Key Concept - Welcome To Transmedia Storytelling PDF

Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds,
emerging technologies, and global audiences
Never Stand Still Art Design
Module 1: What is Transmedia Storytelling?
Lesson 1: Welcome to the course!
This lesson provides the foundation you need for effective learning in this course. It
explains the structure and expectations of the course; defines the term transmedia
storytelling and showcases several examples; and discusses how the structure of
stories can be used to form the core of a good transmedia strategy.
Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

MODULE 1: WHAT IS TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING?
LESSON 1: Welcome to the course!
Welcome! Im Simon McIntyre and Ill be one of five instructors for this course.
Most of us engage with stories of one kind or another every day in books, movies,
television, online, or even when we tell our friends and family about our day. More
and more, we are also engaging with elements of larger and more complex stories
across a much more diverse range of platforms like cinema, interactive web
experiences, social media, games, and even virtual reality.
Dr Simon McIntyre
Director
Learning and Innovation
UNSW Australia | Art & Design
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Transmedia Storytelling is the art of designing, sharing, and experiencing a

cohesive story experience across multiple traditional and digital delivery platforms -
for entertainment, marketing, or social change.
In many cases transmedia storytelling can also actively engage audiences, enabling
them to contribute to or become a part of a larger, multi-faceted story world.
This course will help you to develop key strategies for telling your own transmedia
stories.
It provides unique, and industry relevant learning opportunities for students, or

anyone interested in storytelling and technology, and for professionals who want
to develop skills and insights that will enable them to engage with this increasingly
popular interdisciplinary creative practice.
We will examine transmedia storytelling from both academic and professional

perspectives. The course is a partnership between UNSW Australia | Art & Design,
and X Media Lab - the international digital media think tank.
You will learn fundamental theory and research methods about the different key
elements of transmedia storytelling from academics, exemplified by the practical
tips and strategies a number of world leading transmedia professionals in a range
of creative disciplines. We strongly encourage you to listen to some of their inspiring
stories in videos you will find throughout the course.
The world of transmedia storytelling is huge, and is continually redefining itself with
the development of new technologies. One course cannot hope to cover all aspects
Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences MODULE 1 Lesson 1 2
of this fascinating space. While we aim to show you several examples from different
contexts, these are by no means definitive of the field.
The possibilities are almost limitless. So, this course covers the fundamentals of
developing an effective transmedia storytelling strategy. Once you understand
this you can apply this thinking to any number of different scenarios and new
technologies of interest to you.
The course is broken into several modules, each dealing with a key part of the
transmedia creative process.
Each core concept in the course will be introduced by a different UNSW academic
who is a specialist in the area: myself, Emma Robertson, Jef Koh, George Khut,
and Ollie Bown.
The first module, what is transmedia storytelling? is the module you are in right
now. It:
explains how the course works
builds a working definition of what transmedia storytelling is
explores the structure of story and its importance for creating a cohesive
transmedia experience, and...
Introduces you to some real transmedia storytelling examples, and some of
the people who brought them to life.
Once we understand a little more about the transmedia concept and story structure,
my colleague Emma will begin to describe how to develop ideas to create an
amazing story of your own...
Im Emma Robertson, and Im going to be helping you answer the question - What
is your story?
This module is designed to equip you with effective methods for developing
a cohesive and rich narrative that you can use as the basis for developing a
transmedia strategy. We do this by:
exposing you to different models and tools for extending creative thinking,
and
using these as a method for defining your own creative story to develop
further throughout the course
You can use the story that you develop as a basis for the rest of your work in the
course.
This module is about developing an idea for a rich story of your own. Equally as
important as the story, is understanding the people that you want to experience it.
Jef can help you develop insight into the storys audience
My name is Jef Koh, and in my module Ill be helping you understand how to
determine who you are telling your story to. Well achieve this by helping you to:
understand the role of the audience in transmedia storytelling
identify the characteristics of your potential audience, and
develop strategies to engage the audience in your story across different
mediums
In the transmedia context, audiences often experience different individual stories via
different platforms that all fit together within a larger overarching narrative. George
will explain how to make sure that a such an experience is a harmonious one
I am George Khut, and well be exploring how you can ensure a cohesive audience
experience across different story elements and technology platforms. To do this we
will:
discuss and define consistency of experience
explore how to effectively communicate a story, ethos or theme, and...
discuss strategies to help ensure that audiences encountering separate
aspects of a transmedia story via different platforms, feel like all of the
stories belong to one cohesive narrative
Ollie will explain how to synthesise these ideas of maintain consistency of

story experience and meaning, with the possibilities and potential of different
technologies
Im Ollie Bown, and Ill be explaining how a range of technologies can be used to tell
different aspects of a story. Well explore the role of technology in storytelling by:
exploring the role of technology in transmedia storytelling and looking at
how teams are working creatively with new technologies
evaluating the potential and drawbacks of different technologies
examining how technologies shape experience, and...
looking at future trends in creative technologies
We are excited to be going on this journey with you, and hope that you find the
experience inspiring and insightful.
So, lets begin!
How will you develop your story?
About the course #UNSWtms
The Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds, emerging technologies, and global audiences
massive open online course (MOOC) is a collaboration between UNSW Australia | Art & Design
and X Media Lab.
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?
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
storyworlds
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.
This course is designed for creative professionals, students, or anyone interested in gaining an
inside understanding of leading industry storytelling practices in contemporary culture using
digital and emerging technologies. If you have a great story idea for entertainment, marketing
or social change and want to learn how to develop it into an engaging multi-platform narrative
experience that you can share with the world, then this is the course for you.

Lesson 2: What is transmedia storytelling?
This lesson explores the concept of transmedia storytelling in depth. The key
elements of story, technology and audience are introduced and their critical and
interconnected roles in a transmedia storytelling strategy are discussed.

LESSON 2: What is transmedia storytelling?
Transmedia storytelling is a continually evolving practice. Because new emerging

technologies change the way we can craft, tell, share, interact with and contribute to
stories, the definition is also constantly shifting.
So what is meant by the term transmedia storytelling?
A good place to begin is a definition by Henry Jenkins, an academic from the

University of Southern California and an expert in digital participatory culture and
storytelling. Jenkins defines transmedia storytelling as:
Dr Simon McIntyre
Director a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically
across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and
coordinated entertainment experience
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Photograph of Henry Jenkins posing by Knight Foundation. CC BY-SA 2.0
In other words a transmedia story is one in which separate story elements of a

larger narrative can be experienced by many different audiences, via a range of
technology platforms.
While transmedia storytelling can be quite a complex process, this simple definition
highlights important components of a transmedia story experience that we can
explore further.
In such a rapidly evolving area, it is difficult to pinpoint one single precise definition
for such a concept. And maybe we dont have to.
It is more useful to think of transmedia storytelling in terms of its core elements of
Story, technology and audience.
There are many nuances of each of these that interrelate and influence each
other. These details are important to understand when developing a transmedia
storytelling strategy, and we will explore these in some depth throughout the rest of
the course.
To begin however, lets break down these key ideas a little more
1. THE TRANSMEDIA STORY

Many of us are familiar with the basic notion of a story. We have all experienced
them throughout our lives in different forms. We are going to explore how stories
are constructed in more detail later on but for now it is important to understand
how they differ in a transmedia context.
A good story is the backbone of a transmedia experience. However, it is not limited

to one single narrative.
A traditional story structure usually provides a framework supporting the

development of a set of principal characters, and provides details about the
immediate context of the world in which they exist. This level of detail can
comfortably facilitate the telling of one particular story.
Think of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Within this story the main
protagonists are Red Riding Hood, Grandma, The Wolf, and the Hunter.
The story focuses on how the wolf distracts Little Red Riding Hood on her way to
Grandmas house so he can eat the old lady, dress in her clothes, and lie in wait for
Red Riding Hood - with the hunter saving the day in the end.
We all might be familiar with the central story, but have you ever thought of the
wider world the characters live in? The place beyond the immediate events?
This is a world where the rules are a little different to our own - where animals act
like humans and can talk; where there are scary forests where people fear to tread;
a world where a person can be cut from inside an animal after being eaten and
emerge whole and unhurt.
In such a world there are many more possibilities, many more characters, many
more potential stories waiting to be told
The unique events in the original story, imply a different reality than that we
experience in our own real world - one with clear and distinct rules. Distinct enough
that if you saw a completely different story that was built around the same rules, you
would recognise it as belonging to the larger world of Little Red Riding Hood.
A transmedia storytelling experience works on this concept.
The story world is the spine from which infinite new stories or aspects of the main
narrative can be created, shared and added to. All separate complete stories in
themselves, but all following the same rules of reality that make them clearly belong
to a larger, more complex, common central world.
For example: instead of telling the same story about Little Red Riding Hood across
different media, a transmedia approach may involve many distinct stories from the
larger world that Red Riding Hood comes from, told in different ways. They could
focus upon other unknown characters or events like the untold story of the wolfs
childhood for example, or a tale about other talking animals being persecuted by
humans in retaliation for the wolfs crime.
Each of these stories could be enjoyed as standalone experiences but each

