Storyselling
I like playing with words, so I think that Art Circles is the name for our concept. The content is still taking the lead and as a communicator this is frustrating, but I will keep the ideas flowing.
When all is said and done any communication is about knowing your audience. Art Circles is about cultural integration. In fact as an artist I can see that there is a lack of communication in this area. It has been part of the public service remit, but it can seem so niche and maybe even high-brow. If the content is going to be delivered in a successful transmedia format then it has to do more than current models.
Pertti citing from BRU (The Broadcasting Research Unit 1985) writes; “Public service broadcasters ‘should recognize their special relationship to the sense of national identity and community’. The author continues that “it ranks the duty of providing ‘a reference point for all members of the public and a factor of social cohesion and integration of all individuals, groups and communities'”. (Pertti, p.199)
This is a challenge for our project. We are going to have to go beyond what has been done in the past, from storytelling to storyselling.
An art critic is born!
It’s fun giving birth to a character. Script written and my fellow radio producer is game to get going on the production. Actor sourced and he loves the script. Brilliant.
Spent time in the recording studio this evening and it was creative chemistry. The actor brought suitable attire and we watched as Anthony Richmond-Turner stepped off the page and into our ears. I love this kind of collaboration. All the skills coming together to make the whole. I’ll upload the results once they’ve been through the editing and production machine.
An art critic and podcast is born
Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin
The writing is on the wall. No matter what the message there is a perfect way to get it to an audience. Transmedia means that you really need to know your audience and know your media methods to have the greatest impact from your message or story. Thinking up creative ways of expressing messages has never had so many possibilities.
Apparently the answers lie within
OK so everything is changing. After a chat with Matt Desmier, the Head of Partnership Development at South West Screen, he put me on to a little book to help in the quest for understanding Transmedia. Thing is that the book is frightfully modern and available as a PDF for free ohmygodwhathappened.com
So now all I have to do is some more reading, but not via an Ebury or an Ibook, but a PDF book, circulating using Twitter. This must surely tick a Transmedia box or three.
Would like to meet? Fancy a tweet-up?
Socialising or campaigning the tweet’s your oyster.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds/2011/mar/07/bramley-baths-cuts-leeds-tweet-up
A voice for opinions
Having worked in Community Radio for 6 years, I’m so aware that audience engagement can be fleeting. Unless you grab their attention, then they’re on to the next thing.
Beautiful art and creativity is great, but there is a reason that most people don’t engage with it: They think that it’s not for them.
I did a week on newdesk at the Bournemouth Echo some years ago and know that even in daily papers information has to find a level at which people want to engage with it. So, I’m off to create a character who will bridge the gap between the high brow and the everyday. Someone that people will instantly love to hate. Someone that can make the content of the project appertising. Someone that will start to give shape and form to concept.
This is going to be fun 🙂 This is writing. This is creative.
Not all of the group is convinced, but I have a dream and some inspiration!
‘Sofalising’ the new Socialising?
Today’s media thought is brought to you courtesy of Opinium research who reveal that:
- More than a quarter (26%) of people spend more time communicating with friends online than in person
- One in 10 (11%) adults is more likely to stay in at the weekend and catch up with friends online than go out to meet them in person
- People use 11 different methods of communication with friends and family each day, including the likes of SMS, Twitter, Facebook and instant messaging.
See what the Daily Mail had to say about the phenomena:
Add meaning not media
The old adage too many cooks spoiling the broth, could be applied to Transmedia practice. In other words if you over egg your cake, speaking metaphorically here of course, then perhaps your message will be too difficult to digest leaving the audience wondering what on earth you are talking about.
We are now faced with “Prosumers”, so an audience that can produce as well as consume. In the introduction to Rethinking the Media Audience the editor Pertti Alasuutari cites Hall (1999, p 3). “At a certain point [….] the broadcasting structure must yield an encoded message in the form of a meaningful discourse. The institutional-societal relations of production must pass into and thorough modes of a language for its products to be ‘realized’.” He continues: “Before this message can have an ‘effect’ (however defined), or satisfy a ‘need’ or be put to ‘use’, it must first be perceived as meaningful discourse and meaningfully de-coded”.
Bottom line people have to feel that the message is worth engaging with. So we need to add benefit in meaning and not just scatter gun a wooly or weak message.
The transmedia message that my group is getting its teeth into, is to deliver information about the arts in the Bournemouth area to an audience of 30+. The challenge therefore is to make the information appealing. We’ve got to go beyond the ‘so what’ factor and create engagement and demand.
Concept v content
The old chicken and egg question now relates to Transmedia. If you’ve got something to say should your message drive the format or should the format drive and develop the message? A dilemma that hopefully will have resolved in the next four weeks.
As the writer in the group I’m already finding that we’re not all singing from the same hymn sheet. There seems to be confusion over the meaning of concept and the meaning of content. The definition of the two words seems to be merged in people’s minds. Oh dear. No white board in sight and a content offering that is already well ingrained in the group, who are new to writers and not sure what kind of beast we are. I have major concerns that this project is going to be content led because of this lack of basic clarity. No energetic brainstorming as the content flag has already been placed in the ground. Disappointed but maybe my fears will be unfounded.
I have however dug out a piece of artwork from my school days. This is called Dischord, but is the very picture of the concept content dilemma. Pieces may fit together, but what is the picture? And more importantly what does it mean?
A picture of dischord - items that fit on one level but don't make sense
The media consumer/user relationship
So are roles being reversed? Or are media channels and media empires, just trying to become our ‘friends’, in order to steal our lunch money when we’re not looking? If the consumer now believes that he is media savvy, then surely he is safe.
It appears that the media is like seams of gold and the media moguls are prospectors running from seam to seam, trying to get ahead of the competition and then moving on to the next hot spot, trying to get ahead of the competition, deftly moving so that the consumer/user is just a small step behind.
So maybe this competitive edge is all it needs to become the next media empire. Quick thinking, quick reactions and a nose for trends. Sounds a bit like the horse races again 🙂 And what’s all this about a new breed of consumer/producer a ‘prosumer’?
So maybe change is just an illusion?