WEBVTT

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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I think thinking
about transmedia

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as non-fiction is actually where
a lot of more recent research

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into transmedia has been going.

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So myself, I've been
looking at this.

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But I think,
generally as a field,

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looking at what
transmedia might mean,

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whether it's a charity campaign,
or a history project, or an art

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project, for example,
or a form of activism

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has been something that's
been at the forefront of a lot

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of researcher's minds recently.

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And I think, initially,
a lot of the discussion

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was to think about
actually how we

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need to change our
understandings, or definitions,

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of what transmedia is
in order to readjust it

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into non-fiction.

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And I think as fruitful
as that has been,

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actually what I've found is
that thinking of transmedia

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as actually a consistent thing,
as a very particular media

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practise that can work
for different audiences,

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and different objectives,
and different aims,

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whether it's commercial
or non-commercial,

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fiction or non-fiction, as
actually being something

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that's slightly more consistent,
albeit that's something that is

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adapted to slightly
different objectives.

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So, for example,
you could look at,

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let's say, a charity, such
as Red Nose Day, very big,

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I think, quite globally
renowned charity campaign

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based in the UK, which is about
raising awareness of poverty

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in third-world countries.

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And looking at actually
how they've almost

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adjusted their strategies
towards a fit, a more

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digital context that becomes
slightly more transmedial

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as they've gone across.

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And I think one of the
things that they've done

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is they've maintained an element
of old media, physical media.

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So broadcast and the
idea of live media

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is something that brings
the nation together

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in a common cause, which very
much fits the aims of charity.

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Using bits of
paper, whether it's

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newspapers or pamphlets
because it fits,

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again, it fits the project.

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But then incorporating
things like digital,

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so things like social
media, for example,

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in a very strategic
way, actually.

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And I think what's
interesting about not just

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Red Nose, but a lot of
non-fiction projects,

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is they attempt to
narrativize their mission.

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So even though it's non-fiction,
the idea of storytelling

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becomes incredibly relevant.

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So, for example, you
can look at things

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like how they use Facebook and
Twitter alongside television.

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And there's a clear narrative.

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There's a clear story
to how they actually

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use those platforms.

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So with the case of
Red Nose, there's

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this really interesting
instance I've

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found where Facebook
becomes almost

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the beginning of the story.

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So it has a big role to play
before television comes in,

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in terms of the charity.

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And it tends to
focus on the fun,

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so in terms of the comedy
behind Red Nose Day.

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So there's a big emphasis
on using celebrities

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to dress up and be silly
to engage an audience

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to raise money, effectively,
and using Facebook strategically

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as that particular platform.

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Television almost then
becomes the next part

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of the story, which
continues that fun

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and draws on some
of the celebrities

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you've seen on Facebook.

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And then continues
that narrative further

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whilst pointing audiences
to the point of the charity,

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to the more serious
poverty-related issues.

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And then, interestingly, if you
then look at what happens with

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something like Twitter, there's
a real emphasis on using

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Twitter after the
television programme,

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and actually stripping away the
fun, stripping away the comedy,

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and focusing actually on what
happens to some of the poverty

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cases of people in countries
like Kenya or Ethiopia

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for example, so people who
you might get a glimpse

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of on television.

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And then you get
asked to donate,

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but you never
really find out what

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happens next in terms of whether
money actually reached them.

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And if it did, what
value it actually had.

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And then actually,
when you go on Twitter,

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that's the point of Twitter
is to actually focus

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on the end of that story, so
actually what the money did

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and the value that it had.

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So I think there's a real kind
of strategy in terms of using

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transmedia for non-fiction.

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Thinking about
affordances of platforms,

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who the audience actually
is, which one's going

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to engage the correct audience.

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But actually, this
idea of narrativizing

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the non-narrativizable, thinking
about real life or the mission

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statement of a non-fiction
project as something

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that actually can be
narrativized and told

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as a story.

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And I think the reason
why that works is

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because stories are engaging.

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We're all engaged by stories.

