[ecrea] Call for applications: TRANSMEDIA USE(R)S - 20th International Summer School in Cultural Studies

TRANSMEDIA USE(R)S
20th INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL IN CULTURAL STUDIES
University of Jyväskylä, Finland, 13.−15.6.2016
Society for Cultural Studies in Finland and the Research Center for 
Contemporary Culture

Deadline for applications: Tuesday, March 15

Transmedia storytelling refers to the increasingly popular way of 
delivering media content over a combination of media platforms. Cinema, 
games, tv series, novels, webisodes, podcasts, comics, fan fiction and 
many other media forms all come together in creating a rich, fictional 
storyworld. The best known transmedia productions are science fiction 
and fantasy, such as The Lord of the Rings and the Star Wars sagas, but 
there are many examples in other genres as well, eg. the franchise built 
around the tv series 24. It is of great importance that 
transmedialisation is also taking place in the children and youth 
oriented media, which is paving way for new practices in media use. 
There is much to do to gain a better understanding of transmedia 
audiences on the basic level of reception. How do people make sense of 
the transmedia stories, what are their strategies in covering the 
multi-platform distribution, and how does the media interweave with 
everyday practices?

Transmedia storytelling relies on active, participatory audiences which 
feed the fictional universe with their own creations such as fan art, 
machinima, game modifications etc. Participatory culture has been seen 
as a characteristic of devoted fandom only, but social media practices 
of creating, sharing, commenting and circulating content have 
contributed to increasingly making participatory culture a part of media 
use for larger audiences as well. The rich cross-fertilization of 
transmedia storytelling and participatory culture provide an important 
field for cultural and media research. A new kind of media literacy has 
been developing especially within the fan communities, and this should 
be put in use in media education as well.

Transmediality and transmedia storytelling are inherently 
multidisciplinary phenomena. They may be approached through various 
perspectives, such as narratology, semiotics, fandom research, 
communication studies, game studies, reception studies, economics and 
media production etc. Most of the transmedia related research so far has 
been basic research aiming at conceptualizing the central 
characteristics of the phenomenon. Research has mainly focused on the 
transmedia stories and worlds, not so much on the user practices.

This Summer School in Cultural Studies takes as its starting point the 
fact that our understanding of transmedia users and uses is badly 
incomplete. In the Summer School, the attention will be focused on such 
questions as: How do people make meaning out of transmedia 
storytelling?, What kind of strategies the users have in covering the 
various elements of transmedia wholes?, How do people interpret fictive 
multimodal transmedia stories? Also wider questions are taken into 
consideration: What is the role and significance of transmedia 
storytelling in contemporary media landscape? How do people allocate 
their time between different media forms?, What are the best tools and 
methods when conducting research on transmedia use? The user generated 
content has its own field of problematics and critical standpoints, 
related to immaterial property rights, the redefinition of authorship, 
the limits of modification etc.

The Summer School addresses transmedia users and uses through lectures 
and seminar presentations, based on the latest research. Three 
acknowledged experts serve as teachers, and they  will deliver open 
lectures on the topic, and provide commentary and feedback to the 
student papers presented. The Summer School is a three-day intensive 
period of supervising doctoral candidates and discussing research 
projects in a multidisciplinary group, within the joint framework of 
cultural studies in a broad sense of the term.

All papers will be commented upon, and discussed by the distinguished 
Summer School teachers:

Assistant Professor Elizabeth Evans (University of Nottingham, Film and 
Television Studies, Faculty of Arts). She is primarily interested in the 
relationship between technology and the experience of narrative. Her 
research focuses on film and television audiences, in particular in 
relation to the development of cross-platform narrative forms. She is 
concerned with issues such as interactivity, agency and immersion. Her 
first book, Transmedia Television (2011), explores the attitudes, 
opinions and values of audiences towards the development of the internet 
and mobile phone as extensions and alternatives to the television set.

Associate Professor Lisbeth Klastrup (IT University of Copenhagen, 
Digital Communication and Culture Research Group). Her research mainly 
focuses on digital cultures and user-generated content, with a 
particular interest in mundane social media uses. She is about to 
publish an introductory book on Social Network Media (March 2016). One 
of her interests is studies of and theory on transmedial worlds, and she 
is known for the development of the concept ‘transmedial worlds’ in 
several articles (together with Susana Tosca). Klastrup is currently 
heading a research project related to the use of social media during the 
2015 Danish parliamentary election campaign.

Professor Raine Koskimaa (University of Jyväskylä, Department of Art 
and Culture Studies) directs the Research Center for Contemporary 
Culture. He conducts research in the fields of digital textuality, 
programmable media, and game studies. Koskimaa has published widely 
around the issues of digital literature, game studies, and narratology, 
and his writings have been translated to several languages. He is the 
co-founder and co-editor of the Cybertext Yearbook. Currently Koskimaa 
directs two research projects, “Ludification and the Emergence of 
Playful Culture” and “Transmedia Literacy: An International 
Comparative Study”.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send your application by Tuesday, March 15 to
minna.m.nerg[at]jyu.fi
Or by post to
Kulttuurintutkimuksen seura, PL 35, 40014 Jyväskylän yliopisto
Society for Cultural Studies in Finland, P.O. Box 35, FI-40014 
University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Your application should include
1. An abstract of 500 words, based on the paper you will be presenting.
2. A short presentation of yourself and your research topic with its 
theoretical orientation, methods, and materials.

The applicants will be notified of the decision by Thursday, March 31.

Deadline for papers is June 1. Length of the papers is 10−15 pages. 
More information on them will be sent out later.
There is a participation fee of 90 EUR per person. Fee covers coffee/tea 
and snacks during the seminar.

For more information e-mail minna.m.nerg[at]jyu.fi, phone +358 (0)50 599 
8842 or visit http://kultut.fi.

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