Transmedia Is Dead. Long Live Transmedia! (Or Life, Passion and the Decline of a Concept)

Abstract

Concepts have a life cycle that goes through their birth, development and decadence. Like biological or technological species, words are born, grow, develop and enter a period of decline that, in many cases, can mean death and burial between the pages of an old dictionary. This paper focuses on a single concept – ‘transmedia’ (‘transmedia storytelling’) – and compares its evolution with other key concepts of the 1990s cybercultures: ‘hypertext’, ‘multimedia’, ‘hypermedia’, etc. Considering the exploratory nature of this research, the evolution of the concepts will be represented using Google’s nGram Viewer. The trajectory of “transmedia” is analysed both in the professional and academic/scientific circuits and the different semantic circulation and appropriation rules these environments are subject to are considered. The paper ends with a final reflection on the future of ‘transmedia’ and an evaluation of possible alternative concepts.

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