ABSTRACT

This book offers a new, interdisciplinary model for understanding audience engagement as a type of behaviour, a form of response and a cost to audiences that, combined, offer value to the screen industries.

Audience ‘engagement’ has become the key priority of the screen industries. Understanding Engagement in Transmedia Culture explicitly asks what audiences and screen practitioners mean when they say content is ‘engaging’ and uses audience focus groups and practitioner interviews to offer a model for understanding the relationship between the screen industry, the content it produces and its audiences. In particular, the model addresses engagement within transmedia culture. As digital screen technologies proliferate, audiences move seamlessly across and between different devices, content formats and distribution platforms, blurring the boundaries between film, television and videogames. This book offers a way of understanding audience engagement that is not restricted to a single media but instead accounts for and adapts to the various ways in which screen content is experienced.

Offering a unique approach by presenting practitioner and audience perspectives, it is perfect for students and scholars working in film and television studies, as well as media industries and audience studies.

chapter |17 pages

Introduction

What’s in a word?

chapter 1|32 pages

Understanding Engagement as Transmedia

chapter 2|26 pages

Conversation vs Captivation

The type of engagement

chapter 3|26 pages

Affect and Affection

The form of engagement

chapter 4|24 pages

Calculating the Cost

The cognitive and contextual work of engagement

chapter 5|24 pages

Engagement that’s Worth It

Valuing engagement as economic and discursive commodity

chapter 6|23 pages

The Temporal Dynamics of Engagement

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion