Rethinking Transmedia Audiences

Evans, Elizabeth

Abstract

Transmediality has become a key way for understanding the changes in how audiences experience media that have emerged as a result of technological change. However, the vast, complex storyworlds embedded in the idea of “transmedia storytelling” have not come to fruition. Instead, the movement across and between different technologies and media formats has become a quotidian part of media experiences, as audiences are presented with more and more options for how, when and where they access content. This chapter explores four dynamics of transmedia culture: choice, space, access and change, and reflects on how these dynamics manifest within industry strategy and audience behaviour and values. The first two of these speak to the promise of digital technologies in offering greater variety of where, when and how media is experienced. The final two, however, caution against over-emphasising that choice and a need to recognise its boundaries and limitations. By refocusing on these dynamics, it becomes possible to interrogate how although transmediality has permeated media culture, there is also a need to acknowledge how transmedia culture is characterised by barriers as much as opportunities and continuity as much as transformation.

Citation

Evans, E. (2025). Rethinking Transmedia Audiences. In The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences. Routledge

• Online Publication Date: Sep 27, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 28, 2026
• Book Title: The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences
• Chapter Number: 23
• ISBN: 9781032214665
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/33018801
• Contract Date: Jan 31, 2024