The purpose of this study is to discern the didactic potential of fanfiction and transmedial storyworlds in a classroom context. This is studied through the analysis of works from two transmedial storyworlds: Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes. The works are examined using Herman’s (2009) four narrative elements. The study shows that fanfiction writers change one or more narrative elements of a story to build their own narrative. Some writers keep the narrative elements intact but instead write stories that reflect their own lives. Both the Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes narratives are prototypical stories that are easy to follow and recreate and that might be why they are popular in a fanfiction context. The study shows that fanfiction has a didactic potential and that one important aspect of using fanfiction in the classroom is to be open to student’s interpretations of the narrative.

In my thesis I focus on the problematics of the transmedia storytelling which can influence the original story, even if its main aim is to elaborate that story. Innterferencies can be done on the level of the very story or on the level of the theories,, which can be applicable on it. I'm using the example of Star Wars fictional world, to which theories of Vladimir Propp, Joseph Campbell, J.R.R. Tolkien can be applied, just as the concept of mythology created by Roland Barthes. I'm going to present how transmedia storytelling influences the original story, presented mainly by the film episodes and "G-canon", on the chosen examples of Star Wars transmedia. At the same time transmedia storytelling changes the meaning of the theoretical frames named above, which can be applied to the original story. My aim is to show that the impact of transmedia is much greater that it is usually presented.

Att en publik upplever en berättelse i reklamfilmen olika är en självklarhet och i dagens transmediala medievärld där så pass mycket reklamfilm publiceras på många olika plattformar blir det en labyrint för ingen mindre än medieproducenten. Vilket format man ska välja, och hur det förstärker eller förminskar berättelsen är en ständigt pågående diskussion. Syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vad som hände med handlingen när formatet ändrades till 1:1 och hur publiken uppfattade berättelsen då, när bilden beskurits från det bredare bildformatet till ett kvadratiskt bildformat. Studien undersöker bildformatets förhållande till plattformen Instagram, hur en publik upplever bildformatet och handlingen samt om de upplever någon skillnad på formatet 16:9 jämfört med 1:1. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer med åtta deltagande informanter. Undersökningens resultat visade att den breda versionen i 16:9 uppfattades som mer professionell och cinematisk samt väckte intresse i flödet, medan det kvadratiska formatet 1:1 versionen snarare uppfattades som amatör-lik. Sammanfattningsvis resulterade analysen i att bildformatet 16:9 var bättre lämpad för storytelling-reklamfilm på Instagram

Research in the field of fictional and possible worlds examines the real and its hypothetical counterparts. The interaction between the actual and the fictional is a cause of debate within this field, and includes questions concerning the ontological status of fictional characters and their relation to reality. The following discussion will engage current positions in this debate. These include questions of reference regarding the correlation between fictional characters and actual personalities. Studying the transmedial migration of character properties from fictional worlds into the actual world engages with the possible as dependent on the actual, as well as the influence fiction can have on reality, by demonstrating how individual characters are perceived as packages of properties, some of which we identify and recognize as adaptable to our own behavior. Transmedial migration requires compatibility between different media. Accordingly, it is explained through the direct correspondence of fictional properties to actual properties, and the indirect correspondence of fictional characters to actual people. I am claiming that an interaction can be observed between different media, such as fictional worlds and the actual world, with particular emphasis on the example of fictional characters and their properties. In order to comprehend this we need a robust framework and the model that I am proposing here comprises the essential elements for such a framework. The transmedial migration of character properties from a textual medium, such as a Sherlock Holmes story, into the physical, social medium of the actual world is the action of adapting a fictional character’s package of properties into an actual person’s behavior. The agency of actual people in adapting fictional character properties to their corporal, social actions is what constitutes transmedial migration. This is a specific example of behavioral learning that recognizes certain behavior by the means of a label or trademark that is acquired from a fictional character. It is conceivable that any number of behavioral attributes, such as attitudes or habits, could be scientifically proven to have transmedially migrated by means of experimentation. Nevertheless, culturally and socially, it is only the definite identification of such character properties that substantiates my argument of transmedial migration through adaptation.

