Kategorie: IMAGE 21/2015

Von Anne Ganzert | Second screen strategies are quite common in today’s television industry. Television viewers are used to hashtag suggestions appearing on their screens while watching their shows; networks commonly use second screen options and apps to enhance the audience’s engagement with programming. NBC’s Heroes (2006–2010) was »arguably, the largest and most complex transmedia network […] conceived« (RUPPEL 2012: 224) at the time; the series tested many strategies of media convergence in distributing elements of its fictional world through multiple media platforms. This article focuses on the show’s strategies enticing viewers to engage with its websites, print media extensions, accompanying games, and tie-over webisodes.

Von Jonas Nesselhauf und Markus Schleich | Transmedial phenomena are omnipresent in what is often dubbed ›quality television‹. Shows like Breaking Bad (2008–2013) or Game of Thrones (2011– ) do not only rely on storytelling within the show itself but also offer their viewers a variety of possibilities to delve into the universe of the franchise. Mobile apps, minisodes, or interactive websites guarantee a deeper involvement of fans and personalize the viewing experience. These shows also add narrative complexity on a horizontal level, which many see as a recent criterion for ›quality television‹. […]

Von Cristina Formenti | Customarily, mockumentary tends to be discussed merely as a filmic and televisual form. Yet, on closer inspection, it proves to be a narrative style that not only can easily be employed in a variety of different medial contexts but is also suitable for delivering a single story across various platforms. In particular, the article seeks to demonstrate that it is not infrequent for the storyworld of a filmic or televisual mockumentary to be extended on one or more media through paratexts that are in themselves self-contained mockumentaries, thus giving life to out-and-out expanded mockuworlds.

Von Laura Schlichting