The World of The Walking Dead – Transmediality and Transmedial Intermediality

• Authors: Benjamin Beil , Hanns Christian Schmidt
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

As transmedia franchises increasingly populate our cultural environment, many questions arise about the effect of the different media involved in the depiction of storyworlds. Through the analysis of different examples, with special emphasis on the particular case of The Walking Dead, and drawing primarily from Henry Jenkins’s concept of “transmedia storytelling” and Jens Schroter’s concept of intermediality, this paper aims to show how different media aesthetics contribute to the process of storytelling and enrich the experience of the consumer. Usually overlooked in other analyses, we argue that these formal and aesthetical characteristics, such as the interactive nature of video games, call for a broader approach that transcends the accustomed search of common narrative aspects. This will be exemplified by a closer comparative look at the adventure game The Walking Dead: The Ganie (Telltale Games, 2012) and The Walking Dead: Survival Instiiict (Terminal Reality, 2013). The transformations that the different media demand contribute not only to the narrative, but also provide different tools for the construction of storyworlds and different ways to engage with it.

Keywords

EN

computer games; intermediality; transmedia storytelling; storyworlds; The Walking Dead

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 73-88

Dates

published

2015-08-01

online

2016-04-06

Contributors

author

Benjamin Beil

• University of Cologne (Germany)

author

Hanns Christian Schmidt

• University of Cologne (Germany)

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/ausfm-2015-0027