Today’s converging entertainment industry creates ‘transmedial’ brand worlds in which consumers are expected to become immersed. Integrated marketing campaigns connected to these worlds encourage various kinds of consumer productivity and invite consumers to partake in brand-building processes. Consumers, thus, are increasingly counted on to act as co-producers of contemporary entertainment. While such an altered consumer identity has been taken as evidence of enhanced consumer agency, it has also been recognized as a source of consumer exploitation.  This thesis aims to further our understanding of the increasingly ambivalent power-relationship that exists between agents in the entertainment industry and their most dedicated customers – the fans. The study employs a multiperspectival theoretical framework, in that cultural studies theory is enriched with perspectives from political economy. This integrated approach to the object of study yields a better understanding of the values of consumer activity, and fan productivity in particular, to industry and consumers respectively. The study applies existing theory on transmedial textuality, branding, and fandom to one particular franchise, Hasbro’s Transformers. This brand world, home of both industrial and fan-based creativity, is studied through analyses of official and unofficial contents, and through interviews with professionals and fans. The focus is on the brand environment established around the first live action film ever made within the franchise. Special attention is given to the all-encompassing film marketing campaign that contributed to forming this environment and to fan productivity taking place in relation to it.  The case study shows that companies and fans contribute to the building and promotion of the Transformers brand world – in collaboration and in conflict. While fan productivity occasionally takes place without direct encouragement from the companies involved, it is also largely anticipated and desired by marketing campaigns. The findings suggest that consumer enjoyment potentially translates into industrial benefits, including free brand promotion. Ultimately, the thesis acknowledges transmedial worlds of entertainment as concurrent sites of pleasure, resistance, and exploitation.

Att musik väcker känslor är nog något som vi alla kan komma överens om. Musiken kan få oss att skratta, gråta, dansa, ja, alla känslouttryck kan skapas genom den. Och kanske är den ultimata låten den som får oss att känna allting på en och samma gång, och får oss att vilja lyssna på den om och om igen. Vissa låtar med tillhörande musikvideos exploderar och får miljoner, för att inte tala om miljarder, klick. Musiken kan ibland bli mer än bara en låt, och folk kan bli sittandes och diskutera dess mening i timtal. Låten This is America, med tillhörande musikvideo, är en sådan. Den här studien redogör för den videons beståndsdelar, hur den anspelar med den nutida politiska kontexten och vad för eko den har skapat till omvärlden. För att ta reda på hur videon blivit så populär författade vi en övergripande frågeställning som löd: “Hur ska vi förstå meningsskapandet i This is America?”. Utifrån vår forskningsöversikt, kunde vi finna att ett popkulturellt fenomens mångtydighet och öppenhet till tolkning, bäddar för dess popularitet. Genom historien finns det även fog för att musik som är sprungen ur utanförskap och som kritiserar samhället, har möjlighet att bli än mer populär. Mot bakgrund av forskningsöversikten bröt vi ner musikvideon This is America i olika delar för att ta reda på dess innebörd och djupliggande meningar, allt för att förstå dess popularitet. Videon, tillsammans med dess låttext, tar upp ämnen såsom vapenfrågan i USA, spåren efter slaveriet och hur mörkhyade personer fortfarande lever i ett förtryck i landet. Videons enorma popularitet beror förmodligen på att de tecken och de ämnen som den tar upp berör väldigt många människor. I princip vem som än tittar på videon kan se något som de känner igen, oavsett om personen är fem år, eller 105. Barnen känner igen danserna från spelet Fortnite, medan de äldre ser figuren Jim Crow som de associerar till segregationen i det tidiga 1900-talets USA. En musikvideo kan säga oss så ohyggligt mycket mer än vad vi, vid första anblick, tror, vilket den här uppsatsen pekar på. Att skänka en extra blick åt den där musikvideon kan ge en inblick i en värld som vi annars inte alltid kan se in i. Den kan öppna dörren och ge en samhällsskildring som få medier skulle kunna presentera. / The fact that music evoke emotions inside us is something that probably all of us are willing to agree on. Music can make us laugh, cry, dance - every possible expression of emotions can be created through it. Perhaps may the ultimate song be the one that make us feel all of these emotions at once, and make us want to listen to it, over and over again. Some songs and music videos blow up and create millions or even billions of views. At times, music can be more than just a song, making people want to sit down and discuss its meaning for hours. The song This is America and its music video is a good example of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore the elements of this particular video, how it alludes with the current political context and the aftermath that have aroused from it. To explore the reason behind the enormous popularity of this video, we composed a comprehensive research question, that goes “How are we to understand the meaning in This is America?”. From the background of our research summary, we were able to find that the ambiguousness and the potential of a wide interpretation of a popular cultural phenomenon, is what lays the ground for its popularity. Through history, it can be said that music, that have been made from alienation, have a possibility of becoming even more popular. With our research summary in hand, we broke down the music video This is America into sections, in order to learn its meaning and signification, and to understand its popularity. The video and its lyrics, brings up subjects such as gun politics in the United States, the remaining traces of slavery, and how people of colour still suffer from oppression. The enormous popularity of the video probably comes from the wide range of subjects and signs that it addresses. Basically anyone who watches it will see something they recognize, regardless of if the person is five or 105 years old. Children recognize the dances from the video game Fortnite, while the elder recognize the character Jim Crow, who they associate with the segregation in the United States in the beginning of the 20th century. A music video can tell us more than we originally think, which is also what this essay points to. If given an additional look, a music video might be able to give an insight to a world that is unknown to us. It may even open the door to provide a portrayal of society that regular media rarely presents.

