Page 138 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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Crossmedia storytelling consists of stories that extend across various channels, with diverse authors and styles each providing information to help to build the tale. Contributions do not make sense individually; instead, it is necessary to experience the story as a whole in order to appreciate it. The main difference with transme- dia storytelling is that the story cannot be understood unless it is accessed through all the channels.
Figure 14. Image of La Zona, an original series
by Movistar, which uses this type of transmedia formula and constitutes one of the latest examples to be released in the wake of El Ministerio del Tiempo. Source: http://lazona.movistarplus.es
We have seen a few examples of narratives of this type in the book sector. The first was El silencio se mueve by Fernando Marías, which has gained considerable recognition in Spain as it is hailed as the first transmedia novel in Spanish. The novel on paper was enhanced through the personal website of the main character, the son of the illustrator Joaquín Pertiera, and through the website of another illustrator (Javier Olivares) who was gathering reproductions of Pertiera’s work. Tracing these works almost amounted to a novel in itself that ran parallel to the one read on paper and also gave rise to exhibitions, talks and reflection.
Begoña Oro also opted for transmedia in Pomelo y limón, which won the Gran Angular prize in 2011. The work is available on paper and in digital format with enhanced content, and an important component of the plot is the young main character’s blog.78 That year also saw the publication of David Lozano’s Cielo rojo, in which the information contained in a dead journalist’s secret blog is of great significance to the unfold-
ing of the plot.79 Readers have to accompany the main characters on their search for the password allowing them to access it, but they also have the privilege of being able to type in the pass- word in real life and access the information at the same time as the characters.
The transmedia product that seems to have enjoyed the greatest success in Spain is Odio
el rosa80 by Ana Alonso and Javier Pelegrín.
It is a dystopic series in which the choice of transmedia stems from the intention to attract young people to multiformat reading – on paper and digitally – with a forum and Facebook and Twitter accounts through which readers can find out about the latest news related to the series, give opinions and interact. The latest copies
on paper furthermore incorporate augmented reality technology.
Interactive stories
Interactive storytelling is related to explorative hyperfiction books (a type of hypertext storytell- ing better known as “choose your own adven- ture”) where young readers steered the course of the story with the decisions they made at
the end of each chapter. In this case the digital format makes greater interaction possible and the outcomes can vary considerably depending on the storyline followed. What is more, not only the end changes: new content is also released as the reader progresses.
This was the editorial policy adopted by Colil- oquy,81 which set out to explore new narrative forms and manners of telling stories in digital format. Each of the titles it published was sufficiently peculiar to ensure that the stories were not always the same. Some titles placed more emphasis on solving a mystery, others on ensuring the growth of, and getting to know, the main character.
It is nonetheless interesting to stress that, according to Lisa Rutherford,82 the cofounder of
READING MATERIALS
Readers in the digital age