WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING AND OSMU?

Transmedia storytelling is often compared and contrasted with the “One Source Multi Use” (OSMU) model.

The OSMU model emphasizes the commercial importance of original content and, by sparking offshoot content based on an original work, the OSMU model adapts the storytelling of an original work to different media platforms. As such, the established market value of this original work can continue to generate profits through the OSMU system. In OSMU storytelling, adapted material and offshoot content sprout directly from the original work, which is the creative center. Transmedia storytelling, however, is a different process. Strictly speaking, there is no original content in transmedia storytelling; the user or audience member can access content in any order, each individual work being its own autonomous world. Content consumed in this manner is allowed to be realized through multiple media platforms, a world where each form gives meaning to the other.

The term “transmedia storytelling” is already widely used in certain business circles today. In some spaces, it is simply seen as storytelling that occurs through multiple forms of media, its goal being decentralized authorship and transmedia experimentation. There are two main factors that drive transmedia storytelling: one is the spread of new forms of media such as video games, the Internet, and mobile platforms, and the demand they create; the other is the economic incentives offered to media creators who share their digitalized property online. By definition, transmedia storytelling is shared through multiple media platforms, and new text must clearly contribute value to the overall story. According to Henry Jenkins(Henry Jenkins is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts.), in ideal transmedia storytelling, every individual form of media must be aesthetically complete, and each platform must be self-sufficient. In other words, a consumer must be able to enjoy a video game without seeing the movie, and vice versa. Here we can witness the rising importance of content production and sharing, the act of consumption, over a specific media platform. Originally, the idea of transmedia referred to expanding the reach of television shows through various media platforms developed through new technology, a behavioral change where users and content moved fluidly among multiple forms of different but related media.

Share your experiences as a user of OSMU. Examples: Are there any books that became a movie? Any artwork that has inspired a book?