Transmedia Television

Georgia Tech | Fall 2011
 

Course Description and Objectives:

In this class, we will take an in-depth look at how the production, distribution, promotion, and consumption of television has changed over the past decade. We will examine the television industry and television programming in the context of post-network television (a term that comprises, among other things, the emergence of original programming in basic and premium cable) and convergence culture (the increasing overlap of television and digital media, including DVDs, streaming video, DVRs, and the changing relationships between producers and viewers of television). Specifically, we will look at the increasing use of transmedia storytelling as part of television programming.

Henry Jenkins defines transmedia storytelling in the following way:
Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story (source).

Our main case studies are Lost (ABC, 2004-2010), Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011), and Battlestar Galactica (Syfy, 2004-2009). All three shows feature ensemble-driven serialized narratives that take place in expansive storyworlds; these factors make them ideal candidates for transmedia storytelling. We will examine how the context of network, premium and basic cable shapes each program's transmedia, and how, in turn, each program's transmedia reaffirms or transforms its network's/channel's brand. We will also examine if transmedia helps to address television's lingering problems with representing diversity. If transmedia storytelling expands the storyworld of a TV program, does it also offer new ways of imagining or representing race, gender, and sexuality? In addition to officially produced transmedia, we will study audience-created transmedia (such as fan-made videos) and the tensions that arise when audience and industry investments in transmedia clash and diverge.

All assignments strengthen not only your understanding of television, but also your academic research and multimodal communication skills.  Specifically, you will develop multimodal academic research skills by planning and carrying out an independent research project. For your final project, you take up the roles of transmedia producers with the goal of creating a transmedia component for a television show that is currently on the air. For this project, you will also write a project statement that contextualizes your decisions and plans in the academic discussion of transmedia and post-network television. This project requires you to address different audiences (an academic community and an imagined community of TV producers), to craft convincing arguments based on primary and secondary sources, and to create a website. You will draw connections among all previous units of the course and thus gain a deeper understanding of television as a medium, as a cultural force, and as an economic institution.


Guest Speakers:


PDFDownload syllabus as PDF


Assignment Overview:

TV Studies 101 Prezi {download assignment |View Sample Student Project}

The goal of this assignment is to create a collective overview of our readings and discussions during the "TV Studies Bootcamp" weeks of our class. You will work in groups to review key ideas and terms in television studies and present them in the form of a Prezi to the class. 


Annotated Bibliography {download assignment}

For this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography that serves as the foundation for your research paper on transmedia television. An annotated bibliography is more than a list of sources: it also provides summaries of each source and explains why this particular source is relevant to your topic.


Transmedia Research Paper {download assignment}

You will write an original 2,500 word research paper on a topic of your choice related to transmedia television. Your paper will present a critical analysis of your chosen program and its transmedia extensions. You can focus either on officially produced transmedia (the Lost ARG is an official transmedia product) or on fan-authored transmedia (e.g. Lostpedia or fan vids).

Transmedia Group Project {download assignment} | {View Sample Student Project}

As final project for this class, you will work in groups to create a working transmedia extension for a current or past TV program. In the final week of class, you will create a pitch for this project and present it to the class.


Collaborative Transmedia Analysis  {View Sample Student Project}

Our class is fortunate to have the chance to get an exclusive look behind the scenes of Campfire NYC's transmedia campaign for Bag of Bones, an A&E mini-series that premieres in November 2011. Your task is to collectively "unbox", i.e write an analysis of, the coffee table book and website that constitute Dark Score Stories, the transmedia storytelling experience that promotes Bag of Bones.

E-Portfolio

For In order to demonstrate your WOVEN competency, you will compile first and final drafts of all major assignments this semester and write short reflection essays about your work process.


Required Texts:

Mittell, Jason. Television and American Culture. Oxford University Press, 2009.

Additional readings are available on our course website or online.


Reading Schedule

Week 1: TV Studies Bootcamp I

08/22 Introduction and Overview

08/24 Mittell, Jason. "Introduction: Why Television?" In: Television and American Culture, 1-12; Gray, Jonathan. “Introduction.” In: Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts, 1-16.

