Pretend that it is real!: Convergence Culture in Practice

Media convergence has mainly been defined and explained as a technological and industrial phenomenon; as the process where new technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and their cultures of production. One consequence of convergence in today’s hybrid media landscape is that the previously distinct borders between production and consumption have become blurred. This means that convergence also takes place as a bottom-up social process initiated by media users that move almost anywhere and everywhere in search of entertainment experiences of their liking. This thesis sheds light on the different types of media convergence that took place in the process of making the transmedia storytelling production Sanningen om Marika. The Swedish public service provider, SVT, and the pervasive games upstart company, The company P, combined their expertise in broadcasting and games development to craft this ‘participation drama’. During five months in 2007, the production offered Swedes nationwide rich possibilities to interact and participate, or just to watch or lurk on the production’s various platforms. Using an ethnographic approach, field studies were conducted throughout the design, implementation and production phases. The analysis shows that even if instances of convergence could be identified, the collaboration did not proceed smoothly. The companies’ different media logics with their differing cultures of production created tensions and frictions. The different logics of television, internet and games - different in quality demands and with different audience participation models - made it difficult to create a hybrid production. Television genres blurred fiction and facts, and the ordinary was blurred with activities of games and play in the production, making the audience reception and interpretations differ extensively. Lastly, the designed audience participation did not remove the asymmetrical relationship between producers and users in media, but instead highlighted issues of hierarchies, lack of participant empowerment and inequality between participants

Broadcast Culture Meets Role-Playing Culture: Consequences for Audience Participation in a Cross-Media Production.

A changed media landscape challenges public service broadcast companies to search for new ways to get lost audience groups back and to attract new and/or younger audiences. One common remedy is to make more ‘interactive’ media productions, where the audience can take more active part in various parts of the production. Lack of financial resources and competition in the media field furthermore forces public service media to search for new partners. The production Sanningen om Marika (The Truth About Marika) is one of a very small number of experiments to marry traditional broadcast culture with the participation culture fostered in the Nordic countries, primarily within the live action role-playing community. Swedish television (SVT) collaborated with The company P, a competent actor in the field of pervasive games. Together they designed and produced a trans reality multiplatform media production during 2006 and 2007. One of the aims with Sanningen om Marika was to involve the audience in new ways using broadcasted television and radio, the Internet, mobile applications and a fictional universe that blurred fiction and reality. The result was a spectacular and controversial production offering online and live action role-playing experiences in parallel with traditional TV viewing. Through participatory studies, interviews with participants as well as organizers, and an online survey I am in the process of creating a picture of how this production came about, what its aims were, and how this came through in the final result. The results show that the differing production cultures and methods created conflicts with implications for the possibilities for the audience to interact in the production partly due to the differing views -mental concepts - of the audience. The broadcaster used processes and methods that resulted in ‘interaction for spectators’ while the games company created more, and different possibilities, for the audience to participate – ‘co production with participants’

Pretend that it is Real! Convergence Culture in Practice

Mediekonvergens definieras och förklaras oftast som en teknisk och industriell företeelse, som den process där ny teknik anpassas till den befintliga medieindustrin och dess produktionskulturer. I dagens hybrida medielandskap kan mediekonvergens också beskrivas som den sociala process och de aktiviteter som medieanvändare deltar i när de rör sig mellan olika medier i jakt på underhållning och erfarenheter. Mediekonvergens kan alltså bättre förklaras som en dubbelriktad process där de tidigare tydliga gränserna mellan produktion och konsumtion suddas ut. Avhandlingen behandlar den transmediala berättarproduktionen Sanningen om Marika och belyser flera av de olika typer av mediekonvergens som ägde rum i produktionen. I skapandet av detta s.k. deltagardrama kombinerade Sveriges Television, och det nystartade spelutvecklarföretaget The company P, sin expertis i teve- och spelproduktion. Under fem månader 2007 erbjöds Den svenska publiken kunde under 2007 delta i produktionens varierande aktiviteter, från tevetittande, webbaktiviteter i chattar och forum till deltagande i gatuspelsaktiviteter. Studien genomfördes med etnografiska fältstudier under produktionens design-, produktions- och implementationsfas. Analysen visar att, trots att företagens samarbete resulterade i olika former av konvergens, problem uppstod. Företagens olika medielogiker och dess skilda produktionskulturer skapade spänningar och friktion. De olika logiker och de kvalitetskrav som TV, internet och spel har försvårade skapandet av den hybrida produktionen, bl.a. användes olika metoder för publikens deltagande. Dessutom suddade de olika TV-genrerna som användes ut gränsen mellan fiktion och fakta. Spelaktiviteterna designades för att överbrygga skillnaden mellan fakta och dikt, bl.a. för att förstärka deltagarnas upplevelser. Analysen av deltagarnas upplevelser visar att deras uppfattningar och tolkningar skilde sig mycket åt. Vissa förstod att produktionen var fiktion, andra trodde att de deltog i ett verkligt sökande efter en försvunnen person. Slutligen konstateras att producenternas målsättning för deltagande och initiativtagande inte helt lyckades. Den asymmetriska relationen mellan medieproducenter och medieanvändare som alltid finns, underströk frågor om hierarkier, brist på deltagarens egenmakt och ojämlikhet mellan aktörerna.Media convergence has mainly been defined and explained as a technological and industrial phenomenon; as the process where new technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and their cultures of production. One consequence of convergence in today’s hybrid media landscape is that the previously distinct borders between production and consumption have become blurred. This means that convergence also takes place as a bottom-up social process initiated by media users that move almost anywhere and everywhere in search of entertainment experiences of their liking. This thesis sheds light on the different types of media convergence that took place in the process of making the transmedia storytelling production Sanningen om Marika. The Swedish public service provider, SVT, and the pervasive games upstart company, The company P, combined their expertise in broadcasting and games development to craft this ‘participation drama’. During five months in 2007, the production offered Swedes nationwide rich possibilities to interact and participate, or just to watch or lurk on the production’s various platforms. Using an ethnographic approach, field studies were conducted throughout the design, implementation and production phases. The analysis shows that even if instances of convergence could be identified, the collaboration did not proceed smoothly. The companies’ different media logics with their differing cultures of production created tensions and frictions. The different logics of television, internet and games - different in quality demands and with different audience participation models - made it difficult to create a hybrid production. Television genres blurred fiction and facts, and the ordinary was blurred with activities of games and play in the production, making the audience reception and interpretations differ extensively. Lastly, the designed audience participation did not remove the asymmetrical relationship between producers and users in media, but instead highlighted issues of hierarchies, lack of participant empowerment and inequality between participants