The purpose of this essay is to explore the connection between the novel adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s and its video game source. As well as questioning how the two sources have developed a unique transmedial symbiosis. This relationship will be explored through the lens of modern adaptation, transmedial storytelling, worldbuilding, and world linking methods. By exploring the games unnatural narrative the transmedial tools and ideas the franchise has been based on can be defined. Through interaction and puzzle-like narrative which invites the player to participate by discussing and theorizing. Which then evolved and expanded further through the creation of the novel trilogy. The novel trilogy creates a transmedial narrative using world linking transmedial methodology to achieve interconnection between the works.

Syftet är att bidra med ökad förståelse kring hur Fridays For Future använder digitala medier samt på vilket sätt de använder det transmediala berättandet för att kommunicera klimatförändringar externt. Kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes med Fridays For Future medlemmar och resulterade i ett material som bearbetades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Den netnografiska observationen resulterade i stor mängd data från Fridays For Future kampanjen #Withdrawthecap som bearbetades genom en kvalitativ dataanalys och med stöd av Gambaratos (2013) analytiska överväganden. Utifrån analys och diskussion av studiens resultat drogs slutsatserna att digitala medier används för mobilisering av strejker. Vidare används digitala medier för att snabbt kunna svara på politikers beslut rörande klimatfrågan. Ytterligare dras slutsatsen att transmedial mobilisering används i kommunikationen. I kampanjen #Withdrawthecap används flertalet beståndsdelar som utgör ett transmedialt berättande vilket visar på att berättandeformen används till viss del för att kommunicera klimatförändringar. / How does the social movement Fridays For Future use digital media when communicating their stance on climate change? The study at hand employs qualitative interviews in order to discern how the organisation use digital media and external transmedia storytelling in their fight for climate preservation. Here, representatives of the organisation are interviewed about strategic decisions taken in regards to organisational digital media use. The collected data was categorized using qualitive content analysis. Additionally, a supplementary netnographic study is featured in which the campaign #Withdrawthecap is examined. The netnographic study resulted in a large amount of data, which was processed through a qualitive data analysis with the support of Gambarato's (2013) analytic considerations. This study unveils the prominence of transmedia mobilization. Furthermore, digital media are used to organize strikes and quickly respond to politicians' decisions regarding the climate issue. The #Withdrawthecap campaign uses most of the elements that defines transmedia storytelling which indicate that the narrative form is used to some extent to communicate climate change.