should have enough common conceptual hooks to enable them to make sense
collectively. They should all fit cohesively together or feel like they belong in the
same overall story framework according to the common rules of the same story
world.
Experiencing distinct stories that fit within a larger shared world is a type of seriality.
We are used to serial storytelling. When we watch a TV series for example, we

consume a larger narrative gradually - one episode at a time. The larger developing
plot is progressively built from a series of linear, sequential events.
Seriality is different in a transmedia context. We do not have to experience one

story sequentially. We can interact with many different but related story elements to
piece together a rich picture of the larger story world. We can access as many or as
few of these stories as we like, and we can do so in any order.
For example, if I wanted to experience stories about Lara Croft and the Tomb
Raider world, I could choose to play any of the videos games, watch the movies,
read the comic book or novels, play with the toys, or join an online forum to discuss
the genre with other fans. The more of these different transmedia stories I choose
to actively engage with, the more I learn about the Tomb Raider story world.
Transmedia stories do not just have to be limited to fiction. They can also be
inclusive of advertising and marketing strategies, or even campaigns for social
change. Any type of story can benefit from an appropriate, considered transmedia
approach.
2. THE USE OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES

The second critical element of transmedia storytelling, is the appropriate use of
different technologies to:
1. Disseminate the story to a range of audiences around the world

2. Tell the story in different ways - inherently linked to the functions and abilities
different technologies
3. Engage audiences in the act of storytelling and creation
We live in a world where rapidly emerging digital technologies are accessible by

significant proportions of the worlds population. More traditional means of telling
stories, such talking, reading books, and watching films, can now be augmented
by playing video games, or immersing oneself in virtual or augmented reality,
interactive cinema, websites, and social media. We can access what we like when
we like, in ways that have the most meaning for us.
Digital technologies have greatly increased the opportunities to tell stories in

different ways, and to reach a much more diverse global audience.
For example think of the Star Wars saga. It began as a single movie in 1977.
Everyone who watched the first film experienced the story in exactly the same way
from beginning to end in a linear manner.
Since then however, Star Wars has evolved to become a huge, complex, and
rich world that continues to spawn new movies, books, and comics that tell many
new stories, each not necessarily sharing the same characters or exact situations
depicted in the movies.
Toys, games, and interactive web experiences have been developed that help
people to create their own stories using the same universally understood rules from
the Star Wars universe. People are even writing fan fiction that enables them to
create whole new experiences congruent with the agreed rules of the Star Wars
reality, sharing these new stories with others.
Many companies or storytellers use different technologies to tell aspects of a larger

story, merging creative marketing and with providing a richer more exploratory
narrative for those interested in investigating further. The Internet and social media
are used to spread excitement and engage audiences in story arcs before a movie
is released, creating anticipation, speculation, and a sense of inclusiveness in
something larger than the story itself.
Online communities have evolved with members dedicated to exploration and

discussion of little known facts, character histories and alternate storylines.
Connecting like-minded people through technology encourages new types of
engagement in the story by piecing together scraps of the larger narrative through
investigation of websites, interviews, and press releases.
Each of these technological platforms has enabled a different type of story creation,
sharing, telling, and engagement experience. Every platform can offer a new
dimension to the basic story - expanding it to provide more nuance, detail and
options for experiencing and learning about the larger story world.
Youll learn more about these ideas later in the course.
3. THE TRANSMEDIA AUDIENCE

