Tolkien’s Transmedia

In November 2012 I travelled to New Zealand with my dad to go hiking, on the way was a casual stop over to Hobbiton. The movie set where they filmed the Lord of the rings town, “the shire” was quite amazing. The landscape was magnificent, there were rolling hills, stunning vegetable patches and of course houses embedded in the hills. I felt like I was a part of Tolkiens’ fictional world! This is an example of transmedia.

“Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.”

When J.R.R Tolkien first wrote the Hobbit in 1937 for his children to read he would not have expected The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings trilogy to become blockbuster movies, video games, short stories, parodies, movie sets, tours, a possible theme park and even this awesome air New Zealand safety clip.

The use of transmedia helps to appeal to a larger audience and more audience engagement. For example someone who has read the books may not like the movies but still would like to check out Hobbiton to see this interpretation of the book. Another example is that some people may not like reading and prefer just to watch a movie, which happens a lot these days.

The greatest improvement transmedia has made on stories is that it creates a fictional world for the audience to relate to and feel that they are apart of.