The Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies is pleased to welcome Dr Matthew Freeman (Bath Spa University) to discuss the current state of transmedia studies.

6^th March, 13:00-14:00

G50 Millburn House

People now engage with media content across multiple platforms, following stories, characters, worlds, brands and other information across a spectrum of media channels. The connectedness of the media, be in terms of media industries and their platforms, digital and mobile communications, advertising and marketing sectors, advertising and marketing sectors, or audience behaviors and cultural practices, is seen as a defining characteristic of the contemporary media landscape. But in contrast to Scolari’s (2017) suggestion that, as of 2017, ‘almost everything is now transmedial’, this talk draws on Freeman’s latest research into transmediality – Global Convergence Cultures: Transmedia Earth (2018), Transmedia Archaeology in Latin America: Miscegenation, Identities and Convergences (2018) and The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies (2018) – all of which steer transmedia studies away from more commercial, US-based settings of conglomerates and marketing, and instead towards more socio-political forms like media activism, identity, literacy and education.

Showcasing the perspectives of all three books, which themselves gather a global roster of contributors from a variety of disciplines and industry backgrounds, this talk considers transmediality from a more overtly cultural perspective than is often the case, pointing towards projects such as Desarmados (Disarmed), where Freeman applied transmedia practices to the context of the Colombian armed conflict, where the memories of the Colombian citizens of Medellín become narrativised across multiple media as an educational resource. Exploring what these kinds of ‘cultural’ projects mean to definitions of transmedia storytelling, the talk also reflects on the current status and future directions of transmediality.

Biography

Dr Matthew Freeman is Reader in Multiplatform Media at Bath Spa University. He is Deputy Director of the University-wide Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries, Co-Director of the Centre for Media Research, and leads the University’s Communication, Cultural and Media Studies submission to REF2021. His research examines cultures of production across the borders of media and history, and is the author/editor of seven books: The World of The Walking Dead (2019), Transmedia Archaeology in Latin America (2018), The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Storytelling (2018), Global Convergence Cultures (2018) Historicising Transmedia Storytelling (2016), Industrial Approaches to Media (2016), and Transmedia Archaeology (2014). He has also published over 30 journal articles and book chapters, is Series Editor for the Routledge Advances in Transmedia Studies book series, and sits on the editorial board of the journal Convergence. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the International Journal of Creative Media Research, a new journal at Bath Spa University which aims to push forward the potentials for publishing practice-based media research.