Transmedia Storytelling As New Format In Modern Media Landscape

Abstract

In the age of information society, new communication technologies bring great and rapid changes in the modern media landscape and development of mass communication. Under the conditions of media convergence and the processes of digitalization, the new kinds of media formats are emerging. One of them is transmedia storytelling. The paper focuses on the etymology of the term ‘transmedia storytelling’, the issues of difficulty of giving definitions to such concepts as ‘convergence’, ‘transmedia storytelling’, ‘digitalization’, and pays attention to the searches of transmedia projects research methods in the framework of journalism. The matter is that modern media text is a combination of semiotic resources and is presented at different levels: verbal language, image, sound and picture (video). In transmedia storytelling, journalists usea new set of innovative tools: parallax scrolling, a computer graphic effect, creating an immersive experience, maps and graphics; rollover effects; a slideshow of pictures, and others. This multimedia approach creates a so-called immersive effect, a feeling of taking part in the events. As a new format of digital journalism, combining traditions and new trends, transmedia storytelling can be actively used at different media platforms for coverage of current events that take place in modern communication environment. In order to create transmedia storytelling project, journalists need to master new competences and techniques.