Pretend that it is Real! Convergence Culture in Practice

Mediekonvergens definieras och förklaras oftast som en teknisk och industriell företeelse, som den process där ny teknik anpassas till den befintliga medieindustrin och dess produktionskulturer. I dagens hybrida medielandskap kan mediekonvergens också beskrivas som den sociala process och de aktiviteter som medieanvändare deltar i när de rör sig mellan olika medier i jakt på underhållning och erfarenheter. Mediekonvergens kan alltså bättre förklaras som en dubbelriktad process där de tidigare tydliga gränserna mellan produktion och konsumtion suddas ut. Avhandlingen behandlar den transmediala berättarproduktionen Sanningen om Marika och belyser flera av de olika typer av mediekonvergens som ägde rum i produktionen. I skapandet av detta s.k. deltagardrama kombinerade Sveriges Television, och det nystartade spelutvecklarföretaget The company P, sin expertis i teve- och spelproduktion. Under fem månader 2007 erbjöds Den svenska publiken kunde under 2007 delta i produktionens varierande aktiviteter, från tevetittande, webbaktiviteter i chattar och forum till deltagande i gatuspelsaktiviteter. Studien genomfördes med etnografiska fältstudier under produktionens design-, produktions- och implementationsfas. Analysen visar att, trots att företagens samarbete resulterade i olika former av konvergens, problem uppstod. Företagens olika medielogiker och dess skilda produktionskulturer skapade spänningar och friktion. De olika logiker och de kvalitetskrav som TV, internet och spel har försvårade skapandet av den hybrida produktionen, bl.a. användes olika metoder för publikens deltagande. Dessutom suddade de olika TV-genrerna som användes ut gränsen mellan fiktion och fakta. Spelaktiviteterna designades för att överbrygga skillnaden mellan fakta och dikt, bl.a. för att förstärka deltagarnas upplevelser. Analysen av deltagarnas upplevelser visar att deras uppfattningar och tolkningar skilde sig mycket åt. Vissa förstod att produktionen var fiktion, andra trodde att de deltog i ett verkligt sökande efter en försvunnen person. Slutligen konstateras att producenternas målsättning för deltagande och initiativtagande inte helt lyckades. Den asymmetriska relationen mellan medieproducenter och medieanvändare som alltid finns, underströk frågor om hierarkier, brist på deltagarens egenmakt och ojämlikhet mellan aktörerna.Media convergence has mainly been defined and explained as a technological and industrial phenomenon; as the process where new technologies are accommodated by existing media and communication industries and their cultures of production. One consequence of convergence in today’s hybrid media landscape is that the previously distinct borders between production and consumption have become blurred. This means that convergence also takes place as a bottom-up social process initiated by media users that move almost anywhere and everywhere in search of entertainment experiences of their liking. This thesis sheds light on the different types of media convergence that took place in the process of making the transmedia storytelling production Sanningen om Marika. The Swedish public service provider, SVT, and the pervasive games upstart company, The company P, combined their expertise in broadcasting and games development to craft this ‘participation drama’. During five months in 2007, the production offered Swedes nationwide rich possibilities to interact and participate, or just to watch or lurk on the production’s various platforms. Using an ethnographic approach, field studies were conducted throughout the design, implementation and production phases. The analysis shows that even if instances of convergence could be identified, the collaboration did not proceed smoothly. The companies’ different media logics with their differing cultures of production created tensions and frictions. The different logics of television, internet and games - different in quality demands and with different audience participation models - made it difficult to create a hybrid production. Television genres blurred fiction and facts, and the ordinary was blurred with activities of games and play in the production, making the audience reception and interpretations differ extensively. Lastly, the designed audience participation did not remove the asymmetrical relationship between producers and users in media, but instead highlighted issues of hierarchies, lack of participant empowerment and inequality between participants

Broadcast culture meets role-playing culture

The production "Sanningen om Marika" is a rare example of a production that combines traditional broadcast culture with the participative culture fostered primarily within the larp community in the Nordic countries. Swedish television collaborated with The Company P to produce this alternate reality multiplatform media production. The result was a spectacular and controversial production offering online and live action role-playing experiences in parallel with traditional TV drama. This article focuses on the differences between the production cultures of two companies, and how it affected the experience they produced together