08/26 Mittell, Jason. Ch1, "Exchanging Programming," 17-45.


Week 2: TV Studies Bootcamp II

08/29 Mittell, "The Audience Exchange," 73-77; 82-85; Mittell, “Screening America,” 269-276

08/31 Mittell, “Television in Transition: Converging on the Digital,” 422-437; Gillan, Jennifer, “Introduction: Must-Click TV,” 1-9; Jenkins, Henry. Seven Myths about Transmedia Storytelling. April 2011.

09/02 Prezi Workshop


Week 3 Research Bootcamp

09/05 Holiday

09/07 Prezi Presentations

09/09 Research Workshop // Prezi due @midnight


Week 4 Transmedia and Network TV: The case of Lost

09/12 Lost Pilot

09/14 Viewing assignment: Lost Pilot, part 2; Mittell, Jason, Ch. 8, “Representing Race and Ethnicity,” 314-329; Beltran, Mary. Meaningful Diversity: Exploring Questions of Equitable Representation on Diverse Ensemble Cast Shows. Flow 12:7 (August 2010).

09/16 Abbott, Stacey. “How Lost Found Its Audience: The Making of a Cult Blockbuster.” In: Reading Lost (2009), 9-27.


Week 5 Transmedia and Network TV: The case of Lost II

09/19 Viewing assignment: Lost S1 recap and S2 E1+E2 (available on Netflix Instant Watch); in class: Lost: “Orientation” (S2E3)

09/21 Aaron, Smith. Ch. 4, Lost in a Transmedia Universe. In: Transmedia Storytelling in Television 2.0 (2009); in class: explore The Lost Experience

09/23 Mittell, Jason. Lost in an Alternate Reality. Flow 4:7 (June 2006)


9/25 @5pm: Annotated Bibliography due


Week 6: Television in Transition: Creating Transmedia Worlds and Stories

09/26 Smith, Aaron. Lost's Transmedia Lessons: Five Takeaway Techniques. (2009); Jenkins, Henry. Transmedia 202: Further Reflections (August 2011).

09/28 Viewing Assignment: The Hollywood Geek Elite Debates the Future of Television (Panel on transmedia production and storytelling)

09/30 Behind the Scenes at HBO: Class visit by Dr. Diane Jakacki, former vice-president of programming at HBO

Reading: Lotz, Amanda. "Television Storytelling Possibilities at the Beginning of the Post-Network Era: Five Cases." In: The Television Will Be Revolutionized. NYU Press, 2007: 215-241


Week 7 Transmedia and Premium Cable: The case of Game of Thrones

10/03 Making of Game of Thrones: Official Production Diary:

10/05 Reading assignment: Martin, George R.R. A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones. Prologue; Ch. 1-3 (Bran I, Catelyn I, Daenerys I); 12 (Daenerys II); screening: Game of Thrones: "Winter is Coming"

10/07 Experiencing Westeros:


Week 8:

10/10 Game of Thrones, "The Kingsroad"

10/12 Mittell, Jason. Ch 8, "Representing Gender," 305-306; 329-345;

10/14 Gender and Game of Thrones II


Week 9: Project Work

10/17 Fall Break 

10/19 Research Paper Peer Review Battlestar Galactica Mini-series Episode 1

10/21 No class (Dr. Kohnen attends the American Studies Association conference)

10/23: Research Paper due @midnight

; In class: Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far


Week 10: Transmedia and Basic Cable: The Case of Battlestar Galactica I

10/24 Tour of the CommLab; brainstorming for final project

10/26 Battlestar Galactica Mini-series Episode 1 

10/28 Finish watching Battlestar Galactica mini-series (available on Netflix Instant Watch); Joyrich, Lynne. Television Conceptions: Introduction to 'Re/Producing Cult TV: The Battlestar Galactica Issue.' Flow 7:14 (January 2008).

Week 11: Battlestar Galactica and the War on Terror

10/31 Battlestar Galactica, “Occupation” (S3E3) 

11/02 Kohnen, Melanie. Signal to Noise: The Paradoxes of History and Technology in Battlestar Galactica. Flow 7:14 (January 2008). 

