Transmedia Storytelling 101

1.   Why is transmedia storytelling important in digital convergence communication?

Transmedia storytelling is important in digital convergence communication because it allows productions to live on in different platforms. This allows the production to enter the media convergence world, where audiences enjoy and strive to interact with different companies, organizations, or in this case, productions.  

2.   Why can the media business be beneficial more from transmedia storytelling in distributing their productions?

The media business can benefit from transmedia storytelling because it provides them with the means to communicate more ideas that they may not have been able to reveal in one medium. For example, Star Wars comics and video games can help reveal some additional background information for the movies.

3.   How can transmedia storytelling be beneficial for different bodies of audience in consuming productions?

When different bodies of audience continue wanting to consume more and learn more about the productions, transmedia storytelling allows the audience to continue its consumption, so the story never really ends.

4.   How can transmedia storytelling be worked out in terms of collective intelligence in the process of production?

Transmedia storytelling can be worked out in terms of collective intelligence because one portion of the audience may have read a comic, for example, and in forums, bring up information to be shared with fellow audience members.

5.   How does transmedia storytelling encourage the interactivity with the audience?

Transmedia storytelling encourages interactivity with the audience because after the audience consumes one medium, they look for additional ways to keep the story alive. In doing so, the audience can interact with the producers and other fans to discuss the production on several different platforms such as social media, video games, etc.

Photojournalism in the Age of New Media

The positives are that society will now have the chance to see a photo of something that the journalist would have only been able to write about.

Professional journalists need to be careful because they have very little in the way of verifying that these are actual photos taken from the scene of the story. In addition, the journalist has no way of knowing if they are dealing directly with the photographer with could be met with its fair share of copyright infringements. There might also be the difficulty of figuring out how to compensate the photographer.

The content of the photo may be called into question because there is not an easy way to verify that the content of the photo is what the “dealer” says it is.

Citizen photojournalism cheapens the work of professional photojournalists because it gives news organizations the option of outsourcing their photo needs to more citizen journalists.

All the aggregation that's fit to aggregate

Aggregation means the using content produced by other people and packaging them on one Web site.

The author calls Arianna Huffington “the queen of aggregation” because she has built a business model of taking posts from unpaid bloggers and placing the content on the Huffington Post. On the Huffington Post’s Web site, there are article links on the homepage that will actually link to another page. For example, an article titled, “Puerto Rico makes its most significant default yet,” is seen on the homepage of the Huffington Post. When you click on the article, it links you to a site called, “The World Post.”

Aggregation is a threat to professional journalism because it allows for the exploitation of less-qualified bloggers who are unpaid. These bloggers may have interesting thoughts, but in terms of journalistic integrity, most of these bloggers are not interested. However, the author does say The Huffington Post has now realized aggregation only takes you so far and has now hired more seasoned journalists, so it is still possible that professional journalism could enjoy a renaissance.

YouTube as Participatory Culture

Interaction online becomes key for the YouTube video production community because people, specifically young people, go to YouTube to watch and comment on videos. By doing that, the website allows its users to converge the video medium with a medium that encourages social interaction between the producer and the consumer. However, because the site allows users to post their own content free of charge, such an interaction encourages new producers.

Youthful consumers of YouTube typically begin as passive consumers on the periphery, but once they watch several videos, monitor the comment stream, they eventually develop a sense of comfort. Once that comfort is obtained, the consumer then joins in as active consumers, interacting with the audience by adding their thoughts in the discussion on the comment stream.

YouTube allows several of its most influential content producers to use their site as a source of ad revenue, which takes ordinary folk and turns them into rather rich and even more influential producers. In addition, YouTube really encourages the consumers to join in on the action by convincing them that their posts matter just as much.

YouTube's next step is continuing to serve as a site that blurs the line between producer and consumer. With its participatory culture, it is conceivable that YouTube will be able to inspire more involvement from their passive audience and create even more of a powerhouse.

Technology & Internet

Businesses use social media to be seen by consumers. The companies use people to refer their product or service to their friends by liking the company's page or posts. When a person "likes" a company it acts as a recommendation for all that consumer's friends and a vote of confidence for the company. In order to successfully use social media and create that presence, businesses must be persistent in their posting. Social media is not an easy fix, so persistence is key for companies trying to be seen. 

