Transmedia storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies, according to google.com.
Henry Jenkins contradicts google’s definition saying “that Transmedia Storytelling is perfectly viable without using new technologies, and that the latter have mainly been used as facilitators by the modern creators of transmedia universes. He was referring to the latter as “the narrative universe of The Wizard of Oz (musicals, cartoon series, books, comic strips) to illustrate the idea that, in his opinion, Transmedia strategies were in place well before the term was coined and defined, and certainly well before the rapid rise of digital media.” The definition of transmedia storytelling is defined differently by nearly everyone you ask. Jenkins believes that it wasn’t just created that it has existed for a lot longer than my 22 years on this planet. That issue may not be resolved.
One thing I’ve learned from this is that people will function in different ways. They will share their material on different forms of transmedia storytelling. Jenkins is old school so he would likely spread his examples like The Wizard of Oz without using blogs or social media. The way you choose to circulate is entirely your choice, but the way you chose likely correlates to the generation in which you were born. Professor Wittig isn’t the only person his age that can perform adequately on Twitter, but people don’t want to take the time to learn something new when they already have something that works. Opening yourself up to more transmedia may make it so the circulation does not become dead.
If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead. You need to harness your personality and integrate that personality with your pitch- much like what we are doing on Twitter. If you can create something that is unique and consistent, then you have a great character. The problem then becomes how will you spread it. I will not despair because I understand why we are doing some of the things in class is to get a better grasp on who we are or learn how to teach others who we are.
All the times you’ve heard be yourself hasn’t really resonated until college. In high school things were just a simple flow with little care in the world, but now that we are faced with more choices I really feel like that has always been in my head ‘be who you are Will’. We need confidence and for that to happen we need others to believe in us most of the time. Locking down some allies on #netprovtv seemed to be crucial in the opening stages and when my character wasn’t drawing attention I switched my character a few times until I found one who I felt was the most like me and the most known to our generation. I chose Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy.
The previous paragraph was basically a reiteration of what Henry Jenkins and Matt Ratto have told us. “‘DIY citizenship’ generally meaning the right to self-determine one’s own identity through engagements with the concepts and ideas on offer within the media. According to Hartley, the DIY citizen is one who creates their identity and individuality through a process of choosing from the semiotic material on offer.” It is so difficult to put yourself out there in a room where you don’t know anyone and the credibility you thought you had- like playing football in high school- is totally non-existent and all they see is a fake Twitter page you created for class. It is so key to establish those allies who will back you up when you fall, and you have to remember that you aren’t there to knock people down, instead you are there to build something and grow with people of common interests.
You have to buy in and it is difficult to do that at times because you are not sure why you are doing something- like talking on Twitter with classmates of only 2 classmates names you know. According to Jenkins “Citizens, people, users of the world wide web, increasingly make it part of their daily lives and work to create, shape and share information with their communities.” We share information everyday in class. We share to understand new developments and also to understand things that may not have seemed interesting to us, but someone else is able to make the material more appealing on why it means something to them. I understand what we are doing a lot more now that I’ve read these blogs and I’m buying in.
Wittig Blog 