In an age where the distribution and sharing of content across multiple platforms is increasingly accessible – and the attention span of audiences even more divided as a result – transmediality has become a key strategy for engaging audiences across media. Much has been written about the role of transmediality in a Hollywood context, with scholars defining forms of transmedia intertextuality (Kinder 1991), transmedia storytelling (Jenkins 2006; Evans 2011) and transmedia storyworlds (Scolari 2009; Wolf 2012), with others exploring the related roles of transmedia fans (Hills 2015; Booth 2016) and models of transmedia brand advertising (Tenderich 2015; Freeman 2016). And yet different countries, cultures and peoples around the globe are now beginning to define increasing uses for transmediality, adapting this phenomenon in unique ways to different cultures, communities, businesses and industries – be it in sectors of film, television, publishing, journalism, leisure, radio and beyond, emerging in cultural arenas as diverse as creative writing, museums, apps, virtual reality, activism and education.

With this in mind, the Transmedia Earth Conference aims to internationalise both the study and the practice of transmediality by providing a global platform for showcasing and exploring the many manifestations of contemporary and historical transmediality around the world. The conference benefits from a network of international partner institutions, formed via The Global Academy of Liberal Arts at Bath Spa University. Transmedia Earth is a formal collaboration between the Media Convergence Research Centre at Bath Spa University, the Department of Social Communication at EAFIT University, the Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community at Bournemouth University, and the Konekto Research Group at the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia.

The inaugural conference – hosted by EAFIT University in Colombia – seeks to map emerging understandings of transmediality and global convergence cultures. It will run alongside The International Web Series Festival of Medellin (FIS-MED), the first space in Colombia dedicated to the recognition, dissemination and award of serial and transmedia productions made for the web and digital devices. We are interested in hearing from both scholars and practitioners about research that examines emerging contexts and meanings of transmediality as well as from interested parties about cutting-edge social and technological shifts related to media convergences. We invite proposals for formal presentations and performative, digital or video based works. Proposal topics may address, but are not limited to:

• Transmedia storytelling and writing
• Transmedia branding and marketing
• Transmedia distribution and activism
• Transmedia apps and online games
• Transmedia web series and mobile devices
• Transmedia audiences and fandom
• Transmedia politics and education
• Transmedia heritage and leisure spaces
• Transmedia documentary and non-fiction
• Transmediality as a transnational phenomenon
  

Please send proposals (300 words) along with a short biography to the conference coordinators: Matthew Freeman ([log in to unmask]), William Proctor ([log in to unmask]), Mauricio Vásquez ([log in to unmask]) and Camilo Andrés Tamayo Gómez ([log in to unmask]) by no later than 31 March 2017.

The spoken languages for the conference will be English and Spanish, with translation facilities provided.

Conference website: http://the-transmedia-earth-conference.webflow.io/