Kira Bakst

ENC4404-01
Logan Bearden
Transmedia Storytelling
In this day and age, what do you think it takes to make a profitable series?
Is it an interesting plot? Good writing? Believable characters? Or is it something more.
Storytelling today has come to be about not only how strong the story is, but about how far
you can stretch it; about how many different audiences you can reach, and about how one goes
about reaching them. Both within the English major and outside of it, this method of telling a single
story to as many people as possible through a variety of different media has come to be known.as
transmedia storytelling. However, within the Editing, Writing, and Media track of the English
major ere at FSU, the focus on transmedia storytelling lies in the author(s) ability to compose
effectively for each of those different media to create a larger world rather than in their ability to
formulate that realms plot, characters, and setting. Thats a job for the creative writing majors of the
world but I digress. The composers of tomorrow the EWM students of today are going to
have to be able to navigate this new multiplatform world and understand new media, understand
who uses what types of media, understand how to connect all of those media, and therefore
understand how to reach the biggest possible audience.
In the words of scholar Henry Jenkins, Transmedia storytelling represents a process where
integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the
purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium
makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story, (Transmedia Storytelling 101).
Essentially Jenkins is saying that a transmedia story is one whose tale unfolds across multiple media
platforms, and that each platform holds its own unique piece of information about the story. When
there are both old and new media forms present within this group of platforms, the result is not only
a transmedia story but an example of what Jenkins has deemed convergence culture (Convergence
2). For instance, one commonly cited example of transmedia storytelling is the Matrix series. This
series began as a film, but rapidly expanded into video games, television, comic books, and print
books. The print novels would be considered old media due to the length of time that the medium
has been in use, and the comic books would likely also be considered old media due to the fact that
they are based on visual art a medium even more ancient than the written word. Meanwhile, the
video games, television series, and films would be more representative of new media due to the fact
that they came about only as a result of more recent technological innovations. The original trilogy
of films represents the creation of the Matrix world they were the stepping off points for all of the
other media to connect to. By establishing the original story, the films are what initially generated
audience interest in the franchise. The subsequent video games, animated television series, and
comic books each built off of those initial works by (respectively) allowing players to work through
both a parallel story and the original story on their own, providing viewers with a more intricate
background of the Matrix universe, and to give readers a short new series of stories based on the

original. Each of these media presented their particular audience with information about the Matrix
narrative that was unique from all of the others in its content and in its methods of dissemination.
With the rate that new technology is being created in the modern era, this intermingling of
new and old media is a key part of the new convergence culture within which transmedia storytelling
was born. This is where transmedia storytelling becomes incredibly useful as a tool. With a
transmedia story you can use practice using all sorts of different media and writing for all sorts of
audiences. Because transmedia storytelling allows you to purse a number of unique audiences at
once, the likelihood that someone will see and relate to your story increases exponentially, and the
more people who come to enjoy the story the better off your composition (and your paycheck) will
be. This is the aspect of the transmedia method that makes it such a brilliant idea. Whether you are
the author, the publishing house, the television studio, or the advertising agency pretty much
anyone other than the consumer you profit (unless of course the work itself inherently isnt a good
one). However, it is also what makes composing a transmedia story difficult. Characters must grow,
plot must be built, secrets must be revealed, and a resolution must arrive, but each of these parts of
the story must account for and utilize the different mediums they are being told through as well as
the different audiences they are being geared towards. Within the major, the most obvious positive
outcome of successfully applying the principles of transmedia storytelling would be getting a good
grade on your assignment but there are so many other bonuses as well. Through the various
courses offered for EWM students, one has the opportunity to learn the limitations and affordances
of almost all of the major communication media used today. In this way, EWM will prepare you to
the task of composing efficiently and effectively in the future no matter the medium being used.
To help explain how transmedia stories work, I have decided to explicate one incredibly
recent example of one: the web-comic Check Please! by artist Ngozi Ukazu. Published originally in
2014 through the online blogging platform, Tumblr, it is the (fictional) story of a young figureskater-turned-hockey-player told through a combination of printed zines, online comics, and a
Twitter account. The web-comic presents the narrative in a very different way than the Twitter, and
the Twitter presents the narrative in a very different way from the zines. Though completely
different, these three media must work together to contribute to the same story.
The affordances of a visual art-based medium within your transmedia story would be that
the artist alone (or the group of people behind the work) gets to decide the style of the piece.
Typically when one works within the comic medium, the art style used must be consistent (or show
growth) and coincide with the type of story being told. This is because, as a comic, the first aspect
that readers will notice is the art. If the comic is drawn in a very colorful or cutesy way, the reader
will expect the plot to coincide with that style. If it doesnt, the reader will become confused and
may even lose interest in the comic. It is same idea as when you have to put down a book because
you cannot deal with the writing style: no matter how good the story is, if the style of the work
doesnt coincide with what a reader wants or expects then it is not going to garner the following it
needs to be successful. In the case of Check Please!, this means strong lines and lots of solid colors to
represent the strength of the young men playing the rough and rowdy sport of ice hockey.
Furthermore, in all comics it is expected that the layout be clean, dialogue must be an easy to read
font, and both physical and verbal expressions be presented in a way that the audience can
understand. Character design, layout, setting, and medium (online or hardcopy) are all aspects of

