Transmedia storytelling (also known as multiplatform storytelling) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies, not to be confused with traditional cross-platform media franchises, sequels or adaptations.
From a production standpoint, it involves creating content that engages an audience using various techniques to permeate their daily lives. In order to achieve this engagement, a transmedia production will develop stories across multiple forms of media in order to deliver unique pieces of content over multiple channels. Importantly, these pieces of content are not only linked together (overtly or subtly), but are in narrative synchronization with each other.
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In 1991, then University of Southern California professor Marsha Kinder coined the term for this form of storytelling, calling franchises that use such a model "commercial transmedia supersystems". She went on to say “transmedia intertextuality works to position consumers as powerful players while disavowing commercial manipulation.” In 2003, then Massachusetts Institute of Technology media studies professor Henry Jenkins used the term in his Technology Review article, "Transmedia Storytelling," where he reflected that the coordinated use of storytelling across platforms can make the characters more compelling.
With the advent of mainstream Internet usage in the 1990's, numerous creators began to explore ways to tell stories and entertain audiences using new platforms. Early examples took the form of what was to become known as alternate reality games, which took place in real-time with a mass audience. These included, but were not limited to:
See also: List of alternate reality games
As of 2011, both traditional and dedicated transmedia entertainment studios are beginning to embrace transmedia storytelling techniques in search of a new storytelling form that is native to networked digital content and communication channels. Developing technologies have enabled projects to now begin to include single-player experiences in addition to real-time multiplayer experiences such as alternate reality games. While the list of current and recent projects is too extensive to list here, some notable examples of transmedia storytelling include: