Transmedia

The idea of transmediality, as I learned in today’s lecture, isn’t confined to entertainment. From the Making Network Cultured readings I assumed that only entertainment spread across media texts; however, the internet remains on the very same structures (or cables) as what was built in the 1830s for Morse-code. In entertainment, the spreading of a franchise model across media texts constitutes as transmedia.  For example video games are developed to accompany films, television series have spin-offs and comic books are adapted into films and video games. The concept of transmediality in the entertainment sector articulates a longer history of production and audience consumption. The extension of stories across production texts brings a deeper engagement to franchised models from the audience perspective – the audience feels more open to the text, like they relate to it and are co-creators of it. On the other hand, transmediality is also found in the networks of sound communication. The cables laid in the Atlantic Ocean in the 1830s spanning from upper New York to Ireland remain in the same place today – as do the other cables subsequently laid at this time. Over time, however, the cables have needed to be repaired and replaced. Nevertheless, the idea of transmediality is observed in our networks of sound communication as the original cables which were laid to provide communication via Morse-code subsequently are used for telephone and the internet communication today. Furthermore, where the placing of the cables replicated the historical and well established shipping networks which were based on currents. The idea of transmediality is found in all aspects of today’s networked culture, wherein entertainment franchises are spread across production texts and underwater cables serve as methods of historical and modern communication.