comics that the composer has complete control over and can manipulate to best suit the needs of
the story or audience. Of course this leads to the main limitation of the comic as a possible medium:
its success largely (though not completely) depends on the artists ability. If the drawings of a comic
are not aesthetically pleasing or the style seems incongruent with the plot, you may lose readers
before they even give the story a chance. The comic, both online and in print, is an incredibly hard
medium to compose in, but the popular comic book heroes did not get where they are today
without hard work. If you have the capability to utilize a comic in your own transmedia project I
would highly recommend doing so especially if you would be working with an online comic. I say
this because in my experience as a student I have watched time and time again people find comics
easy to access and comprehend even when they are on topics that may be difficult for some people
(such as Maus, the tale of a Holocaust survivor told in comic book form). However, keep in mind
that another limitation of the comic medium is that for as many people who love reading comics
there are just as many who do not.
Meanwhile, the pieces of Check Please! being composed via the Twitter handle are composed
in a completely different way. Additions to the story have a 140 character limit, and the medium is
designed for frequent use, meaning that the author needs to have almost all of their ideas preplanned if not pre-written to be released on a schedule. It is also much easier to connect with
readers and the larger WebSphere through the @ and hashtag systems, meaning that the audience
is now not some mysterious number or group, but a distinct presence made up of individuals who
will be wanting to personally interact with the story. This ties in yet another Henry Jenkins concept:
participatory culture. Part of the emerging convergence culture of today, participatory culture refers
specifically to the nature of modern technology which allows readers or viewers to actively you
guessed it participate in the work being created. Whether it is simply interacting with characters
from the story, as is the case with the Twitter of Eric Bittle, the main character of Check Please!, or
whether audience members are actively encouraged to compose pieces of the story themselves,
participatory culture is becoming more and more commonplace as time goes on. For social media
websites like Twitter and Tumblr this is almost like a godsend. Social media was designed for the
sole purpose of connecting with others, so using it as an author to connect with your audience(s) is
simply just the next logical step in its evolution. This is a major affordance of media like Twitter. On
the flip side, though, it could just as easily become a limitation. Depending on the audience you are
aiming for, the use of social media might either be the road to success or a suicide mission.
Audiences of today want to be involved and they want to reach out to composers directly, but if you
are trying to target older generations you are not going to want to use Twitter or Instagram or
Tumblr; you may not even want to use social media at all. While it is true for any method of
composition that you need to know your audience it is particularly true for the transmedia
storytelling method. When you have multiple platforms reaching out to similar but not completely
overlapping groups of people, you need to know exactly what each of those groups wants to see.
Otherwise you could very well end up with an amazing multi-media story that no one is noticing
because it hasnt been marketed to the perfect audiences yet.
The final medium utilized by Ukazu in her story is that of the zine. According to scholar
Susan Thomas, zines typically are self-published booklets sold cheaply or traded for other zines
(Thomas 27). She goes on to say that,

