Australian Children's Transmedia Stories

“I have to say that not a lot of content exists, a lot of it is simply promotional web driven and quite pedestrian and is really more about downloads and photos, and you know, it’s publicity” … Jonathan M. Shiff

In order to think about children’s transmedia stories, the online extensions of 24 children’s television series were analysed. The examples chosen were either dramas, or some other form of program with a fictional character.

see table

General trends:

42% of websites had a meet the characters section

29% of websites had a meet the stars/actor profile section

54% had some variation of wallpaper/screensaver downloads

46% had video clips. Out of these, 36% were different to the original content (things you can’t see within the TV show)

42% had games. Out of these, 40% contributed in some way to the storyline

From our understanding of what makes a transmedia story, the 24 online extensions of Australian children’s television series were analysed against two criteria:

Does it make a distinct and valuable contribution to the story? Does it maintain the character of the world?

Only 4of the 24 were a definite yes to both questions.

The four that could be seen as the closest examples of transmedia storytelling were:
 * Crash Zone
 * Animalia
 * Dogstar
 * Hoota & Snoz

37% made some attempt to make a contribution to the storyline 25% made some attempt to maintain the idea of the story world 54% were basically transmedia branding/publicity

This investigation highlights the difficulty Australian children’s television programs are currently having in becoming transmedia stories, and making the most of the opportunities digital media affords. As explored in the section Defining transmedia storytelling many believe that successful transmedia stories are created as transmedia stories from the beginning, and producers are starting to realise this.

All of the Jonathan Shiff productions that were looked at currently fall into the publicity category, but he is one of these people that believes that a successful transmedia story needs to be created as a transmedia story from the beginning. He discussed with us a project that is currently in development which is an attempt to create a more organic transmedia story:

“One of the projects we have in development is dinosaur diaries, its about kids who are stuck three million years ago in Australia on a dig site excursion and they can’t get back so they’re now lost with dinosaurs … and one of the things that comes with that is a diary that sits on a separate track to the 24 minutes of drama and its used to enhance the experience for the audience by taking you behind the scenes or taking you into the world of individual characters - in other words, a mini production within the production that’s only designed to be used by kids on the web during the week while they’re waiting for next Sunday nights episode of the dinosaur diaries”

LINKS

 * (see Audio of Interview with Jonathan M. Shiff)
 * (see Case Study 2: Animalia)
 * (back Investigation and Research (Section 2))