PowerPoint Presentation

What Harry Potter Can Teach Us About Journalism: The Transmedia Approach

By @Dr_Serena | Michigan State University

Stories are formed and followed differently today. Boundaries are blurred between the audience and journalist, but how should this change our perspective? I decided to experiment with the transmedia philosophy in my masters mm storytelling course this semester.

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So what is transmedia? In 2003, Henry Jenkins presented the idea of Transmedia Storytelling.Transmedia, simply means across media. The philosophy is practiced in entertainment industry. Harry Potter, True Blood, Star Wars, How I Met Your MotherFan-driven with each platform adding something unique to the overall story or topic. The story, the experience, and knowing your community are key.

1. Story world2. Multiple media creators and some of them want to contribute3. Platform experience4. Cultivating relationships5. Participant behaviors

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First exercise: Three little pigs. Use a well-known story to tap into their creativity. It worked very well to get them to think about different ways of envision content. We have four main charactersthree pigs and the wolf.Get to know characters from other angles. The WOLF: what led him to his antisocial tendencies, and we could discover his inner genius. It turns out that Wolf has great quantitative talent and has developed mathematical schematics of the impact of wind velocity on the materials of straw, sticks and bricks. -For wolf sympathizers, there is a Team Wolf, where participants can contribute to plotting strategies against the pigs Now the pigs, the first little pig keeps a blog and details the family history, his paranoid suspicions of a dark figure lurking about his house. This is what led to the pigs decision to live apart rather than together. - . There is of course a Team Pigs. And a game called Angry Pigs tossing turnips at wolves is available for download for mobile phones.The second little pig Tweets seeking advice on sustainable building materials and the merits of straw and sticks. A breaking news feed in which @littlepig2 walls of house bowing inward, sticks flying off roof help!The third little pig has a cooking series on YouTube: Parsley Turnips, Baked Apples, and Stewed Wolf Surprise. He hides clues for secret ingredients in his dishes in lyrics of songs and YouTube trailers and he encourages viewers to send in their stories about home cooking and wolf encounters. 3

In the Culture of Coffee, project, the creator traced the roots and traditions of coffee on a Tumblr blog, a website, a coffee table book, live events, and social mediahttp://www.cultureofcoffee.com/4

Multiple creator world. Not just journalists create content. . Many people are shaping, framing, remixing media content. . We can use other peoples content with their permission of course

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Crowdsourced documentaru/ 18 Days in Egypt collaboration, inviting participants to curate social media from uprisings in Egypt. Millions of people have been documenting their lives in some format, People were asked to submit and provide information about their media from that event. As a journalists, they can provide context and make sense of the info for the public6

In non-profit journalism, companies such as the MinnPost. People donate money to cover topics. Assigned them to partner with a non-profit and help them with content. These relationship could also lead to deeper stories and help them access sources in return. A+ language school7

ExperienceFIRST

Emotional connection to us and our product. Steve Jobs said thinking about experience first is what made him a success. How do you think about experience first? Must think about consider a users lifestyle, media habits, context. . It is courtship with the people

Spreadability means that we want to produce content that is easy to share and encourage varying access points to it across platforms. This paradigm essentially says that anything worth sharing will be shared. What is meaningful? What motivates people to share? According to pew 72% of people follow the news because they like to share it with friends.

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Lisa was a caregiver for 6 years to her mother-in-law.

Now she is earning her MSW so she can continue to work with the elderly.

As an intern she answers calls for the Alzheimer's Association 24-hr Helpline.

McLuhanmedium is not neutral. The message is the medium. Fight content creation routines. One criticism of j-schools teaches routines lead, AP style, news norms. But we should teach them to think about people and how to be of service. Who are the people in these communities? \What type of content do they engage with? Stories of volunteers of on a visual platform. It is necarrily wrong, but BW ear sot of some answering the phone with bland text is not the best way to engage.9

"The Ants Go Marching In" - The room was full of laughter as Mike led to group around the room. #Alzheimer #musictherapy

Taught them about visual engagement #faces, smiles, hashtags, tapped into emotions10

Journalism students think in terms of episodic content not developing a loyal following pitches: an overview of the organization, But would I tune into your channel? As professionals, we are a service, how are we being of service? 11

YouTube channel web series 10 videos in a series Series about helping alzheimers caregivers; a day in the life of local michigan women; how to acclimate when english is not your native language; content driven by community needs 12

We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already. -J.K. RowlingMaking content that is shareable because we are really tapped into communities. Henry jenkins said in his book if it doesnt spread, it is dead. Focus is of this class is on content that enables communication. Why do many go into journalism? To have an impact. A story narrated among different media channels and platforms.Prosumers actively participate in the construction of the narrative world.Collaborative literacy

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