Sustainable environment issues are increasing every year, as well as the communication around it and the use of transmedia storytelling is a tremendous means to develop the awareness around those issues. What is transmedia storytelling and how it will apply on sustainable development?
For most communicators, this concept refers more on branding, and fiction stories than on factual stories. The word ‘Storytelling’ itself in the communication area refers to stories that a brand creates in order to build an emotional relationship with a potential customer. A patent example is the well-known Nespresso’s advertisement campaign (have a look below for the three episodes of the story).
More precisely, ‘transmedia’, refers to the different medium used to broadcast an entertaining story in a coherent and complementary way (Jenkins, 2007). It must be coherent in order to have a logical story and not only short stories spreading in an uncoordinated manner. It also needs to be complementary to contribute in an interesting way to the whole story. As a result the story as a whole is more than the sum of its parts, and each entry is unique with a finite role in it. Another side of the concept is that the audience may appropriate some aspects of the story to apply them in their every day life, and immerse themselves in the world of the fictional story. Henry Jenkins explain it in saying that ‘a transmedia text does not simply disperse information: it provides a set of roles and goals which readers can assume as they enact aspects of the story through their everyday life’ (Jenkins, 2007). The problem noticeable here is that the explanation is applicable on a fiction world. So, how could it apply to a true-based story as the sustainable development field?
A start of an answer could be that transmedia storytelling is grounded on collective intelligence through the idea of ‘transmedia activism’ (Srivastava, 2009). The first term collective intelligence has been firstly used by Pierre Levy and refers “to new social structures that enable the production and circulation of knowledge within a networked society”(Jenkins, 2007). In the case of sustainability, people from the same interest are gathered to pool information and create a community about sustainable action making. Furthermore, transmedia storytelling provides piece of information about what can be known about real facts. It also encourages talks in the way that it is impossible to have a complete knowledge about the sustainable field and thus the audience tries to find out more using each type of media. For instance, the website www.climatecrisis.netis based on the movie “An inconvenient truth” proposes piece of information, tips, news and a more developed community with the linked committed website www.takepart.com. The latter increase the value of the climate crisis website by making the Internet user involved with the creation of content. From a story told in a movie, people become actors by creating contents in new participatory media.
The last proposition introduces the idea of transmedia activism in the extent it enhances the participative role of the audience in the storytelling content. With the use of multiple media, storytellers as NGO or green companies, develop transmedia storytelling to make their statement more “fashionable” and thus influence action and increase awareness. It is a prerequisite need because ‘any individual institution engaging an audience … is required to convey clearly and artfully what it does, how its does it, where its work is most effective and necessary, and why they should support efforts to continue or grow the institution’s work’ (Srivastava, 2009). It means that the story told refers to what is done and how to achieve a particular goal, through the use of multiple channels in order to create a community that collaborate and interact. Exposing the audience of such storytellers to particular media is the best means to connect people to a cause. The last example of www.takepart.com also proposes to contribute to the network and to make people involved. It is possible by proposing them the creation of content (video, music, article) and the creation of action (to create a petition, propose an event and link to other donation website).
Applying transmedia storytelling to sustainable development differs from the fictional application because it provides tools to people to develop collective intelligence around the same issue in order to make them acting.
References
Flew, T. (2007). New Media: An Introduction. South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, H. (2007, March 22). Transmedia Storytelling 101. Retrieved from Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html
Srivastava, L. (2009, January 20). Transmedia Activism: Telling Your Story Across Media Platforms to Create Effective Social Change. Retrieved from MediaRights: http://www.mediarights.org/news/Transmedia_Activism_Telling_Your_Story_Across_Media_Platforms_to_Create_Eff/
TakePart. (2008). Climate Crisis. Retrieved from Climate Crisis: http://www.climatecrisis.net/
TakePart. (2008). TakePart Social Action Networ: Important Issues, Activism, Environmental, Human Rights, Politica News. Retrieved from TakePart: http://www.takepart.com/
The Stockholm conference of the United Nations Environment Programme was hold in 1972. It thrusts environmental issues into the international politic debate for the very first time. From this key year, the diffusion of ideas around sustainable development, renewable energy, recycling, and many other relative fields have steadily increased. Thirty years later, why has the diffusion of green innovations not increased more sharply? Looking the diffusion of green innovations through the prism of communication, could actually give us the start of an answer.
What is an innovation? It is an idea about an object or practice that convey a background of newness to the individual or any other structure that is supposed to adopt it (Rogers, 1995). What is green? Something green carries “the idea of sustainability”, which is defined by the Brundtland Commission as the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It has to be environmentally viable, economically equitable and socially responsible. Thus, a green innovation is an eco-friendly object or a sustainable practice that is perceived as being new. Moreover, in order to develop the concept of green innovations, it is important to figure out the process of diffusion and how it applies. It is clearly accepted by scholars that “diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time, among the members of a social system” (Rogers, 1995). This process means that an individual goes through a first knowledge of the innovation, to a real adoption of it and its implementation in the adopter life (Rogers, 1995). Diffusion is intrinsically a part of an innovation and the innovation-decision process completes its acceptation in a social system.
As a social process above all, the green innovation field requires that individuals, communities and international or local authorities get involved. Due to their missions of conveying the newness of an idea, communicators need to interfere at each stage of decision to help the diffusion of green innovations. This process involves many communication channels. At the top of their work, communicators have to inform communities and individuals about authorities’ action, as the government, while dealing with diffusion of green innovations. As it is a social process, communication gives the possibility to change norms, to find solutions and then to accept the changes by creating new debates. For example, during the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009, several channels of communication were used. Internet video of Kevin Rudd’s statement about Australia’s commitment in reducing greenhouse gas is a good illustration. Unfortunately this Summit failed in its purpose to find a global agreement in reducing carbon emissions. This occurred because many countries have not completed the adoption of green innovation in their economic frameworks. In this case, communication has to explain the advantages of green innovation in every country to find out a way in which sustainability would at last meet the “economically equitable” constituent.
In another level of the social structure, communication channels are also involved reaching individuals, as the mass media channels for instance. Television offers the possibility to reach the largest audience and potential adopters. One convincing example of the use of mass media is the television spot of the latest version of the Toyota Prius “harmony” (a green concept based upon a gas-electric hybrid car). Moreover, the video of this commercial available on this blog, shows that it has been seen more than 360.880 times so far on the well-known Internet website YouTube. Communicating through different kinds of communication channels helps to spread new green ideas and innovations all around our world. It gathers individuals around a common interest as well as it awares people that were not previously informed. Toyota which sold the first two thousands of its Prius online is an example of gathering early adopters.
The process of the diffusion of green innovations is just about creating a real change in our mind in order to be environmentally aware. The only way to sharply increase this awareness is to connect people together and facilitate the diffusion of green innovations in powerful networks. “To change the world, we need to connect” (Steffen, 2006).
Bibliography
Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. New York: The Free Press.
Steffen, A. (2006). Worldchanging :a user's guide for the 21st century. New york: Abrams.
Toyota. (2009, May 11). 2010 Toyota Prius "Harmony" TV Commercial. From YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4nrmnqY9o
United Nations. (1987, June). Our Common Future, Chapter 2: Towards Sustainable Development . Retrieved 2009 from UN Documents - Gathering a Body of Global Agreements: http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I
unitednations. (2009, september 18). Australia: Statement 2009 UN Climate Change Summit. From YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsYUAPbWxno
