3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing - artichoke web design

3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing
The Lord of the Who?
By Elise Keeling
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Abstract
This article seeks to examine the impact that electronic, digital, and interactive technologies have
had on the production of literary knowledge and the narrative. The research assignment will further
speculate the role of ‘digitally preserving’ narrative literatures through what has been labelled
‘transmedia storytelling’. It is an investigation which assesses the integrity of a great narrative once
it has been subject to the inevitable ‘tossing’ and ‘turning’ throughout the vast mediums in this
universal ‘media playground’. It will also utilise contemporary media theory to break down and
conceptualise transmedia storytelling and further assess the implications of ‘participatory culture’
on the creative industries. Whilst we are only beginning to discover the exciting possibilities and
capabilities which technology and digitisation hold, we would not be doing our job as inquisitive
human beings if we did not speculate into the role of digitisation of the narrative.
The importance of this research is to understand exactly how much one ‘records’ and ‘preserves’
of the original narrative when the various cross-sited narratives are re-fabricated for each media
platform they deploy. The article will hopefully address the convergent narratives of our time and
therein give us a better understanding of digitisation and the narrative and further the assumptions
which surround it.
Keywords
Digital MeDia • Publishing • new MeDia technology • inteRactiVe technologies •
Mobile MeDia • liteRaRy KnowleDge • naRRatiVe
Introduction
Convergent literatures or ‘cross-sited narratives’ is the idea of multi-modal stories told
across various media channels. As a society we have become dependent on images and
representations constantly seeking visual mediums and new ways of receiving information
and narrative.
J.R.R Tolkien’s novel ‘The Lord of The Rings’ was handed to me when I was eleven years
old. My father had treasured the book as a young adolescent and he gave me the same worn-
down novel which he had treasured in his childhood. I too fell under the powerful realm
that this piece of literature had over my dad, taking in new and exciting interpretations of
this brilliant world that Tolkien had created. However through the ever-changing media
landscape and what has been labelled ‘transmedia storytelling’ it would be fair to say that
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