The third crucial element to transmedia storytelling is the audience. Every story
needs someone to hear it, see it, experience it, evolve it, share and perpetuate it.
We live in what Henry Jenkins calls a convergence culture, in which...
old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide,
where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in
unpredictable ways
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. NYU press
Ancient oral storytelling techniques relied heavily upon people keeping a story alive
for future generations by re-telling it over and over again - passing it down from one
person to the next. With each telling, details were forgotten or embellished. The
story become a living thing that constantly adapted to suit its changing audience.
With the advent of print and film technologies, audiences became more passive
consumers of self-contained stories reading a book or watching a film with a
definite beginning and end. Such passive consumption meant that audiences had
little opportunity to experience or shape the larger narrative in ways other than what
was initially presented.
Audiences of transmedia stories on the other hand, have many different entry points
into a larger story world, such as books, movies, games, websites, etc. A person
can choose the complexity and depth of their engagement depending upon how
much effort and time they wish to spend engaging with different transmedia story
elements.
One audience member may experience a completely different aspect of a story

world than another their standalone experience is a complete story in itself, but
it may also draw them into exploring other related story elements via different
technological platforms.
As an audience may be experiencing disparate story elements and not a complete

story in the form of a beginning, middle and end gaps in the narrative between
different elements of the larger story may emerge. This means that there is space
for audiences to take an active role in filling these gaps for themselves and others
by participating in the story.
People can use various online technologies such as websites, social media and
forums, to actively seek to further clarify and understand the richer story world by
collaboratively piecing together backstories, character histories, solving gaps or
pre-empting the main storyline of a film or series, spreading story elements to other
contexts, or even creating and sharing new story elements themselves. The more
the audience interacts with different transmedia elements of the larger narrative, the
more they are rewarded with a richer understanding of the story world.
This is where active audience participation in the story merges with contemporary
participatory cultural practice, particularly surrounding the use of digital
technologies. This global interaction of communities of interest is a type of what
philosopher Pierre Lvy called a collective intelligence a group of people sharing
a common interest and collaboratively contributing to and defining a growing bank
of knowledge.
Photograph of Pierre Lvy by Pierre Lvy. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
We will explore some of the more practical aspects of the audience and their role in
transmedia storytelling in further depth later in the course.
I hope that this brief overview has given you insight into the possibilities of
transmedia storytelling. I encourage you to take some time to watch some of the
other videos in this module to further refine your understanding in preparation for
beginning to develop your own transmedia story ideas later in the course.
and X Media Lab.

storyworlds

Lesson 3: The anatomy of story
This lesson outlines the fundamental structure of a story. Understanding how stories
are constructed and how audiences relate to them, will enable you to better plan
an engaging narrative, and to identify key elements that will enable you to expand
this into a comprehensive storyworld that you can use as the basis for designing a
transmedia experience.

LESSON 3: The anatomy of story
Before beginning to design a transmedia storytelling experience, you need to have

a story to tell.
There are many different ways to describe and analyse the structure of stories.
We will link to some good examples of literature within the module so that you can
explore some of these in more depth if you wish.
For now, we will primarily focus on illustrating some basic concepts that are useful
in describing how a typical story is constructed. This can be used as a starting point
Dr Simon McIntyre to develop your own transmedia story structure.
Director
Youll learn about how to creatively develop ideas to flesh out the details of a story
later in the course, once you understand some of these basics.
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STORY AS A WAY TO MAKE MEANING OF THE WORLD
UNSWtmsMOOC/ Our lives are constructed around stories that we tell each other and ourselves,
about the complex things that happen to us every day. We strip away extraneous
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au.linkedin.com/in/ details, and condense experiences into simplified narratives, so that we can store
mcintyresimon important information in a way that is easier to remember when we need it.
These stories form our understanding and memory of the world, and the people
we interact with. When we connect what we learn from each of these episodic
narratives in our own memories, important life lessons emerge guiding the way
we behave and live within our broader society.
As we experience our own life stories, the things that happen to us have an
emotional impact. If someone is nice to us, we feel welcome, we laugh when
something is funny, cry when something is sad, and get angry when we feel
something is unjust.
Emotions serve as a powerful mechanism to help us connect appropriate parts of

