Jenkins Ch 4 notes

Value of Surplus Audiences

audience members outside the target demographic are often treated as "surplus."

*In some cases, audience members might provide supplementary income through purchasing content surrounding the main television property, but they are often considered irrelevant.

*when these "undesired" segments start to overwhelm the core demographic, they can be seen as a nusance, diluting the show's market, and confusing advertisers about its value for delivering targeted consumers

Transmedia a System of Generating Audience Engagement

*Narratives such as soap operas have staying power because they provide a storytelling universe substantially larger than the show itself, offering almost infinite material for fan discussions and debates—and thus insuring "spreadable" content across fan networks.

*story worlds are defined by large backstories that cannot be neatly summarized; an ensemble of characters within the current narrative and across its larger history; substantial reliance on program history; narratives shaped by a wide variety of creative forces over time; a serialized structure of storytelling; and a sense of permanence and continuity within the fictional universe.

*Since the appointment television model focuses primarily on income from advertising, the many business possibilities of longer-term content are often ignored.

*soap opera industry continues to see its properties only as a vehicle for selling young adult females to soap companies (the same model that the genre has used for the past eight decades)

*comic book franchises, sports leagues and other immersive franchises have built business models which identify multiple ways of engaging with the narrative and thus open up multiple revenue stream

*professional wrestling builds its weekly soap-opera-like serialized television shows around a business model which includes live events, pay-per-view shows, merchandise, DVD sales, original website content, video games, and various other types of storytelling, many of which generate direct revenue from audiences

*Such examples are driving the media industry to think more deeply about content as an ongoing and renewable generator of value, not as a one-time commodity

*these complex serialized narratives are now extending beyond the medium of television into  webisodes, printed and digital comics, computer games, alternative reality experiences, and so on

*The industry calls such practices "transmedia entertainment"

Continuity and Change:

A History of Transmedia Entertainment

*Comic books, video games, and other markets once considered ancillary now play increasingly significant and re-centered roles in the production and consumption of everyday film and television properties

*Ex: Heroes, Transformers, or Star Trek

*Understanding transmedia in terms of cultural exchange across and transformation through different media experiences means recognizing traditional processes of adaptation and translation of content as a foundation for the social exchange of spreadable media today

*Ex: the Bible might be considered one of the most successful transmedia narratives in history: its stories have been passed down over centuries not only through written word, but also religious paintings and icons that framed those stories in new ways

*Corporate managers increasingly consider the development of a video game to accompany a film, for example, not in terms of adaptation but in terms of extension in which stories are elaborated rather than retold

*Today’s spreadable media, therefore, extend from a much longer history in which entertainment culture has been generated and regenerated over time and across production contexts.

*Transmedia entertainment makes a great deal of sense in the context of convergence, offering content that can be liberally extended and multiplied across a range of possible cultural experiences

"The Total Engagement Experience"

*"The total engagement experience gives you a bridge experience in between each broadcast; it drives people to the show week after week through these experiences; and it also gets people to sample the show who have never seen the show before. It also generates press buzz and creates new revenue sources."

*an engagement model thrives when entertainment properties help active audiences connect with one another

*this is best accomplished through extending the  experience of the story world to new venues

Valuing "Cult" Audiences

*active fan discussion and active word-of-mouth is a stark reminder that transmedia and spreadability should not be too narrowly defined.

*behaviors that were once considered "cult" or marginal are becoming more central to television industry's acceptance of the engagement based model

*In a world where audiences now regularly use Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and video-sharing sites to react to mass media offerings, the media industry and brands increasingly recognize and respect the influence of these grassroots intermediaries