans to experience the story in new ways.

The concept of Continuity and Multiplicity, discussed by Henry Jenkins, is also relevant here, because many franchises seek to construct a strong sense of continuity within the fictional worlds. This enables the fans to see this as a payoff for their time and energy put into the franchise, by collecting and assembling parts of the story into a meaningful whole. For example, the wizarding world app allows the audience to discover ‘new surprises’ and ‘fresh features’.

Each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.