Wait, what? 2.0? Aren’t we still figuring out transmedia 1.0?
Yep.
But I’m already looking beyond most of what we’ve seen in transmedia storytelling to date, which has been ‘more of the same’ in the sense that the legal and creative lines between content creators and content consumers are still very much intact for commercial entertainment properties.
The core content (mothership, tent pole, etc.) has continued to lead the way, forcing core narrative extensions (e.g., the related comic, game, etc.) and the narrative marketing extensions (e.g., the ARGs and social media extensions) to be subservient to the core content. Sadly, most of the transmedia marketing is created after development of the core content, eliminating any chance for highly integrated, cohesive transmedia extensions from the core content.
[Note: at the risk of offending the ARG community, I’m labeling ARGs as marketing extensions for two reasons: they are not directly monetizable, and they have mostly been used as pre-launch marketing efforts for a directly monetizable product/service. This is, happily, changing, but to date most ARGs have been relegated to the marketing side of the house, not the creative side of commercial entertainment properties]
And there are pitifully few examples of commercial entertainment properties that possess a legal and creative structure to allow for the meaningful integration of consumer-generated content (CGC) into the official canon of the property.
I believe that will change, though, and I believe transmedia offers the perfect framework for allowing content producers and audiences to achieve the Holy Grail of entertainment: the co-creation of value.
I humbly submit that all CGC is, in fact, value. Some more so than others, to be sure, but value nonetheless.
Traditional entertainment is passive consumption of content. It’s a monologue of static content.
Transmedia 1.0 supports audience interaction with content. It’s a conversation of dynamic content. It’s engaging in a way no previous form of entertainment has been able to achieve.
Transmedia 2.0 invites audience participation and contribution of content. It’s a collaboration of content, a co-creation of value, supported by the rich, pervasive structure of transmedia 1.0.
Content producers who ignore CGC are like people walking across a floor covered in money. You can choose to walk past it, or you can choose to make the effort to pick it up.
For me the goal is to move beyond Transmedia into what I call Immedia, the point where the media itself no longer “stands between” (mediates) but the participant engages in the narrative as an direct experience. It’s a point where the PLAY becomes more than the GAME. The game is mediated but the experience of play is immediate. The less the media intercedes, the more powerful the experience. Transmedia is a shift away from the locked forms of traditional linear media but also a phase leading to what comes beyond it. Transmedia is Transitional.
Mega points for “Immedia” and “Transmedia is Transitional.”
Would love to hear/see more if you care to elaborate!