In the early days of online politics, we invented a way to unfold key points of a campaign’s narrative in different online niches — depending on which… Read more “Meatpuppets & Transmedia Storytelling”
Category: technology
Technology is accelerating changes in every part of our society. Revolutions are messy. Old systems break before new systems are in place.
Steven Spielberg Hearts Transmedia
This is what I mean when I urge storytellers to think of unfurling their stories “outside the box.” Only Stephen Spielberg calls it “the square.”
“I believe we need to get rid of the proscenium,” Spielberg said. “We’re never going to be totally immersive as long as we’re looking at a square, whether it’s a movie screen or whether it’s a computer screen. We’ve got to get rid of that and we’ve got to put the player [viewer] inside the experience. That’s the future.” (Steven Spielberg, June 2013)
Writer on Your Show? Show the Writing
Netflix’ great House of Cards has this character named Zoe Barnes who writes for a political news website called “Slugline.” In the wake of the NSA’s PRISM… Read more “Writer on Your Show? Show the Writing”
Appointment TV and Character Blogs
Evan Shapiro of Pivot wrote about the decline of the traditional nationwide scheduled television model, sometimes referred to as Appointment Television; when everyone watched the same revenue-generating commercials at the… Read more “Appointment TV and Character Blogs”
Europe’s The Spiral is Great TV 2.0
With American TV borrowing so much from Scandinavia, England, and Israel for our best TV shows, how about we borrow from Europe’s best transmedia television phenomenon: The… Read more “Europe’s The Spiral is Great TV 2.0”
Syfy’s Defiance and Transmedia TV Gold
My interest in transmedia storytelling exists at the intersection of my obsessions with participatory culture, new media, and entertainment. I believe storytellers can create deeper experiences for… Read more “Syfy’s Defiance and Transmedia TV Gold”
CBS Interactive: On a Path to Solving the Piracy Problem
A stat from Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future, of the Annenberg School furthers one my favorite theories about TV’s evolution. When talking… Read more “CBS Interactive: On a Path to Solving the Piracy Problem”
Transmedia, TV Time and the Brain
So what the hell is Transmedia? It is not watching a TV show on an iPad. That’s “watching TV.” It is not telling many stories in the same… Read more “Transmedia, TV Time and the Brain”
Preventing Cut and Paste TV
Clay Shirky wrote a great article that contained another example of how we must adapt or die: Fifteen years ago, a research group called The Fraunhofer Institute… Read more “Preventing Cut and Paste TV”
Parks & Rec Transmedia Wins
Parks & Recreation is great. And it’s also doing a lot of transmedia storytelling right. I watch TV with a device on my lap, and when Amy… Read more “Parks & Rec Transmedia Wins”
What’s Outside the Box
Gen Y and the early Millennials are the last group of people who will remember broadcast ubiquity and an advertisers’ ability to rent a captive audience. They’re… Read more “What’s Outside the Box”
What Buzzfeed Has To Teach Television
I’ve been writing a lot about multidimensional (multi-screen) storytelling in film and television. The goal is to use the New Media forces that some perceive as a… Read more “What Buzzfeed Has To Teach Television”
Film & TV 2.0
Around 2003, after Democrats were walloped in the midterms, and the established liberal advocacy organizations in D.C. proved unable to register any victories against President Bush, the… Read more “Film & TV 2.0”
Hyperdistribution Theory
Mark Pesce, a media professor at the University of Sydney, lectures on his “Hyperdistribution Theory.” The theory is predicated on a few assumptions: the internet’s revolutionizing effect… Read more “Hyperdistribution Theory”
Tech and Self
Fun art installation idea about how technology can obfuscate one’s projection of self: Cinemagram makes moving gifs of a few frames. There’s this feature where you can… Read more “Tech and Self”
Departures Magazine: “The Coolest New Website on the Internet”
This was nice of them to say: The Coolest New Website on the Internet By Eric Klinenberg, Sep-2010 The creators of the networking site itsasickness.com are betting… Read more “Departures Magazine: “The Coolest New Website on the Internet””
What Sick Is
There are TV shows about illness. Those shows are about addicts with addictions. Those shows are about the imbalanced with obsessive disorders. Those other shows’ treatment of… Read more “What Sick Is”
New York Times on Branded Content
The Times reports on the spread of branded content. A few quotations stood out for me as furthering theories: This branded content, the term for products figuring… Read more “New York Times on Branded Content”
facebook: disorienting
I’ve heard grumbles from many friends about facebook. Indeed, there’s something amiss about this megalithic inbox replacement social utility that I have had difficulty diagnosing until recently. … Read more “facebook: disorienting”
Media and Revolution
The Gutenberg Printing Press was invented in 1436. Overnight, literacy rose, books spread. Copernicus published his heliocentric work on astronomy, Martin Luther’s pamphlets upended both religious and… Read more “Media and Revolution”