Transmedia Storytelling for Social Change: Redefining Racial/Ethnic Identities Through Community-Oriented Initiatives

• In Event: Latino/a and Latin American Representations and Discourses

Abstract

This paper focuses on how racially minoritized groups are actively adapting, resisting, and challenging mainstream media industry practices in a convergence era of spreadable media. Through collaborative, community-based transmedia storytelling, these initiatives foster new critical media literacies and active digital citizenship. This paper uses two case studies to construct a multi-layered, multi-sited narrative that illustrates the larger context of transmedia projects that challenge dominant cultural representation of racial/ethnic minorities and create alternative forms of mediated storytelling that are more inclusive and participatory. It examines community-oriented, grassroots initiatives that use digital new media to amplify their voices and redefine their identities in a multicultural, transmedia context. Specifically, it analyses how a fictional web-based drama series (East Los High) and a transmedia participatory art initiative (Question Bridge) achieve inclusive digital participation and critical new media literacies in a spreadable convergence culture.

Author

• Srividya Ramasubramanian, Texas A and M U