our different stories together to learn our own life lessons. And even though the
specific details of each of our own stories are different, all humans share common
emotional responses.
So, emotion can be used as a hook by a storyteller to engage a very diverse

audience in a narrative no matter how different they are in terms of language,
culture or life experience.
Emotional response can also be a common touch point that storytellers can use to
help communicate very important messages to others in a condensed format.
By connecting complex ideas to emotions, an audience can relate complex life

lessons in a story to their own memories, emotions and inner-narratives, in a way
that is personally meaningful for them. They can integrate the new message with
their own experience and learn from it.
Without some kind of personal relevance, any story will hold little interest or value
for an audience.
People have been using stories to share life lessons and help guide us in the many
moral choices we all have to make during our lifetime. In this way, every story is
about the different challenges, struggles and experiences that we all go through.
All stories are about a transformation of the status of their characters from their
original state, to a more enlightened, wiser position through some kind of trial or
test. As such, they stand as a guide as to how to conduct our own journey through
life and end up in a better place than where we started.
THE HEROS JOURNEY

We have already discussed how serial stories within a transmedia world each
contribute to a patchwork of a much larger cohesive reality. They should be
complete experiences in themselves, usually comprised of a structure that we can
reconcile such as having a beginning, middle and end.
There have been many descriptions and writings about story structure and
narrative. But perhaps the most comprehensive and universally adaptable is Joseph
Campells description of the Heros Journey from his 1949 book about comparative
mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Campbell, J. (1949). Hero with a Thousand Faces. Pantheon Books
In this work Campbell noted that most ancient myths, no matter how different they
may first seem, tend to be made up of a similar sequence of elements. He was able
to summarise a chronology that describes the ultimate transformative journey of the
hero.
This is much more detailed than the more simplistic beginning middle end
model. Campbell called this structure the monomyth.
In his early career while working at Disney in the 1980s, Christopher Vogler now
a famous screenwriter and author wrote a memo called A practical guide to the
hero with a thousand faces, in which he distilled Campbells monomyth into series
of storytelling steps that he thought were more accessible to modern storytellers.
Call to
Adventure Supernatural
Return aid
(Gift of Threshold
the Goddess) KNOWN Guardian(s)
UNKNOWN Threshold
(beginning of
transformation)
The Helper
Hero's
Atonement Mentor
Journey
Transformation
Helper
Abyss
death & rebirth
Photograph of Vogler, T.A. by Etan J. Tal (own work). CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Voglers Stages of the heros journey has been used as the basis for many modern
stories, including Star Wars Episode IV, and several Disney movies such as the
Lion King and Aladdin. In fact this structure, or variations of it, underlies nearly all
modern stories to some degree.
The stages of the heros journey:
1. Ordinary World
The hero character is established living in their ordinary, everyday world. This sets a
point of contrast for the changes to come in the story.
2. Call To Adventure
Something happens to disrupt the status quo in the ordinary world. A messenger
arrives with disturbing news, a tricky problem arises, or the character is challenged
in some way that creates a sense of disruption of disturbance.
3. Refusal Of The Call

The hero, faced with the challenge of facing the unknown, or staying in their old life,
usually fails to rise to challenge instead facing an internal dilemma about the need
for change or stepping outside of their comfort zone.
4. Meeting With The Mentor

Someone comes along who offers wisdom or advice, and builds a sense of
confidence or responsibility within the hero. This guidance or insight motivates
them to accept the challenge before them. Usually the mentor will impart special
knowledge needed for the hero to succeed in their quest, but is usually unable to
undertake the entire adventure ultimately leaving the hero to face the challenge by
themselves.
5. Crossing The Threshold

The hero leaves the comfort and familiarity of their own ordinary world, and steps
into the unknown world of adventure.
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

This world is usually unfamiliar, full of wonder, challenges and trials. They join
with new friends along the way, and make enemies that further challenge the
hero. Choices may be made that set things into motion that will test the hero and
their resolve to their limit. All of these interactions lead the hero to their ultimate
destination.
7. Approach To The Inmost Cave

