1. Cross media experiences
from X factor to Harry Potter
© 2012. Kjetil Sandvik, associate professor, Media, Cognition and
Communication, University of Copenhagen

2. Cross media communication
• Collaborative interplay between different
media
• Each media playing its specific role and
delivering its part of the overall story
• Putting to play the specific strengths of
each media (the media does what it does
best!)

3. Cross media communication
• It is about getting through to the user
• It is about giving the user a broader and
richer media experience
• It is about giving the user the possibility to
get engaged and to be involved in the
media experience on different levels and
to various degrees
• It is about giving the user the possibility for
participation and co-creation.

4. The elements of the media
cirquit (John Fiske 1987)
• the primary text (the movie/tv-series)
• the secondary text (pr/marketing,
background material, bonus material:
surrounding the primary text)
• the tertiary text (the user’s own texts: are
produced on the background of the
primary and secondary text)
• Cross media productions (and their
new media cirquits) changes this
hierarchy

5. New media cirquits
• Cross media production:
• Connects primary, secondary and tertiary
texts into one common media text
• Embeds possibilities for participation
• Uses several communication matrixes:
• One-to-many (the TV show in itself)
• One-to-one (chats)
• Many-to-many (debate forums, quizzes, games…)
• One-to-one-as-group (communities on e.g. FB)
• Attempt to create a sense of belonging in
the user based on identification AND
interaction

6. Convergence culture
• This circulation of media content - across
different media systems, competing media
economies, and national borders - depends
heavily on consumer's active participation.
• Convergence should NOT be understood
primarily as a technological process bringing
together multiple media functions within the
same devices.
• Instead, convergence represents a cultural
shift as consumers are encouraged to seek
out new information and make connections
among dispersed media content.
» Henry Jenkins

7. Cross media experiences
• Experience through
• engagement and identification
• participation
• collaboration
• co-creation
• Two types of cross media experience
• Experience + (the augmentation of experience of
one specific media by implementing other media in
the communication-structure, e.g. a website to a
TV-show)
• Experience universe (interplay between different
media: e.g. book, movies, games)

8. Experience +
X factor

9. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background materials
about participants, their reactions to the judges and so on: extends the
possibility for engagement and interaction and introduces a possibility
for participation (guestbooks, chats, blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the users’
own networks

10. There can only be one
winner…
10

11. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first
two seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background materials
about participants, their reactions to the judges and so on: extends the
possibility for engagement and interaction and introduces a possibility
for participation (guestbooks, chats, blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the users’
own networks

12. The good… …the bad…
…and the crybaby

13. 13

14. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background materials
about participants, their reactions to the judges and so on: extends the
possibility for engagement and interaction and introduces a possibility
for participation (guestbooks, chats, blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the users’
own networks

15. The Outsider taking the prize
15

16. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears,
tears and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background materials
about participants, their reactions to the judges and so on: extends the
possibility for engagement and interaction and introduces a possibility
for participation (guestbooks, chats, blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the users’
own networks

19. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background
materials about participants, their reactions to the judges and so
on: extends the possibility for engagement and interaction and
introduces a possibility for participation (guestbooks, chats,
blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the users’
own networks

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22

23. 23

24. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background materials
about participants, their reactions to the judges and so on: extends the
possibility for engagement and interaction and introduces a possibility
for participation (guestbooks, chats, blogs…)
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the
users’ own networks: RSS-feeds, apps for mobile phone,
Facebook profile, Twitter profile.

25. 25

26. 26

27. 27

28. 28

29. 29

30. 30

31. Live integration of
social media during
shows
31

32. Second Screen
32

33. Engagement and identification
• The use of the TV media’s strenghts: ‘Storytelling classic’
to create emotional intensification
– A dramatic plot: the contest-format
– The use of classical dramatic agents (most prominent in the first two
seasons of the show): the good vs. the bad
– Use of personal and emotionally loaded stories
– Use of emotionally manipulative editing: production of ’magic
moments’ (the Poul Potts-trick!): close-ups, cross-editing, tears, tears
and more tears…
– Website: augmentary media with a surplus of background
materials about participants, their reactions to the judges and so
on: extends the possibility for engagement and interaction and
Storytelling 2.0
introduces a possibility for participation (guestbooks, chats,
blogs…) - participation
– Web 2.0: connecting and spreading the experience through the
- co-creation
users’ own networks: RSS-feeds, apps for mobile phone,
Facebook profile, Twitter profile.

34. X factor cross media
Other media
experience+
May not be (fully) controlled Other DR
radio and TV
shows
Website Backstage TV-show
Aftenshowet
Updates: Mobile phone
RSS, app,
FB, Twitter
Live events
Viewers
DR blogs
+ Aftenshowet’s and other
Red arrows = participation and co-creation DR TV and radio shows’ website

35. X factor is more than just at TV
show
• As a media event X-factor transgresses its
boundaries as a stand-alone TV show
• It invites the viewer not just to a TV
experience but to become a participant in a
collective course of events
• The viewer can get involved, participate and
have influence on several levels
• And different media play specific – and
coordinated – roles according to their
strengths in creating this cross media
experience.

36. Experience universe
Harry Potter

37. Rich media experience
• The cross-media story about Harry Potter is not
told by one single media which the other media
relates to in a hierarchical sense.
• Although it all starts with the novels of J.K.
Rowlings, the movies based on the novels can be
seen quite independent of the novels.
• And the games (primarily) based on the movies,
may also be played quite independently.
• As such the cross-media structure of Harry Potter
as an experience universe consists of 7 books, 7
movies and 7 games in three interconnected
series each dealing with the same narrative across
the 3 media – a year in the life of Harry Potter at
the Hogwarts school of sorcery.

38. Rich media experience
• The possibility for engagement and
participation is ensured by the
implementation of websites related to each
novel/movie/game.
• The experience is richened by the
existence of websites (J.K. Rowling’s own
Potter-site, various fansites etc.), books
and games relating to the entire Harry
Potter-universe across the 7-year episodic
plot-structure etc.

50. JK Books based Games based on
Fansites, fx on the entire
Rowlings the entire Merchan
Harry Potter universe, e.g. universe, e.g.
official -dise
Fan Zone Quidditch LEGO Harry
website
throuout times Potter Years 1-4
The entire Harry Potter universe
Book series Film series Game series
Harry Potter Harry Potter Harry Potter
and the and the and the
Sorcerers Sorcerers Sorcerers
Stone Stone Stone
(book) (movie) (game)
Website Website Website
User

51. Experience universe
• As a cross-media production Harry Potter
produces not just an augmentation of the
experience of a specific media.
• It creates an experience universe in which the
user is offered a cross media experience in
words, moving pictures and interactive action.
• Storytelling classic: novels, movies
• Storytelling 2.0 (participation): computer games,
playable merchandise (e.g. LEGO), interactive
features on official websites (e.g. jkrowling.com)
• Storytelling 2.0 (co-creation): fan-sites and other
forums for users expanding on the HP-universe
(e.g. by writing fanfiction)