Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences

Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing, sharing, and participating in a cohesive story experience across multiple traditional and digital delivery platforms - for entertainment, advertising and marketing, or social change. Have you ever read a book, seen a movie, watched a television show, or played a game that centred around different aspects of a larger story or universe? You may be familiar with popular examples of such universes like Star Wars, Marvel, and The Walking Dead (to name a few). How do the professionals develop such expansive narratives? How do they ensure that each element stays true to the original story? How do they innovatively use different technologies to share the stories, grow audiences and create an active and involved community of fans? More and more, we are also engaging with elements or franchises of larger and more complex stories across a much more diverse range of platforms like interactive web experiences, social media communities, mobile devices, theme parks, and even augmented and virtual reality. A major challenge that current and future storytellers face is being able to engage different audiences in a story that is seamlessly told across all of these different platforms. WHAT WILL I LEARN? This course will help you to design a strategy for developing and telling your own transmedia story. You will learn about what it takes to: • Shape your ideas into compelling and well structured narratives and complex story worlds • Identify, understand, and engage different audiences in your stories • Create cohesive user experiences across different platforms • Evaluate existing and emerging technologies to share your story with the world, and help your audience participate in the larger storyworld you create The course provides you with a unique, authentic, and industry relevant learning opportunity. You will have access to current theory, industry examples and advice and undertake learning activities that will equip y