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This book brings genre back to the forefront of the current transmedia trend. Genres are perhaps the most innately transmedial of media constructs, formed as they are from all kinds of industrial, technological and discursive phenomena. Yet, few have considered how genre works in a multiplatform context. This book does precisely that, making a uniquely transmedial contribution to the study of genre in the age of media convergence. The book interrogates how industrial, technological and participatory transformations of digital platforms and emerging technologies reshape workings of genre. The authors consider franchises such as Star Wars, streaming platforms such as Netflix, catch-up services such as ITV Hub, creative technologies such as virtual reality, and beyond. In setting the stage for the revival of genre theory in contemporary transmedia scholarship, this book pushes forward understandings of multiplatform media and the emerging form and function of genre across contemporary culture.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Transmedia Superhero: Marvel, Genre Divergence and Captain America.- 3. Transmedia Western: Lucasfilm, Genre Linking and The Mandalorian.- 4. Transmedia Horror: Netflix, Genre Empowerment and Stranger Things.- 5. Transmedia Docudrama: ITV Hub, Genre Democratisation and Quiz.- 6. Transmedia Comedy: BBC Three, Genre Distribution and Pls Like.- 7. Transmedia Fantasy-JRPG: Kickstarter, Genre Leveraging and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.- 8. Transmedia War: Virtual Reality, Genre Embodiment and The Day the World Changed.- 9. Transmedia Science Fiction: Deepfake Technology, Genre Fictioning and Reminiscence.- 10. Conclusion: Towards a Conceptual Framework of Transmedia Genre.
About the author
Matthew Freeman is Reader in Multiplatform Media at Bath Spa University, UK, where he is Research Lead for Film & Media and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Media Communications. He is the author/editor of eight books on topics such as transmedia and media industries. Beyond academia, he is the Founder of Immersive Promotion Design, a marketing consultancy for the immersive sector.
Anthony N. Smith is Lecturer in Television Theory at the University of Salford, UK. He has published articles in
New Media & Society,
Critical Studies in Television and beyond. He is also co-editor of
Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age: Exploring Screen Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and author of
Storytelling Industries: Narrative Production in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
