It seems I’ve unleashed a monster. Since posting my rant & follow-up, I have had many discussions on the definition and importance of a definition for transmedia. I’ve talked to creators, producers, “thought-leaders” (and been called one myself! eep!), and representatives from several organizations & agencies. There are so many thoughts & ideas, needs & desires that it’s all a bit overwhelming and, occasionally, headache inducing. I do not have the answers that I wish I had (at this point, nobody does) but the discussions are happening. And that is fantastic!

Many of my fellow creators believe it’s a futile exercise in wankery… that art isn’t defined by words but by works. I don’t disagree with that sentiment*.

Creators create. They don’t define and they don’t let definitions define their work.

However, there are people who need to define transmedia. They need to make judgments on work to decide whether to fund it or to support the creators of that work.

I pick on the PGA credit. A lot. It was the first big public example of a transmedia definition in the US. As such, other organizations are looking at it. If it is flawed, and those flaws are not addressed, they may be carried over into other organizations. The fact that a number of prominent examples of transmedia don’t fit the posted definition & things that many wouldn’t consider to be transmedia do indicates that there is, in fact, a flaw. It is one that I would like to see fixed and, more, I’d like to help others avoid making.

My picking on the PGA credit shows my bias. I live and work in the US. I’m most familiar with what is happening here. This is not, however, an issue that is unique to the US.

Evan Jones  added a wonderful comment to the amazing discussion happening on Brian Clark’s Reclaiming Transmedia Storyteller post that points to the need for a definition (or, at least, a clear idea of what transmedia is).

The fact is that internationally, these definitions really do matter. In Canada and many other countries, there are departments set up to support arts & culture. Not just schools but organizations that distribute taxpayer dollars (or mandated industry levies) to independent creators – often millions of dollars every year. Because these are taxpayer dollars, each organization must be transparent about how it distributes their funds – what do they fund and how do you get it?

He later writes:

I struggle with the idea that early-adopters have better authority to define terms, but I relate to the need to hold firm against the dilution of terms. The problem I see is that transmedia storytelling is still so new that someone who claims it for different purposes will probably find an audience that has never encountered the term – the first experience sets the definition for them and the worry is that the ‘wrong transmedia’ will reach more people than the ‘right transmedia’, thereby making sure that all the people doing it the ‘right’ way get the door slammed in their face when their audience decides they hate ‘wrong transmedia’.

That was the heart of my rant last week, Transmedia is killing Hollywood will kill Transmedia. Without a definition, ‘right transmedia’ and ‘wrong transmedia’ is merely opinion. Once something is defined, as with the PGA credit, we can point to examples of ‘right’(to be included) and ‘wrong’ (to be excluded) from that definition’s perspective. The challenge, then, is to make sure that it isn’t excluding works that should be included and vice-versa. Because, as Evan points out, “there are literally millions of dollars hinging on our ability to define what we do against what we don’t.”

If you are interested in this discussion, I strongly encourage you to dive into the Reclaiming Transmedia Storyteller post & the 100 comments (so far!). I have also set up a storify page on the PGA Transmedia Credit, which I will try to keep updated and pointing to discussions on this topic. If you would like to talk to me, feel free to get in touch, but understand that I do not have “answers” or, even, an “ideal definition.” I do, however, have opinions and an ever-growing understanding of this stuff that we do and the many things people call transmedia.

* Though I do think that art can benefit from critical discourse and part of that does include things like debating what is and is not transmedia.