Success rests on the ability to support audience engagement from the initial connection with the story to migration across media. The link between psychology and project execution is especially important for transmedia storytelling because, by definition, the orchestration of elements relies heavily on understanding audience behavior. This allows the integration of basic subconscious functions such as attention, perception and cognitive heuristics, with conscious meaning-based processes such as enjoyment, flow and social connection. This approach enables creators to shift from a production-focused paradigm to a more user-centric one. Psychology Shifts the Focusįindings in neuroscience, cognition, and perception combined with theories of optimal engagement and narrative transportation provide an integrative framework to evaluate the potential for immersion and engagement in and across new technologies. They need a way to make judgments about which elements will add value to user experience at a fundamental level and which may detract. To create a seamless experience across platforms, producers must adapt to new technology guided by psychological implications. Presence may come at the cost of decreased usability, narrative confusion or reluctance to adopt new technologies. But technology without psychology is a double-edged sword. In pursuit of presence, producers increasingly integrate the rich technology-enabled content such as augmented and virtual realities.

Presence lowers cognitive resistance, making the audience more likely to suspend disbelief. Presence is an affective-cognitive construct characterized by the sensation of “being there” and describes an audience’s perceived connection with a story (Gerrig 1993). The psychology of transmedia design is at the root of successful engagement in a storyworld through the experience of immersion and presence across multiple mediated experiences. It also, by necessity, disrupts traditional approaches to experience design with the complexity of creating holistic story experiences in danger of overshadowing the need to create sustainable audience engagement across texts. Transmedia continues to push the boundaries of storytelling through the use of multiple platforms and technologies that expand stories from singular linear narratives to multidimensional user experiences. Transmedia storytelling replicates human experience in how people naturally interact with their worlds and, at a neural level, in how brains process information and transform sensory input into conscious experience.

Effective transmedia storytelling embraces the storied nature of life where multidimensionality, sociality and interactivity are core features. To satisfy audience demands, transmedia does not have to be a fully-built-out, multi-platform, mega budget storyworld, like the iconic entertainment franchises surrounding Avatar or Star Wars.

The trend towards transmedia storytelling is well positioned as it can offer richer, more immersive and meaningful experiences by marrying consumption with participation. The increased sense of empowerment derived from digital technologies and the proliferation of media options has been accompanied by a desire for increased personal meaning in media experiences. Stories are how humans construct identity, make sense of the past, anticipate the future and find the motivation to take action (McAdams 2013). This includes the drive for social connection, meaningful experience and sharing stories to be part of something larger than themselves.Įveryone has a story. In meaningful ways, people are the same as they have been for thousands of years, driven by instinct and emotion. Technology changes expectations, but it does not change fundamental needs and motivations. Transmedia storytelling has emerged as a means of addressing the competition for attention and expanding the breadth of access as well as satisfying audience demands for personal control, feedback, interactivity, and social connection integrated into media experience. The psychological implications of “choice” are wreaking havoc leaving media businesses and producers scrambling for a cure. The wide array of new technologies allows audiences to be more discerning about how they allocate their time as consumption is limited by hours in the day.