Cross-Media Use—Unfolding Complexities in Contemporary Audiencehood

Abstract

One of the most obvious characteristics of the contemporary mediascape is the increasing relevance of cross-media phenomena. At the technical level, the process of convergence challenges traditional borders between different media: A wide range of different services can be used on a single technical platform and single technical device; specifi c content can be distributed and used on many different platforms. At the production level, multiple platforms are used for the publication of mediated products (Aarseth 2006). Because it is produced in digital formats, more or less ‘the same’ media content can be disseminated across multiple platforms, and through various channels, while media producers may also plan and design different, but complementary kinds of content to be picked up by audiences from different media platforms, as witnessed in areas such as multi-platform news production, marketing and digital games. At the level of texts, these can take on and envelop different characteristics and forms depending on the affordances of specifi c platforms; examples here include the newly developed forms of cross-media storytelling (Scolari 2009).