At last the hero arrives at the location of their greatest challenge in the story. It is
usually a stronghold of fear or evil, inside of which the goal of the adventure lies
waiting.
8. Ordeal
The heros darkest hour. It seems that what they face is too strong, and that they will
surely fail in their quest. The hero will often face death, or come incredibly close to
being beaten only to miraculously find a way to come back from the brink, and be
reborn with new strength and resolve to triumph over the ultimate challenge.
9. Seizing The Sword, Reward

Having overcome the great challenge of the story, the hero claims their reward. This
is usually a treasure or special knowledge, and may not always be what the hero
expected to find.
10. The Road Back

Often caught in a moment of reflection, the hero realises that they must escape the
innermost cave and begin the journey back home.
11. Resurrection
The hero crosses the threshold from the special adventure world, back into his
or her own ordinary world. They are wiser and somehow transformed by their
experience. They may often see the ordinary world in a new light, appreciating
things they previously took for granted.
12. Return With The Elixir

Now home, the hero uses the treasure or knowledge they gained from their
adventure, to benefit the ordinary world, in the same way that they have benefited
from the journey.
This description of transformative journey can usually apply to almost any type of
story that you may have experienced.
The heros journey depict change a life lesson that must be learned the hard way
by undertaking a personal journey to reach a new understanding. By connecting to
the emotive elements in such stories, the audience can undertake the journey with
them, so that they too can learn from the moral of the story and relate it to their own
experience.
Any story usually contains key characters or protagonists that play a role in the
transformative journey. These can be fictional, or they could be elements of a
business strategy or even products that must be transformed somehow through a
transmedia marketing strategy.
Characters within stories usually display exaggerated human traits or

characteristics, so that their role in the story is clear. This even occurs when
characters are not human think of the Disney movies Cars, or Finding Nemo.
These exaggerated traits usually make them easily identifiable as aspects of our
own characters that we need to emulate or refine or relatable to our own existing
experiences of other people.
In his 1992 book The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and
Screenwriters, Christopher Vogler described the eight most common character
archetypes appearing in most stories. An archetype is something that exhibits
typical elements of certain personalities.
Vogler, C. (2007). The Writers Journey. Michael Wiese Productions
These may be useful in helping you determining different characters in your

own stories. It is important to note that every story does not have to have every
archetype within it, and there are many more archetypes than Vogler represents in
his list. However these are a useful starting point:
1. Hero
The main protagonist who undertakes the transformative journey. They are usually
self-sacrificing and care about others above themselves.
2. Mentor (wise old man or woman)

Those who share wisdom, advice or artifacts with the hero to help them on their
journey.
3. Threshold Guardian
Characters who confront or are an obstacle for the hero to overcome at various
points of the journey. They do not necessarily oppose the hero or their quest, but
represent significant challenges that must be understood or overcome.
4. Herald
A character who brings messages or knowledge in some form that change the path
of the story.
5. Shapeshifter
Shapeshifters are characters whose intent, allegiance or motivations are not clearly
known. They may at different times appear to be against or in favour of the heros
quest. They represent uncertainty.
6. Shadow
This character is usually the main opposition for the hero. Where the hero is light
and hope, the shadow is darkness and fear. They can also represent the darker
elements within the hero and ourselves. The hero will usually have to meet and
overcome this character during the ordeal stage of the story.
7. Ally
An ally is someone who travels with the hero, sharing the journey and enabling a
level of personal interaction in which the hero can express their hopes and fears.
The ally may also aid, hinder or provide comic relief. They also help to humanise
and balance the hero.
8. Trickster
This character is mischievous, humorous, and not afraid to bring a dose of reality
and humility to other characters, including the hero.
Reflect upon some of your favourite fairy tales or movies and see if you can identify
different character archetypes in them.
We have outlined a typical story structure, and character types. Another important
element of story to consider is the motivation of these characters. Motivation does
not only affect characters in the story. A storyteller should also think about how they
are motivating the audience to persist with the story.
What drives the character to undertake the journey? Why do they persist when
things get tough? What goal can be so important to the character that they will travel
to the brink of death and back to realise it?
While the momomyth underlies nearly all modern story structures, once you have
identified the types of characters in the story, thinking about their motivation gives
you an opportunity to begin to create more specific story contexts relevant to
the underlying message or life lesson that you wish to communicate through the
narrative.
THE MORAL
Perhaps one of the most important elements of a story is its moral. All stories have
an instructional purpose, and the moral is a lesson that can be learned through the
transformative journey of the hero.
The moral can usually be distilled into one simple core message that is designed
to help provide a positive life lesson to the audience, and provide the context that
defines the detail in all other elements within the story.
Character motivations usually stem from the central moral of the story, in
order to illustrate the negative effects of ignoring this life lesson, along with the
enlightenment and positive change in status that can occur from heeding the
lesson.
The true understanding of the moral usually occurs at the end of the heros journey,
after the hero returns to the ordinary world as a wiser being. All of the trials and
tribulations of the journey are about illustrating what life is like before and after
understanding the central moral.
When establishing the moral of your own story, it pays to ask yourself, what is the
message that I want to share, and why does this story need to be told?
Technology today enables us to create amazing visual and interactive experiences

