Storytelling Industries

This book shows how the unique characteristics of traditionally differentiated media continue to determine narrative despite the recent digital convergence of media technologies. The author argues that media are now each largely defined by distinctive industrial practices that continue to preserve their identities and condition narrative production. Furthermore, the book demonstrates how a given medium's variability in institutional and technological contexts influences diverse approaches to storytelling. By connecting US film, television, comic book and video game industries to their popular fictional characters and universes; including Star Wars, Batman, Game of Thrones and Grand Theft Auto; the book identifies how differences in industrial practice between media inform narrative production. This book is a must read for students and scholars interested in transmedia storytelling.

Uniquely combines approaches from both media industries and narrative theory to make a significant contribution to debates around medium specificity Analyses a wide range of globally popular series and franchises from across media, including Batman, Star Wars, Grand Theft Auto, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones Speaks to students and academic professionals within film studies, games studies, comics studies and television studies

Autorentext

Anthony N. Smith is Lecturer in Television Theory at the University of Salford, UK. He has published articles in New Media & Society, Television & New Media and Critical Studies in Television, and is also co-editor of Storytelling in the Media Convergence Age: Exploring Screen Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Narratives in the Media Convergence Era: The Industrial Dimensions of Medium Specificity.- 3. Economic Specificity in Narrative Design: the Business of Television Drama Storytelling.- 4. Audience Specificity in Narrative Design: Comic-Book Storytelling in the Inclusivity Era.- 5. Technological Specificity in Narrative Design: Story-Driven Videogame Series in an Upgrade Culture.- 6. Conclusion.