Utilizing Digital Media to Build Transmedia narratives for Children

Transmedia storytelling, or dispersion of a narrative across multiple media channels, is becoming increasingly popular in the entertainment industry as a consequence of media corporations investing across various media industries. Due to the multilayered nature of such storytelling, audiences are required to possess advanced media literacy skills, making it difficult to produce transmedia stories for children who have yet to develop such skills. This study conducts a data analysis of children's media content consumption habits and combines it with four case study analyses of existing and successful children's transmedia franchises in order to identify practices and patterns in producing transmedia stories suitable for children between the ages of 6 and 11. The most important features of successful transmedia stories for children are the ability to generate high levels of engagement across media channels and keep audiences engaged past their childhood by producing content that appeals to audiences even after they age out of the target demographic as well as creating points of entry into the story where no one point of entry is privileged over others in terms of accessibility to the narrative.