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We're all engaged by
beginning, middle, and end.

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And if even something like
non-fiction, a charity

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campaign, becomes
narrativized in that way,

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I think as audiences, we more
naturally migrate and gravitate

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across different
media and, therefore,

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become engaged in the aims
of something like a charity.

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And to think of
transmedia as a way

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to tell the end of the story and
to discover what happened next,

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I think, is really useful.

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And in that sense, transmedia
doesn't change that much.

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There's still very fundamental
strategic motivations,

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using platforms in
particular ways,

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engaging audiences
very thematically,

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and thinking about platforms as
different parts of the story.

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Another example that
springs to mind,

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in terms of what transmedia
can do for non-fiction,

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is an instance of a more
history-based project.

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So there's a project
that I'm actually

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involved with myself called
Desarmados, or disarmed,

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which is a project
based in Colombia.

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And the objective
there was really

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to focus on the
Colombian armed conflict

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and to think about how
that conflict can be taught

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to young people, so particularly
to schoolchildren, 8, 9,

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10 years old, and actually how
rather than producing a history

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book, which comes from one
point of view and is a textbook,

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thinking actually what
if this was a game?

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What if this was an app?

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And what if this was Web?

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And what if this was
more interactive?

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What impact would
that have actually

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on the strength of actually
whether young people are

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actually being able to
understand this conflict

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in a more sophisticated way.

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And what we found
through that project

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was that actually children were
able to engage with this very

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complicated political structure
through turning into a game,

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and through having an app, and
through using social media.

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But I think even more
interesting in that was what

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that case showed, was
that actually by having

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different perspectives, so
actually having people who have

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been impacted by a
conflict, let's say,

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have been displaced from their
homes, but also people who

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are, let's say,
actually not to blame,

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but somehow maybe involved
in the orchestration of some

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of these decisions, so people
in government or politicians,

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for example, by having all
of these different people

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interviewed and having
their perspectives

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narrativized through
different media platforms,

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whether it's web, whether it's
documentary, whether it's app,

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whether it's simply a
quote on social media.

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What we found,
actually, was that all

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of these different people
who didn't previously

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speak to one another suddenly
came together and actually

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started to express themes of
forgiveness and reconciliation.

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So people, for example, who had
been displaced from their homes

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actually hearing the perspective
of someone in government,

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and actually hearing the
rationale behind some

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of the decisions which had
impacted someone's life,

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actually being able to
understand that through,

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in this case, a
transmedia strategy,

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enabled those people to actually
think slightly more positively

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about actually, I
understand this.

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And similarly, the other
way around in terms of,

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let's say, people in
military or government

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being able to firsthand
see the impacts that some

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of their decisions had
had on people's lives,

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really express
feelings of regret

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in a way that actually enabled
both sides to come together

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and to express mutual
feelings of reconciliation

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and forgiveness.

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And it was really only
the fact that this

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was devised transmedially,
so different platforms

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communicating
different perspectives

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in a way that joined up
through the very digital nature

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of these things, that
enabled these very

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hopeful cultural,
socio-political themes

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to emerge.

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And I just think that's a really
nice instance of actually what

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the power of transmedia is.

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It isn't just about strategy,
or engaging audiences,

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or promoting things more widely.

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It's actually about
different platforms

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engaging more people in
a way that actually it

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becomes something more.

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It becomes something
that becomes

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ingrained in people's lives.

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It becomes more tangible
to people's lives.

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It surrounds people's lives.

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And through doing that, I think
there's really interesting

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work being done that they've
only really scratched

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the surface of this field,
thinking about actually

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what the power of
transmedia can be,

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whether it's as a
form of activism,

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whether it's
politically, whether it's

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something like Desarmados
where we're bringing

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different people together who
have been impacted or affected

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by a conflict, or whether
it's something like heritage,

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or history.

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I think continuing to explore
this avenue of actually what

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can joined up, or
integrated platforms,

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achieve socially, culturally,
politically, commercially,

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etc., is a really
fascinating line of inquiry.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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