This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
From mainstream media franchises to experimental video, contemporary moving images are now typically transmedial, existing in different forms and across different platforms: for example, the Marvel universe includes comic books, films (released in cinemas and VoD), games, and VR experiences. The multiplicity of platforms on which consumers now engage with media provides multiple opportunities for mainstream media to monetize content. But it also provides individual media-makers with the opportunity to reach new audiences and create media that can be experienced across multiple devices. The module explores different models for transmedial content, and offers a critical perspective on how media exist across different formats. It also introduces students to various practical techniques for extending their media work into a transmedia context (for example, by engaging with social media or developing interactive websites).
Total contact hours: 50
Private study hours: 250
Total study hours: 300
Essay (3000 words) (40%)
Project (3000 words) (60%)
Bernardo, Nuno, Transmedia 2.0 How to Create an Entertainment Brand Using a Transmedial Approach to Storytelling (London: Beactive Books, 2014)
Ellestrom, Lars, Media Transformation: The Transfer of Media Characteristics Among Media (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014).
Jenkins, Henry, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: NYU Press, 2006).
Jenkins, Henry et al., Spreadable media: creating value and meaning in a networked culture (New York: NYU Press, 2013).
Phillips, Andrea, A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences Across Multiple Platforms (London: McGraw-Hill Education, 2012)
Ryan, Marie-Laure, and Jan Noel Thon, eds., Storyworlds Across Media: Towards a Media Conscious Narratology (Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2014).
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
Have a systematic knowledge of different kinds of transmedial content in a world context, based on a study of transmedia on a range of scales (from franchise to individual artists' works), and the production of transmedial content;
Understand the different modes of analysis made possible by key methods of enquiry and be able to demonstrate their relevance to an understanding of transmedial content created in different industrial and artistic contexts;
Devise a discussion of transmedial content through a sustained engagement with key methods of enquiry based on a synthesis of historical, theoretical, and aesthetic approaches;
By generating transmedia content, gain a greater understanding of the interplay between aesthetic choices and technological innovation in transmedial works;
Develop a greater understanding of the interplay between aesthetic choices, technological innovation, and transmedia techniques through their research into relevant scholarly literature.
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.
