Transmedia and Theatre

I focused on the sections focusing on transmedia navigation and networking. An important thing to point out first is the idea of convergence culture, or in the terms of this article transmedia. This deals with the fact that no one thing in the media is happening in a vacuum. Different media influence each other and come together to create one larger sort of work of art or cultural experience. An example of this is the idea that you can read Harry Potter, then watch the film and then log onto a fan website and comment on the ending of the seventh book and then log onto another site and create your own works of fan fiction. One phenomenon has many portals for participation and invites that participation in many ways; it’s not just about passively absorbing a piece of media any more.

This leads me to the first thing I think is important for teachers to take into account and use in their classrooms. In this convergence culture, students are not just consumers, they are also participants who have an effect on the course of the conversation between these media and potentially the outcome/product of the media. That is potentially very empowering. As a teacher, it is important to first acknowledge that many of the students will be participating in the highly interactive transmedia conversation and can easily move from one medium to the next with comfort and are used to being creators as well as consumers. Second it is important for a teacher to recognize that although the students may be used to the highly participator nature of a convergence culture, they may not have the tools to discover or create meaning from that participation. It is important to harness the first and as that empowerment is harnessed to simultaneously teach the students media literacy and responsibility skills.

A way to simultaneously teach responsible media use and media literacy skills and harness the students’ abilities and comfort in the convergence culture is by creating a project in class that combines the two. The drama III class is working on Shakespeare scenes. They are required to read and scan the scene from a paper script and then write about their findings. They will also perform the scene for the live audience of their peers but part of the assignment is to come up with a partnering use of media for their scene. This could look like a blog in the voice of their character or a blog that turns into a forum of ideas of how to present the scene or posting a filming of their scene on youtube or creating a mediated version of the scene as well (perhaps they have a character in their scene on second life and an actor works that while the others do a live performance or they put on a play in second life or sims). The project is a way to connect two traditional forms of theatre media with some newer media and start a conversation about how the convergence culture affects theatre and how the students performed. It is also a place where you can talk about the implications of so much media available and how to navigate the mediated waters responsibly and intelligently.