Oldal 65 [65]
64] Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
the needs of the audience, the fans, and coordinating interactions; (6)
mediating between interfaces; and (7) maintaining the recipients’ interest
in the storyworld in real time.
The hierarchical yet complementary narratives and narrative fragments of
transmedia storytelling can only be examined in a complex way. Javanshir,
Carroll, and Millard (2020) have developed a taxonomy that can greatly
assist researchers in examining this multifaceted phenomenon. The first
step in analyzing the transmedia story stream is to examine the narrative
on each public broadcast channel to see whether it represents the whole
narrative or is simply an addition to it. The next step is to explore the channel
navigation path of the recipient: how the complementary elements lead to
each other (e.g., through links, direct verbal instruction, or advertisements).
It is also important to examine the extent to which the user’s interactive
participation is required to unfold the narrative on a given channel (e.g., a
recipient may be interactive while playing a video game or taking part in an
escape room, but passive when watching a film or play), and whether the
reception is synchronous or asynchronous. Based on these aspects, three
basic modes of transmedia storytelling can be identified. The first is when a
fictional story universe is presented in several complete narratives on several
channels. In this case, the channels are isolated from each other (e.g., film 1,
film 2, play, book, and play). The second mode is the portmanteau, where a
single story is told through multiple channels, but the micro-narratives can
be read separately (e.g., website 1, website 2, characters on Facebook, and
YouTube video). The third mode contains narrative elements which appear
in different, branching channels, and the story is only understood through
their simultaneous reception (For example, when an app is linked to a certain
channel). In terms of the path of reception, the transmedia narrative can be
linear (one channel points to another to determine the path), non-linear (the
receiver decides the path) or cumulative (a mixture of the two).
Another possible approach to transmedia storytelling research is to examine,
from the point of view of the audience, what the audience considers to be
the mothership narrative in the complex construction and how they receive
narrative extensions. In his research, Jacob (2021) investigated which of three
major Hollywood fantasy transmedia productions were considered by German
audiences (n = 671) to be the mothership narrative (i-e., the first narrative
in the storyworld). The responses showed that 88.77% of the audience had
first encountered the film and considered it to be the mothership narrative,
followed immediately by online content, wikis and websites. Almost half of
the movie-goers also read the original book after watching the movie, and a
third of the respondents tried the video game that continues the storyline, as
well as other related movies, and series. The least popular was the extension
in comic book form.