Transmedia Storytelling in the Harry Potter series

Since the release of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in 1997 in the UK, a massive fan base has been built around the fictional world of the eponymous young wizard. After the book came out in the US in August 1998, people even began to speak about ‘Pottermania’, which describes the craze Harry Potter fans experienced with the series. J.K. Rowling, the author of the series, ended up writing seven Harry Potter books, that have been made into eight movies by Warner Bros. Over the years, however, these books and films have not been the only way in which fans could get a glimpse of the fictional world at Hogwarts. Within the media industries, the use of various media platforms to tell a story is called ‘transmedia storytelling’. This means that each media text offers unique narrative contributions to the franchise as a whole, but can also function as a satisfying experience on its own.[1] In this essay, we will examine the way in which transmedia storytelling is used in the Harry Potter franchise. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at the Pottermore website and shine a critical light on its function: what happens when all kinds of different transmedia texts, like games, books and forums, are combined on one website? Should J.K. Rowling, to put it in Cuntz-Lengs words, Potterless?[2]

Nowadays, the Harry Potter franchise includes a multitude of products: besides the (audio) books and movies, there are DVDs with additional content, computer games, fan websites, the theme park The Wizard World of Harry Potter, two museums, numerous amounts of merchandise products like Harry Potter LEGO, radio shows and podcasts and even a music genre called ‘Wizard Rock’.[3] In 2011, the author herself launched a website called Pottermore: a Harry Potter online world that allows readers to travel virtually through the first Harry Potter book, play games and interact with other fans and encounter extra material and explanations of key characters, places and plots.[4]

According to Smith, a fictional world simply cannot be exhausted within one medium. When all the narrative pieces from different media are placed together, the result is a fuller understanding of the story world at large.[5] This kind of storytelling, in which different parts of the story are found in different media, encourages fans to dig into and contribute to a complex story world.[6] This possibility to dig deeper into a story is called ‘drillability’, which has the powerful effect of sustaining a long term, loyal fan base, that puts a lot of energy in parsing out the complexities of the story.[7] Furthermore, in order to sustain a loyal fan base, it is important to motivate fans to circulate content according to their own interpretations, uses and social relations[8], so they will feel connected and attached to the story. This is called ‘spreadability’. In the article of Edmond, the importance of spreadable media is highlighted as well: according to Henry Jenkins, professor at the University of Southern California, spreadable texts are defined by ‘good, compelling content’ and a textual openness that encourages remixing.[9] Furthermore, the article states that the ‘on-demand nature of Internet browsing’[10], has made it much easier for audiences to find, interact and spread content than ever before.

Looking at the multiple Harry Potter related media texts and products that are circulating in the virtual as well as in the physical world, it seems that the transmedia storytelling strategy is used well: the audience is able to interact and participate via forums and (online and offline) games, is given the possibility to dig deeper because of the multiple media texts that are circulating and because of ‘real’ spaces like the theme park, characters from the story can crossover from the physical to the virtual space and vice versa, in order to tell even more immersive stories.[11]

A segment of the Harry Potter transmedia storytelling we would like to drill a bit deeper, is the Pottermore website, which J.K. Rowling herself launched in 2011. Pottermore simultaneously provides its users with an interactive literary, audio-visual, gaming, and social experience and therefore tries to unite different media within one virtual space. The question, of course, is whether or not this homogenized space heightens the transmedia experience, not only in quantitative, but also in qualitative terms. Opinions about this topic are divided. Whereas some scholars, like Nick Clayton, argue that ‘J.K. Rowling with pottemore.com is playing a vital role in the development of what is called transmedia storytelling’ [12], others, like Henry Jenkins and Vera Cuntz-Leng, seem to disagree. Jenkins believes that in the compulsive attempt to combine the advantages of different media, Pottermore fails to function properly either as a literary text, as an audio-visual text, as gaming, or as a social experience and may prevent each medium from doing what it does best. The different media in Pottermore often constrain each other rather than maintaining their particular qualities.[13] According to Cuntz-Leng, a more organic intertwining of the different media, a true understanding of the transmedia concept in general, and the placement of the user instead of the author as the focus of consideration would be necessary.[14] The emphasis on the audience participation is in line with the article of Smith, in which he argues that it is important for fans to participate and act like ‘prosumers’, in order to feel a real sense of participation within the story world.[15]

In this essay we looked at some examples of how the Harry Potter franchise makes use of transmedia storytelling, in order to create a sustainable fan base by giving their fans the opportunity to dig into and spread the story of Harry Potter. We analyzed the way Rowling tries to control the different media stories by way of Pottermore, which doesn’t seem to be as successful as she initially hoped. In conclusion one could say that, in order to successfully use the strategy of transmedia storytelling, the audience needs to be able to choose freely which media texts they want to consume.[16]  Like Cuntz-Leng argues, the different media should intertwine more organically and the audience should not metaphorically drown in the plethora of content that is offered.[17] The interaction and convergence of different media is most effective if they interact with each other on their own unique basis, without becoming too entangled, so that they don’t asphyxiate each other. 
 

Proposition
Is the convergence of different media most effective if they interact with each other on their own unique basis, without becoming too entangled?

 

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[1] Smith, 2011: 13.

[2] Cuntz-Leng, 2013: 68.

[3] Cuntz-Leng, 2013: 68.

[4] Cupaiuolo, 2011: xx.

[5] Smith, 2011: 13.

[6]  Smith, 2011: 7.

[7] Smith, 2011: 13.

[8] Jenkins in Smith, 2011: 6-7.

[9] Jenkins in Edmond, 2012: 315.

[10] Edmond, 2012: 311.

[11] Smith, 2011: 18.

[12] Clayton, 2011: xx.

[13] Jenkins in Cuntz-Leng, 2013: 70.

[14] Cuntz-Leng, 2012: 75.

[15] Smith, 2011: 17.

[16] Smith, 2011: 14.

[17] Cuntz-Leng, 2012: 75.

References

Clayton, N. (2011) ‘Harry Potter and the Art of Transmedia Storytelling’, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved from: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/07/29/harry-potter-and-the-art-of-transmedia-storytelling/

Cuntz-Leng, V. (2013) ‘Potterless: Pottermore and the Pitfalls of Transmedia Storytelling’, in: S. Bowman & A. Vanek (eds.), Wyrd Con Companion Book. Mountain View: Wyrd Con, pp. 68-76.

Cupaiuolo, C. (2011) ‘The Pottermore Effect on Ebooks and Transmedia Storytelling’. Spotlight Digital Media and Learning. Retrieved from: http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/the-pottermore-effect-on-ebooks-and-transmedia-storytelling/

Edmond, M. (2014) ‘Here We Go Again: Music Videos after YouTube’, in: Television & New Media, 15 (4), pp. 305-320.

Pottermore [website]. Retrieved from: www.pottermore.com

Smith, A. (2011) ‘Beyond the Brick: Narrativizing LEGO in the Digital Age’ (paper presented at the seventh Media in Transition conference in Boston).