Among the multimodal meaning concepts in our course, one that is often overlooked in formal education discussions is transmedia storytelling — a practice in which a single narrative or knowledge domain is expressed across multiple media platforms, with each platform making a unique contribution that cannot be experienced on another. It is not simply cross-posting the same content; it is designing meaning so that each mode deepens, extends, or reframes the whole.

Definition: Transmedia storytelling (Jenkins, 2006) is the technique of conveying messages, themes, or learning content across multiple media platforms in a coordinated way, where each medium contributes something unique and no single platform is sufficient on its own. In education, it becomes a multimodal meaning-making strategy that engages learners through text, video, audio, image, game, and social interaction simultaneously.

Henry Jenkins introduced this concept in his 2006 book Convergence Culture, describing how franchises like Star Wars or The Matrix extended their worlds across films, comics, games, and websites. Educators quickly recognised the pedagogical potential: if learners can engage with a concept through a video, then a simulation, then a discussion forum, then a hands-on game, they are building richer, more durable understanding through what Kress (2010) calls multimodal meaning-making — the idea that different semiotic modes (image, sound, gesture, text) each carry different affordances for constructing knowledge.

Real-world transmedia learning projects include the iCivics platform (games + text + discussion for civic education), the Smithsonian Learning Lab (artefacts + audio + annotation tools), and ARG (alternate reality games) used in higher education to teach systems thinking. Each of these deploys multiple semiotic modes because no single mode is sufficient to represent the full complexity of the knowledge domain.

The critical pedagogical question transmedia learning raises is one of design: teachers and instructional designers must ask not just what to teach, but which mode best carries which meaning. This is a deeply multimodal literacy challenge — one that requires educators themselves to become fluent across media.

References & further reading

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press. jstor.org
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. Routledge.
Jenkins, H. et al. (2009). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu (free PDF)
iCivics transmedia civic education platform: icivics.org
Smithsonian Learning Lab: learninglab.si.edu
Embedded video suggestion: "Transmedia Storytelling" — YouTube (5 min)

Transmedia storytelling: learning across multiple modes and platforms