11/04 Resistance (BSG webisodes); Podcast for “Occupation”; Discussion of BSG webisodes+podcast; Ron Moore's Battlestar Blog, June 2006


Week 12: Transmedia Tensions: Industry and/versus Audiences

11/07 Scott, Suzanne. “Authorized Resistance: Is Fan Production Frakked?” In: Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica (2007), 210-224.

11/09 Russo, Julie Levin. Hera Has Six Mommies (A Transmedia Love Story) Flow 7:14 (January 2008)

11/11 Gray, Jonathan. "Conclusion: 'In the DNA': Creating Across Paratexts." In: Show Sold Separately, 201-221.


Week 13: Project Work: Dark Score Stories

11/14 Draft Meetings // Explore and analyze Dark Score Stories, Campfire NYC's transmedia campaign for A&E's upcoming mini-series Bag of Bones

11/17 Draft Meetings // Dark Score Analysis

11/19 Discussion of your collaborative analysis


Week 14

11/21 In-class project work

11/23 Transmedia Project due

11/25 Thanksgiving break


Week 15: The Future of TV? Web-based Television

11/28 Guest Speaker: Steve Coulson (via Skype)

11/30 The 2007 Writers' Strike (special isssue of FlowTV): Read the Introduction and "The WGA Strike, the Internet and Media Decentralization"; Read http://doctorhorrible.net/about/ plus watch Episode 1 of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog (available on Netflix Instant Watch)

12/02 The Problem of YouTube and Quality Web Originals Jump Over the Top, both by Aymar Jean Christian, plus watch Season 1, Episodes 1-3 of The Guild


Week 16

12/05 Transmedia Presentations

12/07 Transmedia Presentations

12/09 Transmedia Presentations


Course Policies

Assignments:

You must complete ALL assignments in order to successfully pass this course. There are both graded and pass/fail assignments. You will receive detailed instructions about every assignment at least two weeks before the assignment is due (exception: quizzes). In addition to the assignments listed here, I might ask you to complete small homework tasks, such as bringing in examples to illustrate the essays we are reading. Extensions and incompletes are only permitted for valid non-academic reasons (see attendance).

 

Late assignments:

I will deduct half a letter grade for assignments that are submitted late. I will not accept assignments that are more than 24hrs late unless you document a severe illness or family/personal crisis.

 

Assignment Schedule:

Due date

Points

TV Studies 101 Presentation

09/07/11

50

TV Studies 101 Prezi

09/09/11

100

Annotated Bibliography

09/25/11

100

Research Paper

10/17/11

200

Transmedia Project Draft

11/13/11

100

Transmedia Project

11/23/11

200

Transmedia Project Presentation

12/05/11

100

Reading Quizzes

n/a

100

E-Portfolio

12/12/11

50

Total


1000


Attendance Policy:

Attendance is mandatory. You are allowed three unexcused absences during the semester—use them wisely (if your unexcused absences exceed that limit, you put yourself at risk of failing the course). All other absences must be for valid, non-academic reasons, such as medical emergencies (confirmed by a doctor's note); family or personal emergencies (dean's note); athletic competitions/obligations (coach's note, due at the beginning of the semester).

 

If you miss class, it is your responsibility to catch up on the work we have done during class. Also note that showing up more than ten minutes late to class automatically translates into an unexcused absence for that class meeting.

 

Participation:

This class is a discussion-based seminar. Consequently, your participation in class is crucial to the overall success of the class (and to your final grade). You are expected to keep up with the readings and come to class prepared for discussion. Consistent good participation (i.e. completing the readings and contributing insightful comments and questions during class) will earn you up to an additional 50 points towards your overall grade.

 

Plagiarism and the Honor Code:

You are responsible for knowing and abiding by Tech's policy for academic integrity. Consult the Honor Code online at http://www.honor.gatech.edu. Work that violates the honor code will receive zero credit and may result in failure of the entire course. I will also report any serious misconduct to the Dean of Students.


Note on Discrimination and Appropriate Language in the Classroom:

No form of harassment or discrimination is allowed in this class. In keeping with the professional nature of this course, only professional behavior is acceptable between the instructor and students and between students. No harassment of any kind is allowed in class including but not limited to gender, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.