Due Dates

• Proposal for Project 3 due November 15, submit to Moodle

• Slice of your Project 3 due Thursday, November 19, submit to Moodle **Note the change from the usual Sunday due date, to account for Fall Break**

• Draft of Project 3 with Statement of Goals and Choices due 24 hours before your scheduled conference (conferences will be held from 12/1-12/3), submit to Moodle or host on your website and add a link to Moodle

• Final Project 3 will be included in your Final Portfolio, due December 18

 

Why Transmedia Advocacy?

I chose to assign the constraint of transmedia advocacy for the final project first because it invites you to draw on the knowledge of multiple forms of media and technology, showcasing the skills you’ve developed this semester. Transmedia texts require you to adapt to the affordances and constraints of multiple platforms, balancing the strengths of one piece of media with the weaknesses of another. Since one of our goals this semester is to consider how media interacts in both physical and digital spaces, this project gives you the chance to orchestrate that interaction. Secondly, the goal of advocacy prompts you to reach outside of the classroom, considering how media may make a positive impact on the world, or give you an opportunity to share your voice concerning an issue that you care about. As you will move between modes and media constantly in the future in your careers, hobbies, and connections with others, this project gives you a space to practice crafting an argument that reaches across texts rather than being confined to only one. 

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"Of course, claims that the internet has 'changed everything' are as old as the internet itself. But, stepping back from any one digital platform or piece of technology, it is evident that a profound shift in campaigning is underway not just at the level of tools, but at the deeper level of a change in voters themselves. As Marshall McLuhan said, 'We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.' At the same time, digital optimists are sometimes slow to point out that the internet by itself still does not win campaigns, and probably never will."

                                           -Matt Price, "The new politics: How the internet changed everything"

 

As Matt Price argues in this article, the internet has fundamentally changed politics, affecting the way that people hear about issues, communicate with their representatives, run for office, and organize protests or other forms of resistance. At the same time, as we discussed in the remediation unit, digital political texts are very much informed by print media, and physical media hasn’t disappeared from political conversations as some people claim: consider how protest posters, performance art, and campaign rallies all still play a key role in politics.

 

Our conversations this semester have revolved around expanding our view of writing to encompass multimodality, considering how content is continually re-mixed and remediated, and exploring how different platforms and genres shape our perception of an issue. To this end, keep the theories and conversations that we’ve had in mind as you compose this project. You might consider the following questions: How can I adapt content to fit different mediums that are accessible to different audiences? How will the way that I present my message change the audience’s reception? In what ways am I building on or remediating the ways that other people have represented this political issue?

 

For this final project, you will construct a campaign for a cause of your choice across multiple modes and platforms. This can be a local or national issue, and it’s up to you what aspect of that issue you want to focus on, whether you’re finding a solution or raising awareness. Building on what is already being done about this issue, consider how you can make informed choices about the potential advocates that still need to be recruited, the information that needs to be made public, and the steps that need to be taken to address this issue. You will choose media and modes that will best accomplish your chosen exigence, and link them together through a central website, social media account, installation, or print portfolio.

 

Creating Transmedia Texts

 

The transmedia project itself should build on the work already happening in your chosen community, or improve upon the work that they’ve already done. Consider what mediums and methods you want to use to advocate for this issue, drawing on multiple modes and means of engaging audiences. 

 

What is “transmedia”?

 

Transmedia is defined as the process of telling a story or constructing an argument across multiple platforms and kinds of media. This concept connects to Artz, Hashem, and Mooney’s concept of transmodality, as when you create a transmedia project, you’re moving across different modes to adapt to each new piece of media and platform. The challenge of a transmedia project is to establish clear links between the different pieces of media, and to construct a consistent, overarching narrative or argument. One choice you’ll need to make is in deciding what you want the hub of your transmedia project to be: where will audiences begin, and how will they move between pieces of media?

 

The central requirement of this project is that you create 3-5 pieces of media, each of which should be a different type of media and/or hosted on a different platform. You’re welcome to create more smaller pieces, or focus on three more extensive pieces of media, depending on the goals that you have in mind for the project. Your pieces of media should ultimately be connected by a particular argument and goal. For instance, you could create texts for a political campaign (for yourself or another person you want to run for office). Perhaps your pieces of media all revolve on making your issue understandable to a younger audience. You could also unite your work around a particular rhetorical situation, like a protest or townhall meeting.

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The pieces of media that you choose are entirely up to you, but consider how you draw upon the modes to form connections between them. For instance, you could use linguistic markers like a group name or slogan that is consistent across pieces, or visual markers like logos or symbols to give the pieces of media cohesion.

 

As you create the pieces of media and write your statement of goals and choices, consider the exigence of your approach to transmedia. For a project that forwards an argument about a political issue, the reason to compose across different mediums and modes might be because you’re likely to reach multiple audiences of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and technological literacies. In addition, as we’ve discussed, different platforms lend themselves to particular modes, which would allow you to shift your purpose slightly as you move between pieces. For instance, you could use Instagram to feature an image with short, snappy text that is more memorable, while a blog would be more suitable for a longer linguistic text that outlines the issue in more detail. Together, the two can be complementary and fill the gaps the other leaves behind.

 

In short, we rarely experience media in isolation, and one text alone likely won’t accomplish political goals. Use your transmedia project to broaden your reach and explore diverse composing choices.

 

Expectations

My central expectation for this project is that your argument regarding a political issue is clear and cohesive across the different pieces, whether you’re advocating for a particular solution, raising awareness on an underrepresented aspect of that issue, or crafting a specific call to action that you want your audience to take. The project should build in some way off of the observations you made in your ethnography, and take advantage of the features of the platforms and technology that you choose.

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Recommendations for Statement of Goals and Choices

The main focus for your SOGC should be on how you created cohesion and a consistent argument across your chosen pieces of media. To make that argument, explain why you chose the pieces of media that you did (beyond ease and experience) and how you see them working together. For instance, you could discuss how you designed a poster to be eye-catching and introduce potential allies to the issue, but then outlined what they should do in more detail in a website linked to the poster. In other words, consider how you can explain both what each piece of media accomplishes on its own, as well as how it compliments the other pieces of media in your response. You can also choose to craft an argument about your view of social media advocacy, and explain how your own use of social media fits into that argument.