Interview with a councillor
www.bournemouthcreatives.co.uk
These are just a few of the arts groups that are already in the locality. I’ve been involved with all of these over the past years, so a few phone calls and an interview with Poole Councillor Mark Howell, who is passionate about the arts, has given the group not only a great interview, but some brilliant background information on the arts scene locally.
There is definitely a need for our growing concept. There are lots of disparate groups and loads of talent. I think that this project can go national!
Now the challenge is to get the media channels flowing.
From the Iphone
I love it when technology works. I like gadgets if they make life easier, add too and enhance. This is my view of Transmedia too. It has to have a benefit. That benefit has to earn its keep, be a link on a chain. It’s kinda like a cocktail, the mix either works or it doesn’t – chemistry.
Now to check the Art Circles QR code.
Our Art Circles QR code
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.
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?
Transmedia: a brave new world
Almost half way through my MA in writing for the media and the new challenge is Cross Platform Practise or Transmedia. My understanding so far is that storytelling can be done in lots of ways and new media provides avenues that means that stories – or in our learned speak ‘narratives’ – can be expanded upon when delivered in a different media contexts/platforms. Make sense? Hopefully this time April 1st and all will be crystal clear 🙂 Let’s see if the Buggles were right, or perhaps we can all live happening ever converging.