Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/663385
m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 6 c g w 3 9 D uring the last 20 years or so, there has been a cultural sea change in how media makers are using technology and the di- rections in which audiences are using media. And this has had a profound effect on everything from major feature films to TV series, commercials, education, and the distribution of informa- tion. And yet, while all this radical technological and social change is going on in almost every form of entertainment and marketing media, it still, as it has for thou- sands of years, comes down to one fundamental element: story. Technology is not a moti- vator when it comes to media creation, but it can inspire creativity with its enticing tool sets, as users ask, What can I do with this? In the last decades of the 20th century, a whole new toolbox became available to content creators. Computer graphics, personal computers, and the Internet revolutionized the world of media at every lev- el. Consumers went from get- ting their media entertainment and information through one of a handful of delivery systems – such as television, cinema, radio, print, or live performance – to a vast river of them. At the heart of these changes – in games, mov- ies, TV shows, social media experiences, and more – is the emergence of new forms of storytelling. A large and growing part of the audience is no longer content to simply sit and watch. They want something more. Something interactive. Something demanding. In a way, transmedia is a natural consequence of the endless joys of surfing the Web and playing online games. Now you have something to search for, to track down, and, best of all, via the fan interaction points of contact, in transmedia you have something in which you can actively participate, a com- munity you belong to. Designed for the modern world, transmedia continues to offer storytelling's ancient primary purpose: to bind communities in a common history through the bright new world of multiple media delivery platforms. World building, creating story worlds, MMO games, and now virtual-reality display systems are all appealing to the audience's burgeoning desire to immerse itself in media experiences. Games instigated this change and have played a major role in evolving media, especially in the way we receive it. They have done the "donkey work" to drive the programming and hardware developments of the past 20 years in terms of media creation and distribution. Games have been, and still are, a powerful force in the growth and improvement of the Internet. Professor Henry Jenkins of the University of Southern California was among the first to use the term "transmedia" in articles and, later, in his book titled Convergence Culture (2006), though his colleague at USC, Marsha Kinder, originally coined the word in 1991. Jenkins provides a comprehensive, academically phrased definition of the concept: "Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed system- atically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of cre- ating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story." There are two fundamental models of transmedia produc- tion. The first is known as the "mothership model," which is the marketing tool version. The second is a community entertainment approach I call the "circus model" (more on this later). T H E M O T H E R S H I P M O D E L Jenkins has used the term "mothership" as a metaphor for a product, movie, TV series, game, or brand that is at the heart of the assembled fleet of additional alternative media, though his particular focus was on how this model works in contemporary Hollywood. This central product is the one at the heart of the transmedia project – it is the one that will make the money and drive the transmedia campaign. Anrick Bregman is a trans- media professional at Unit9 in London, working on a variety of output for marketing clients. The company specializes in mothership model transmedia projects. "Brands nowadays are probably the biggest sponsors of content on the Web. Advertising creatives look at the same stuff online that you or I, or anyone, looks at, and they go, 'That's cool. I could use that in a pitch.' So I get more and more briefs that are transmedia related, where they say the content goes here and it also goes there." Bregman points to last year's Chipotle campaign in the US, lauded as very successful by many transmedia blogs. "They did what is considered to be a very successful trans- media campaign, in the sense that they had a game, which AN AVATAR EXPERIENCE IN SECOND LIFE PROVIDES AN INTIMATE FEELING OF LIFE AT GUANTANAMO BAY.