yet no transmedia strategy can work cohesively without a strong story at the
centre, to guide and inform all of the related creative decisions that shape each
aspect of the narrative, the characters, the context or world they exist in, and the
journey of the main protagonist.
The journey, characters, motivations and moral of the story also have a bearing
upon how you choose to use engage different audiences, and therefore which
technologies you choose to use.
True connection and engagement with an audience comes from our ability to
personally relate to the moral of the story, through emotional connections between
the characters and their experiences, and our own personal stories that guide our
lives.
and X Media Lab.

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Transmedia Storytelling: Narrative worlds,

emerging technologies, and global audiences

Never Stand Still Art Design

Module 1: What is Transmedia Storytelling?

Lesson 1: Welcome to the course!

Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

Transmedia Storytelling is the art of designing, sharing, and experiencing a

It provides unique, and industry relevant learning opportunities for students, or

We will examine transmedia storytelling from both academic and professional

Ollie will explain how to synthesise these ideas of maintain consistency of

So, lets begin!

How will you develop your story?

Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing, sharing, and participating in a cohesive

Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

Never Stand Still Art Design

Module 1: What is Transmedia Storytelling?

Lesson 2: What is transmedia storytelling?

Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

Transmedia storytelling is a continually evolving practice. Because new emerging

So what is meant by the term transmedia storytelling?

A good place to begin is a definition by Henry Jenkins, an academic from the

Photograph of Henry Jenkins posing by Knight Foundation. CC BY-SA 2.0

In other words a transmedia story is one in which separate story elements of a

1. THE TRANSMEDIA STORY

A good story is the backbone of a transmedia experience. However, it is not limited

A traditional story structure usually provides a framework supporting the

A transmedia storytelling experience works on this concept.

Each of these stories could be enjoyed as standalone experiences but each

We are used to serial storytelling. When we watch a TV series for example, we

Seriality is different in a transmedia context. We do not have to experience one

2. THE USE OF DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGIES

1. Disseminate the story to a range of audiences around the world

We live in a world where rapidly emerging digital technologies are accessible by

Digital technologies have greatly increased the opportunities to tell stories in

Many companies or storytellers use different technologies to tell aspects of a larger

Online communities have evolved with members dedicated to exploration and

Youll learn more about these ideas later in the course.

3. THE TRANSMEDIA AUDIENCE

We live in what Henry Jenkins calls a convergence culture, in which...

One audience member may experience a completely different aspect of a story

As an audience may be experiencing disparate story elements and not a complete

Photograph of Pierre Lvy by Pierre Lvy. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing, sharing, and participating in a cohesive

Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

Never Stand Still Art Design

Module 1: What is Transmedia Storytelling?

Lesson 3: The anatomy of story

Find out more: coursera.org/learn/transmedia-storytelling

Before beginning to design a transmedia storytelling experience, you need to have

Emotions serve as a powerful mechanism to help us connect appropriate parts of

So, emotion can be used as a hook by a storyteller to engage a very diverse

By connecting complex ideas to emotions, an audience can relate complex life

THE HEROS JOURNEY

Campbell, J. (1949). Hero with a Thousand Faces. Pantheon Books

The stages of the heros journey:

3. Refusal Of The Call

4. Meeting With The Mentor

5. Crossing The Threshold

6. Tests, Allies, Enemies

7. Approach To The Inmost Cave

9. Seizing The Sword, Reward

10. The Road Back

12. Return With The Elixir