Hailed by many as a paradigm shift in the way stories are told and experienced, transmedia storytelling has in recent years become a firmly established practice and presence in mainstream media. The conference “Transmedia Storytelling and Its Reception: Economies and Politics of Participation” brings together a group of national and international experts who will engage with mainly two aspects of the phenomenon. The first is the theorisation and specification of transmedia storytelling as a storytelling mode and a cultural product, for example in relation to intermediality, franchising, games and the notion of storyworlds. The second concerns the reception of transmedia narratives. Transmedial story set-ups can be highly complex and, especially when they involve the so-called social media, can challenge the traditional unidirectional model of textual communication. At the same time they raise questions about the means of creating audience immersion, about offers of participation and interactivity – or a lack thereof – and about the implications of transmedial narratives for notions of production and reception. Addressing psychological and physiological aspects of transmedia reception as well as questions of transmedia literacy and reception aesthetics, the conference offers an array of perspectives on the reception of transmedial narratives.
Conference convenors:
Prof. Dr. Monika Pietrzak-Franger (ehem. University of Hamburg, jetzt Universität Wien)
monika.pietrzak-franger[at]univie.ac.at
Prof. Dr. Lucia Krämer (ehem. Leibniz University Hanover, jetzt Universität Passau)
lucia.kraemer[at]uni-passau.de