Introduction 1

"The millennials: The first generation to grow up with widespread access to high-speed internet connections." Geoffrey Long (Transmedia academic)

This section focuses on the redefined roles of children as storytellers and media creators. As Long’s quote suggests, the new generation of media users are now much more technologically savvy and aware of the content that they are both consuming and ‘prosuming’. Children are now exposed to interactive digital media including gaming and other online platforms and consequently, their expectations and media literacies have changed. They are no longer passive audiences but looking for programs and content where they can appropriate, collaborate, share or interact with.

Our research into how digital and new media is empowering kids to become storytellers, proposes that the child is becoming a lot more central and active in the narrative making and even distributing, and that this is not limited to only television shows, but also to cinematic and highly narrative video games, mobile phones and online platforms. This proposal is highlighted in two case studies that we have investigated which involve interactive and digital storytelling media from an educational and entertainment perspective. These are Kahootz and an investigation into the digital media projects run by the ACMI.

LINKS

 * Australian Children's Transmedia Storytelling
 * Investigation and Research (Section 1)