I was not surprised by the article's "Social Media is NOT" because for one thing, as a college student, I know how much Facebook has become an older woman pow-wow. My mother, grandmother and all of their friends are all over Facebook keeping tabs on their friends' families and what they're up to. So to hear that the fastest growing users of Facebook are women ages 45-60 is not surprising. In addition, I was not necessarily surprised that businesses cannot rely on social media as an easy fix. I've looked at content over and over without really beginning to take an interest in that organization or business. So persistence is certainly key there.

According to the article, "social media IS" the fastest growing sites on the web, which is certainly true in my case. In some way, shape or form, I am usually consuming social media content throughout the day. Social media is also free and only one piece of marketing, according to the article.

My biggest takeaway from the article is that when I work as a communication professional, I cannot give up on social media because I'm not seeing immediate results. Being persistent is the most important part of social-media-for-business use. In addition, understanding the demographics and the rise of older folk using Facebook is important. Trying to establish a trendy item or service for young people would be disastrous without understanding which social media to employ. 

Social Media Use is Soaring

1. Social media and mobile apps have made Internet use grow tremendously, so catering posts on social media to the mobile scene is a great idea for communication professionals. Facebook is still the Social-media goliath, but is down, while Pinterest, Google Plus and Twitter have all grown.

2. With the knowledge obtained in the article, it is clear that communication professionals must ensure that all of its content is easily accessible on PC and on the mobile platform. Jumping in on Twitter discussions about television is a great way to build your social-media brand and identity.

Web 3.0

According to the article "Web 3.0 in plain English (or how I became famous without knowing it)," Web 3.0 is also know as the "semantic web." With Web 1.0 is simply one publisher, creator, producer, etc. bringing content to a consumer who simply ingests the information. Web 2.0 is a different process, where producers of content end up both consuming and offering original content. The article uses Facebook as an example where the lines blur between both consumer and producer. However, Web 3.0 is all about computers understanding the context of content, such as understanding the nuances of human relationships.

Politics and the rise of social media

In the 2008 presidential election, Barrack Obama used social media to reach potential U.S. voters and encourage them to vote. Unlike his Republican counterpart, John McCain, Obama and his team focused their marketing efforts on social media, rather than television, according to New York Times reporter Richard Parker. These marketing efforts came right when news social media were on the rise and Obama's team really foresaw the value in exploiting those communication methods, according to the article.

Parker's article cites Jennifer Aaker's academic research and states "The [Obama] campaign built 5 million supporters on social networks, had 2.5 million followers on Facebook, and 50 million viewers watched 14 million hours of video on YouTube, which was then pretty new."

The article also points out the importance of reaching the demographic that Obama was targeting — Hispanics, young women, African American and Asian Americans — through the new media. Parker writes that this move beyond the "traditional media" — television, newspapers, etc. — really helped Obama reach that demographic.

The article suggests that when Obama tried to be re-elected in 2012, he outperformed his opponent, Mitt Romney, by using social media much like he had when he was elected to his first term. Parker points out that in this election, Obama at least doubled Romney's following on all social media accounts.

In my opinion, the president's marketing efforts have been adopted by almost every candidate in the current presidential race, especially the leading democratic candidates. Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton send out several messages a day on social media, and both do a great job of conveying their message. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has fully exploited his ability to speak his mind at all times on social media.

Another form of generating political buzz is through political bloggers. In an article by David Pettinicchio, the power of political blogging is revealed. The article cites the Occupy Movement and the power blogging and live-tweeting had in creating media coverage of the effort.

The article mentions one blogger Vivian Krause in particular. Krause spent a lot of time researching and writing about the United States' monetary involvement with Canada's environmental activism. Though environmental companies in Canada had accused Krause of exaggerating the truth in her blog, her blog served as a platform for discussion between oil companies and the environmental organizations, according to Pettinicchio's article.

COM 264 -- Digital McLuhan Questions

Questions for the article “Digital McLuhan”

 1. What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?

The pre-literate acoustic world existed before the alphabetical visual world. In a pre-literate world, information emerges from anyway, and is filled with music, myth, folklore and total immersion. The television comes after the alphabet, which, like the acoustic world, is musical, mythic, immersive. Acoustic comes before the alphabet because first came all of those sounds and spoken word and song, then came the alphabet that could communicate information without sound. However, the television is part of this acoustic world because it still appeals to the hearing sense, but also the visual, alphabetical world.

 2. Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?

The alphabet has segregating tendencies because it is a solitary medium -- meaning it is readable by only one set of eyes at a time. So when a person creates an alphabetical piece, only one set of eyes can view that piece. With the printing press, people in the nearby area could read or see this alphabetical piece. According to Stradanus' caption: Just as one voice can be heard by a multitude of ears, so single writings cover a thousand sheets.

 3. How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?

Alphabetic communication in online communication makes cyberspace acoustic because the Internet allows interaction between the consumer and the medium. The online acoustic world is different from television, radio and print acoustic world because it allows more listener and reader control. Once any of these media are archived online, any consumer can access it at any point in time.

 4. Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years.

The two criterion are (a) we want media to extend our communications beyond the biological boundaries of naked seeing and hearing; (b) we want media to recapture elements of that biological communication which early artificial extensions may have lost -- we want, in other words, our hearth of natural communication even as we exceed it in our extensions. In 20 years, our online communication will continue to grow more immersive and interactive -- likely resulting in more realistic biological communication. Possible seeing and hearing pexpletive closer than in current communication.

“Introduction: ‘Worship at the Altar of Convergence’”

Questions for “Introduction: ‘Worship at the Altar of Convergence’” to the book Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

1.     Why does convergence happen in the communication and media fields? What are the two conditions that lead to convergence?

Convergence occurs within the communication and media fields because when an idea enters these fields and is placed in the brains of consumers, it is passed through social interaction. As a result, one of the most important elements that lead to convergence is active participation by consumers. However, active participation cannot be the sole driving force behind convergence because consumption of the media is a collective process that requires collective intelligence between consumers.

2.     What are the three different kinds of digital convergence discussed in the article?

Convergence is the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migrator behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the entertainment experiences they want. However, one of the three forms of digital convergence discussed in the article is the convergence of media into one mobile device — the smart phone. In addition, digital convergence includes game consoles that attempt to pack the media convergence in one package for the consumer. The final digital convergence is gamers and filmmakers attempting to work together to provide depth to ideas that could not be expressed within the confines of a typical 2-hour movie. These two mediums play off of each other’s strengths and possibilities to help provide more for the consumer. However, these creative powerhouses often struggle to work together in creating a steady timeline.  

3.     What cultural and social impacts does digital convergence have in addition to technological changes?

Digital convergence allows consumers to change culturally by sharing lives, memories, fantasies and desires across media channels. Family members have been given the opportunity to send “Good night. I love you” texts and instant messages when their close ones are across the world or in another part of the country. Socially, people are given the power to spread news fast and create homemade content that may or may not be destructive to careers. New apps like Snapchat — not mentioned in the article, but for example — have allowed consumers to quickly converge media and pass it along between friends and family. We can learn cultures that we don't know about. We have the power to voice our ideas — average person can make an impact. 

4.     Do the new media displace old media in the history of media development? Why or why not?

Historically, new media does not displace old media because once a medium is established as satisfying to a human demand, it continues to function within the larger system. For example, sound and theater may have changed the means by which it is distributed, but it has not disappeared. Theater and acting has extended into television and movies, but live theater still exists, there is just a plethora of ways to satisfy that dramatic fix. The book states, “Cinema did not kill theater. Television did not kill radio.” Old mediums are forced to coexist with emerging media. When a new medium emerges, the old medium’s functions and status shift.

5.     The convergence happens from both the top-down corporate level and bottom-up grassroots level. How do both levels change the traditional concept of media consumption?

Top-down corporate-drive process: Media companies are learning how to exploit the rapid flow of media content to expand markets and reinforce viewer commitments, thus increasing revenue opportunities.

Bottom-up consumer-driven process: Consumers are now learning how to exploit the use of different media technologies to bring the flow of media under their control and to interact with other consumers.

Both of these new developments have changed the traditional concept of media consumption by making new consumers active; they are migratory, showing a declining loyalty to networks or media; these consumers are more socially connected, and are now noisy and public.

Whereas, in the past, consumers were passive, stayed put, isolated, and were once silent and invisible.

6.     What does digital convergence in media indicate for communication and journalism professionals in the future?

Communication and journalism professionals will require the exploitation of several different mediums, including video, images, graphs, tweets, etc. Whereas journalism began as mostly words on a page, then entered into photo journalism, digital convergence provides those fields with the power and expectation to provide these media to consumers.