by James Fernandez
The term
transmedia was coined by USC professor Marsha Kinder to explain the style of
creating a story experience that is told using multiple platforms and formats.
Content is created that engages the audience. A key factor in the style as that
despite the fact that these elements are designed to work together, they are
not linked as much as they are synchronized to work in coordination when the
viewer can step back and look at the big picture. Multiple stories come
together to tell one larger tale.
Multimedia
uses a combination of production elements such as video, audio, text, photos or
animation to tell a story or make a presentation. Basically, just think of a
killer power point presentation and you have a multimedia project. A key to
multimedia is that all of those elements are presented together to tell one
story. Therein lies the difference between transmedia and multimedia forms.
One field
where transmedia is making significant headway and changing the way stories can
be told is in journalism. Kevin Moloney is a photojournalist, educator and a staunch supporter of the transmedia
movement in journalism. His blog www.transmediajournalism.org offers a haven
for those looking to expand this burgeoning movement.
“By telling interconnected stories
we can embrace the nuance and complexity that exists in any story world.
Through multiple forms we can engage the different parts of our story-loving
brains. By distributing them across varying channels we can target the
audiences that really matter.”
Using, photos, video and voice over
narration from the subjects of the mini documentaries, www.reframingmexico.com is an interactive website that allows the
user to pick and choose the story it wants to see by providing a list of
keywords. At first glance, the website may actually just look like a multimedia
project but it is the interactive element that lets the viewer build his or her
own experience with the material. This is a key element to the transmedia
style.
Triumph, Civil, Passion, Hope,
Drama, Worth, Traditional, Stigma, Novel, Generations, Alternative and Struggle
take the viewer on a trip to Mexico City where they hear of a story that
applies to one of the keywords. Some stories overlap in to different keywords,
like that of Mexican Wrestling legend Cachora Mendoza. His can be found under
Triumph, Passion, Hope, Drama and Traditional. There is also a “Create your own
wrestler" tab.
The purpose of the project is to
give the viewer a new way to look at Mexico City. Individually, the stories
told on the site weave a narrative about different aspects of life in the city
in a way that is similar to walking through the town on your own, stopping to
look at what interests you as opposed to a more traditional documentary project
where the editors and directors lead you on a specific journey. The transmedia
model delivers the material to everyone in a different way, in the end,
creating a wholly unique narrative of Mexico City.
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