All zines are artistic in that they are created, usually by handEvery zinester makes creative
decisions: What format? What kind of paper? How to bind? It is difficult, to be sure, to
make a distinction between zines and art zines. Even zines that are primarily textual are
tactile and visual, with text placed on the page much as an image would be (Thomas 27).
Check Please! has had several art zines released so far, and the biggest difference between this
medium and the other two is that it must be paid for before anyone can access it. Another key
characteristic of these zines is that they exist in a physical form rather than as an online presence.
The main affordance of a zine would be that, like a comic, the composer has complete control of
the design and content. That being said, I do not really believe that the extent to which the artist or
author has control over the product has really been established. Content means not just the topic
of the zine, but every font, image, and text that is included, plus every aspect that those three items
carry along (size, color, texture, etc.). Design means not just the layout of the booklet and its
contents, but how it will be bound, which materials will be used, and if and/or how pages will
interact with each other. Though some artistic talent is needed to create a zine, creativity plays a
much larger role in the creation process. A zine can be designed in any fashion one can dream of to
help transmit the story, and so as long as you can find the means to bring that vision into reality then
you are capable of producing a zine. The main limitation of this medium lies in its content. The
subject matter must be interesting enough to validate a reader spending actual money on pieces of a
story that can mostly be accessed for free online. This final bit is the most important part of
transmedia storytelling, as it indicates the actual goal behind it: earning money. Now as awful as that
sounds it is not all bad and heres why.
From a business standpoint, the end goal of any composition regardless of the medium
is to create a product that will endure for a long time and bring in as many customers as possible. If
a product is available on multiple media then the inevitable outcome is that more people will reach
out to it simply because it is available to a larger number of people. From the standpoint of an
EWM major, though, the purpose of any text should be to either educate or entertain the audience.
It is not so much about making a profit, but making something that people will enjoy. Regardless of
your own outlook, the key part of creating a successful transmedia story is, as Jenkins says, to make
the products both work together as a whole, and individually contain surprises that will be mysteries
to those who do not pay for that piece of the story. But for as many businesses who profit off of the
sales of these transmedia stories there are just as many if not more regular individuals who are
happy to shell out some dollars for a new addition to their favorite series. This is one reason why
transmedia storytelling is becoming so popular in the modern era: because at its core everyone wins.
Think, for example, of the Star Wars franchise. There are the three original films, the three prequels,
a brand new sequel that is kicking off its own series of films, video games, books, an animated
television show, and more. While each piece of the Star Wars story can stand alone, together they
create a vast and complex world that people are dying to be a part of. The audience for this story is
vast, and all too willing to pay for further looks into the lives of the characters and worlds within
which the stories take place. In many cases the audience will be so interested in these topics that
many of its members will take it upon themselves to fill in missing blocks of information on their
own. This fact loops us back to the concepts of participatory and convergence culture. To be able to
effectively compose a transmedia story you must remember two things: the audience is going to

want as much information as possible, and to reach as many people as you can you need to utilize a
variety of different media.
Whether it is a large franchise like the Matrix or Star Wars or an effort by a single individual
like Check Please!, transmedia storytelling is gradually becoming the generally accepted method of
composition today. It is the best possible way to take a strong story and have it reach as many
people as possible, not to mention the financial rewards that will come alongside the story if it hits
major success. As an Editing, Writing, and Media major, though, it may be more important to
recognize the educational opportunities that come from composing through such a method. My
recommendation for anyone, especially EWM students, reading this is to think about what it is
exactly you want to write about. Formulate your plan, and then look at your story and imagine what
kind of people you would want to read it if you had the choice. Is your story geared for younger
children? Teens? Young adults? Actual adults? This is, again, crucial in discussions of transmedia
storytelling. The media you choose to use to tell and spread your story depend on whom you are
attempting to get to read it. I would highly recommend getting your story deeply involved with at
least one major social media platform, as social media are some of the main ways people
communicate today. Due to its highly participatory nature, Twitter might be the best place to start
off your online story campaign. Make sure to thoroughly research each platform you intend to use
so that you can turn it inside out if you need to in order to accomplish what you have in mind. Each
medium has its own unique set of limitations and affordances that can make or break how your
story is effectively told. If you are combining both old and new media in your transmedia campaign,
make sure that each medium has unique elements to the story being told. A movie is not meant to
be a carbon copy of a book: it is meant to tell the books story through an audio-visual medium in
which characters are literally brought to life.
Bringing Henry Jenkins back one more time, it is important to remember that transmedia
storytelling is the art of world making (Convergence Culture 21). It is meant to be fun for everyone
involved: for the audience members who get to follow a scavenger hunt of clues across however
many media are involved, and for the author composing the story at large. Whether you end up
writing the next science fiction masterpiece or you just learn about how to target different types of
audiences, the Editing, Writing, and Media major is meant to teach you how to compose for the
various types of media in the world today. Transmedia storytelling can be a lot of work, but it is can
also be one of the best learning tools this major has to offer if you give it the chance. So take a leap,
make a world, and decide which media are right for you!

Works Cited

Bakst, Kira. Transmedia Storytelling in the Modern Era: Gaining Viewers and Keeping them Hooked.
Final essay, Florida State University, Dec. 2015.
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006.
Print.
Jenkins, Henry. "Transmedia Storytelling 101." Confessions of an AcaFan. Wordpress, 22 Mar. 2007. Web.
26 Jan. 2016.
Thomas, Susan E.. Value and Validity of Art Zines as an Art Form. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art
Libraries Society of North America 28.2 (2009): 2738. Web...