Emma Approved: transmedia, social media platforms and interactive storytelling

Transmedia (Jenkins, 2006) proves to be a strategic resource for microproductions (Bernardo, 2014) and independent productions (Negri, 2018), given the distribution possibilities offered by social media platforms. These platforms are aimed specifically at young audiences, making them the first explorers of transmedia worlds. The production and distribution models of these types of transmedia projects use the platforms logic (Van Dijk, Poel, de Waal, 2018), which influence, with their own affordances (Hutchby, 2001; Schrock, 2015), the creation of content itself, and the interaction of users with products, through the transmedia interface (Ciammella, Ciofalo, Leonzi, 2019). In this work we want to understand how social media platforms are used for the creation of transmedia storytelling microprojects. This paper presents the analysis of the webseries Emma Approved (YouTube, 2013-2014). Produced by a small company, it managed to win the Emmy award for Best Interactive Program thanks to an innovative transmedia strategy and strong fan interaction. This strategy often blurred the lines between the real and fictional worlds, and this transfer increased as the show progressed. A content analysis was carried out (Krippendorff, 2018) to define the transmedia storyworld of the series, created by adapting Jane Austen’s novel through a visualization process (Wolf, 2014). The social platforms chosen for the distribution of the content (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) are crucial as an entry point to the story. The transition from primary to secondary world becomes an element of the narrative itself, allowing a greater interaction between the users and the elements of the storyworld (Ryan, 2014). A careful analysis of all these media platforms allows us to interpret the storytelling and transmedia configuration of the project which, during its eight months on air, created a complete world and managed to connect it with previous shows by the same production company. In addition, indepth interviews were conducted with the creator, screenwriter and transmedia producer of the series, in order to reconstruct the creative, decisionmaking and management processes that fostered audience engagement and interactive storytelling. What emerges is a construction of interactive storytelling based on the framework given by social media. The transmedia dimension allowed users, and content, to migrate between the various platforms. Viewers of the show were native to social media platforms, and could easily decipher the different registers each medium presented.