Abstract:
Intheageofever-evolvingdigitallandscapes,thewayswecreate,consume, and think about media have undergone many transformative shifts. This text is not just an introduction to audiovisual design and production, it’s also an immersion into the dynamic world of transmedia. At its core, transmedia story telling involves the creation of cohesive narratives and experiences that extend across multiple media platforms, each contributing unique components to a larger, interconnected story. It seeks to blur the lines between media types, inviting audiences to participate however and wherever they might be. But transmedia can also be more than that: we can use it to explore worlds (real or imagined), to document social conditions and encourage people to take action to resolve them, to learn through deeper immersion into intersecting bodies of knowledge and through system thinking, or to cross boundaries between fiction and nonfiction. More and more, we are moving across media platforms – as creators, fans, activists, journalists, educators – in order pursuit in dispersed information and assembling it in new ways to understand our world and each other better.
In the following chapters, Raquel Espinosa Castañeda does more than just introduce tools and techniques that one needs to create media content. She operationalizes the principles of transmedia,ensuring that as students embark on their creative media journeys they are not just producing content, they are crafting media experiences. Whether they are building a universe for a fantasy novel that spans podcasts, creating a documentary, or strategizing a marketing campaign that weaves together social media, interactive websites, and virtual reality, the concepts presented here help guide them.
This text can be applied in many educational and professional contexts. Yet, its most profound application lies in centering the civic imagination as an entry point into media creation, which we were able to witnness firsthand in our collaborations with the author. Given today’s intricate social challenges, there’s an urgent need for nuanced and inventive solutions. A timely response, this book offers tools for storytellers, activists, and educators who seek to inspire communities, engage citizens, and collaboratively reimagine our shared futures.
