ABSTRACT
The academic discipline of media studies provides relevant tools for exploring the significance of how picturebooks relate to a larger and more complex textual universe. This chapter explores the interconnections between picturebook studies and the larger world of media studies. It addresses issues arising from four categories of mass media that are agreed upon by many scholars, although their labels sometimes differ: print, recording, broadcasting, and new media. To explore how picturebooks relate to this complex matrix, the theoretical perspectives and terminology may prove useful. "Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience". A media studies framework will do more than simply look at questions of production and audiences in relation to picturebooks. It will investigate the networks of associations between picturebooks and other related texts.
