Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Ben Travers:  "Too much TV, better TV and defining TV all helped make 2015 a fascinating time to talk about the goings on of the small screen."

Alex Billington:  "Many moviegoers (myself included) have already seen the new Star Wars two or three times, with plans to catch it a few more times while it's playing in theaters. This will definitely help set a box office precedent but beyond that it's proof it's possible to make storytelling so valuable that, even if it's not the best movie of the year, people are willing to pay to re-watch up to four or five or six times. That's remarkable."

Julie Beck:  "The attention-grabbing tricks that keep an audience watching, even when people are just talking at a camera" ...

Chuck Salter:  "A Google Ventures-backed startup partners with NASA, Microsoft, and satellite makers on a children's book of galactic ambition."

Leslie Shapiro & Josef Adalian:  "Series that once would’ve been yanked after a couple weeks are being given more time to find an audience, and networks are figuring out fresh ways to make money off of these new viewing platforms."

Maddie Crum:  "The boundary between author and readers is disappearing. What does that mean for the future of storytelling?"

Alisha Grauso:  "Hollywood studios failed big in 2015 because they didn't follow a defining principle of storytelling: Know Your Audience."

Stuart Dredge:  '“I started doing YouTube videos and that’s what I want to keep doing. It seems like maybe some traditional or old media feel intimidated by YouTube being a new medium,” Kjellberg said.'

Jessica Plautz:  "In-flight safety videos have become synonymous with memes, gimmicks and the Internet. They can create more buzz on YouTube and Facebook than they do in the aircraft for which they’re designed.  But it wasn’t always this way" ...

Marana Whyte:  "Twilight Reimagined: Life and Death took us all by surprise, but it might be a sign of things to come in major series."

Tony Zameczkowski:  "Content creators, whether traditional media or YouTubers, are moving from a passive consumption model focused on the TV or desktop, to one where their fans are empowered to engage with them and with each other especially on mobile platforms. We’re shifting from a world of viewers to mobile communities of fans."

Robin Burks:  "Throughout the history of video games, some developers have used games as a way to tell a story. Now even AAA titles such as 'Until Dawn' embrace games as storytelling devices."

Damien Lawardorn:  "The real reason behind its creation [Scheherazade-IF], says Riedl, “is to probe the bounds of questions of how to get a computer to reason about, create, and understand narrative.” Given that humans are raised on stories, and make them a part of our everyday lives, Riedl’s goal is vital for any artificial intelligence if we want it to understand us."

Sunny Dhillon:  "The worlds of gaming, sports, live music, commerce and adult entertainment are all primed for a revolutionary consumption shift with the advent of virtual reality (VR). Fantasy shall become reality; a new age of immersive entertainment lies just around the corner."

Aubrey Page:  "In an era where long-cancelled shows like "Arrested Development" and "Mr. Show" (now living on as "W/ Bob and David") can suddenly be revived for a new season alongside their contemporary counterparts, it's clear the key to television success is as difficult to suss out as ever.  [....]  Helping to cut through the confusion is a new infographic, breaking down the secret life of some of your favorite shows and sharing some fun facts about your favorite shows, like "Mr. Robot" and "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," in the process."

ABC Radio:  "Fans have long had a role in influencing and in some cases helping to shape the works of popular culture they adore. But when they get restless in the modern age, they now have the resources to take a piece of fiction and make it their own. Some content producers find that assertive approach threatening. But others, particularly in the gaming sector, have begun to embrace it."

Sarah Atkinson & Helen W. Kennedy:  "There is a growing trend toward cinema-as-event – where film screenings are augmented by synchronous live performance, site-specific locations, technological interventions, social media engagement, and all manner of simultaneous interaction including singing, dancing, eating, drinking, even smelling" ...

Eric Buchman:  "Are we really experiencing a so-called ‘TV bubble?’ Is it possible there’s an unsustainable amount of really great TV? This week we examine the issue, or perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof."

Melanie Ehrenkranz and 'digital culture guru' Frank Rose  discuss "how the future of storytelling will largely be shaped not just by the shiny new tech toys of the now and near future, but also largely on how storytellers integrate them into narrative practices of the past."

Tao Tao Holmes:  "Ever heard of geocaching, or GPS treasure-hunting? Now think literary geocaching: stories that can only be opened in specific locations that you have to find. Hidden fictions, where you inhabit the same spaces as the characters themselves."

Steve Seager:  "Thanks to the groundwork done by content strategists seeking Intelligent Content, Adaptive Content (personalised content, driven by data and automated to the max) is now within reach. The potential and benefits are enormous" ...

Rae Votta:  "The series follows a college student who lives her life according to classic novels, played out through vlog-style videos, various social media sites, and a podcast series. Transmedia—storytelling thrown at users across varying mediums—continues to evolve but often it's difficult for new viewers to engage wholly in the narrative experience."