I keep hearing about people in the transmedia production business who are still worried about calling what they do ‘transmedia’. It surprises me that there is such a lack of self-confidence amongst practitioners, many of whom are transmedia pioneers. I suppose the worry is that ‘buzzwords’ come and go,but to me, transmedia does the job, fits the bill and delivers the goods. So let’s stick with it.

Confusion

Hasn’t this confusion over what we call what we do gone on for too long? Isn’t our own uncertainty causing wider confusion? I wonder if there was the same initial fuss over what to call ‘television’.

The word ‘transmedia’ does the trick – the prefix ‘trans’ means ‘across’ , so ‘across-media’ is what transmedia storytelling is all about. The definition works so let’s embrace and deploy it.

I am aware that certain sections within TV broadcasting don’t like or understand fully what transmedia is or what implications it may have on them as traditional TV broadcasters. To many it is just another ‘buzzword’. This may be down to us. We need to unite under the banner of transmedia in order to give it the credibility it needs.

A Definition

Transmedia is stories, media and messages that are interacted with by the audience on different platforms.

At Bellyfeel we believe the things that make transmedia so exciting are;

• Storyworlds
• Immersiveness
• Participation by users
• Delivery and interaction on different devices and platforms.

The sooner we, as an emerging media branch who understand the positive changes that are happening across the media landscape, give it a name – transmedia, the sooner others will understand us better and that can only be a good thing for all concerned.