Interactive Documentary Blog

Everything seemed to be cross-media or cross-platform and then the buzz word became transmedia… what is the difference exactly?

I found an article by Nicoletta Iacobacci (Head of Interactive TV/Eurovision at the European Broadcasting Union) that is actually quite clear on the topic. Here  is a selection of her article:

In a crossmedia environment, content is repurposed, diversified and spread across multiple devices to enhance, engage and reach as many users/viewers as possible. It is common to call crossmedia “content 360″. It is generally the same program re-edited for different screens, fragmented content disseminated on different platforms, possibly incorporating extra content and channels to extend the viewers’ experience. Brand here plays a key role and needs to be always identifiable. A typical form of crossmedia is when the plot of the story ends with a call-to-action, and drives the audience across different media. A good example is the BBC’s Spooks, where, at the end of the TV episode, a cheerful announcement gives directions to a website.

In transmedia storytelling, content becomes invasive and permeates fully the audience’s lifestyle. Stephen Erin Dinehart, who coined the term transmedia and created the VUP (viewer/user/player) relates this model to Richard Wagner and his concept of “total artwork” (“Gesamtkunstwerk“) where the spectator becomes actor/player. A transmedia project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media in order to have different “entry points” in the story; entry-points with a unique and independent lifespan but with a definite role in the big narrative scheme.

Check the article itself for more elucidations…