This master's thesis investigates the transmediations of Astrid Lindgren's Ronja the Robber's Daughter into a feature film by Tage Danielsson and an anime by Goro Miyazaki. Drawing on intermedial theory and analytical method, the analysis explores how the creatures called “murktrolls” and Ronja’s “scream of spring” are portrayed across these media adaptations. The thesis draws on Lars Elleström’s intermedial concepts, specifically the concept of “media transformation”. The analysis reveals how Danielsson condenses the presence of murktrolls, replacing them with “rumphumbs” and “grey dwarfs”, whereas Miyazaki expands the depiction of these mythical creatures. Both adaptations extend the significance of the “scream of spring”. The analysis can point towards a connection between murktrolls and the scream of spring, symbolizing themes of life, identity quest, and inspiration. Ilon Wikland's illustrations serve as pivotal source material, influencing the transmediations. In sum, the study highlights the dynamic interaction between the source and target media products. Kondo's anime images are notably grounded in Wikland's illustrations. By publishing the novel with these new images, that is adding a new version of the novel, the work is enriched, deepening the connection between the anime and the novel. There is also an interaction between the anime and the feature film; many details are transferred from the film to the anime. The thesis demonstrates that each transmediation shapes the overall understanding of the work by accentuating specific details from the novel. The anime and feature film, along with each reading of the novel, collectively reconstruct the narrative. These findings underscore the significance of transmediation, drawing attention to essential themes within the novel.

Miquela är en så kallad ”robot-influencer”, vilket bland annat betyder att ”hon” är en virtuell fiktiv karaktär i ett pågående transmedialt narrativ som upprätthålls av företaget Brud. Eftersom Miquela består av datormodifierade bilder och animationer, ser ”hon” uppenbart overklig ut, vilket kan väcka en uncannyvalley effekt hos betraktaren. Arbetet med uppsatsen grundas i ett intresse av att vilja förstå hur något så synbart overkligt kan uppfattas och accepteras socialt som en aktuell (virtuell) influencer. Syftet är därmed att nå en djupare förståelse för hur Miquela visuellt tar sig i uttryck på Instagram. Således genomförs en kvalitativ bild- och textanalys av material från Miquelas Instagramprofil. Analysen utgår från (social) semiotiska förhållningsätt och fokuserar på hur olika former av kapital yttras. Resultatet visar främst på att Miquela (visuellt och tillsynes) innehar och nyttjar socialt kapital, samt genom att ”hon” uppträder ”vardagligt” enkelt går att relatera till, vilket kan bidra till de parasociala relationer ”hon” har till sina följare. / Miquela is a so-called “robot-influencer”, which means that “she” is a fictional character within a transmedial narrative maintained by the company Brud. Due to Miquela being constructed by computer-generated imagery and animations, it is easy to perceive her appearance as unrealistic, which may cause the uncannyvalley-effect for the viewer. This paper has its foundation in an interest of wanting to understand how something so apparently unrealistic can become social accepted as an actual (virtual) influencer. The purpose is thereby to explore a deeper understanding of how Miquela gets expressed through visual content on Instagram. Hence a qualitative image- and textanalysis will be conducted on material from Miquelas Instagramprofile. The analysis will rely on an (social) semiotic perspective and its focal point will be on how various forms of capital is expressed. The results primarily show how Miquela, visually and seemingly, owns and uses social capital, and that “she” exhibits a relatable “everyday” behavior, which can contribute to the parasocial relationships "she" has with her followers.