A methodological proposal to analyse identity construction in transmedia storytelling

This paper provides a socio-semiotic methodological approach to the analysis of youth and gender identity on Spanish TV fiction, useful for forthcoming academic, marketing as well as educational projects. The research, subsidised by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, regards the construction of youth and gender on both, television fiction and its transmedia extensions on the Internet, and was developed by OFENT (Observatorio de la Ficción Española y Nuevas Tecnologías).

By exploring the universe of characters in Spanish transmedia storytelling, the investigation aims to discern if characters are uniform and polarized around a Manichean opposition system or whether, by contrast, they reflect the dynamism of contemporary lifestyle and become a symptom of the inability to hold an entire set of values perfectly defined.

The concept of the “semiotic role”, with its typical relational nature, allows us to set up an effective typology. Thus, we are able to define the prototypes of many fictional characters present in digital and televisual platforms.

Elsa Soro – Semiofest 2013 presentation

http://ofent.org/

A methodological proposal to analyse identity construction in transmedia storytelling by OFENT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.