Transmedia Storytelling

The story of Noaki Urasawa's Monster is a story about a doctor named Kenzo Tenma in Germany in the late 1900s who saves a young boy's life. 10 years later that boy, named Johan, grows up and becomes a serial killer and Kenzo Tenma is framed for the murders that Johan commits. The story is told through two different types of media: an anime (Japanese for animation) and a manga. (Japanese for comic.)

Both the anime and manga tell the same story, but in different ways. One volume in the manga would probably be 3-5 episodes in the anime. The manga came first and is has the original story by Noaki Urasawa, and then there was an anime made based on that manga, but some of the major plot points and characters are different. This can make the experiences of watching the anime and reading the manga different.

Here's Noaki's Urasawa's Monster as an anime:

Here's what the original manga looks like:

Remediation

Hypermediacy:

This is a screenshot of someone's video on Youtube. Videos that aren't being watching in full screen are a prime example of what hypermediacy is. The user is fully aware of the medium being used to watch the video because the video only takes up a small portion of the screen. Seeing "Youtube" at the top of the screen, and links to other videos all around the page reminds to user of the medium.

Immediacy:

A computer game that takes up the whole computer screen is a prime example of immediacy. The screenshot above is of a game called "Amnesia the Dark Descent." As you can see, while playing the game there is no user interface to give the player a sense that they are actually in the game. The game developers themselves put a notice in the game that encourages people to play the game while wearing headphones in the dark for the most immersive experience. While playing a game such as this with minimal user interface, one sometimes forgets about the medium being used.

Redmediation:

Above is a screenshot of Google Earth. This is a good example of remediation because what Google is, is a recreation of all of Earth. Through Google Earth, people can zoom in on specific parts of the world and see maps of any location they want.

Post Secret

PostSecret.com is a website in which people write down their secrets on a post of some sort and have them uploaded online anonymously. It's a continuing community art project that's continually updated with the secrets people send in.

But some of the things on the site aren't necessarily secrets, they are messages. Such as this one that's trying to raise awareness of children diagnosed with cancer and advocating for a cure.

The message this website sends is an interesting one. I feel like what it's trying to communicate is that fact that everyone has done something that they resent, and that no one is perfect. By allowing people to post secrets that they may not be proud of anonymously, it gives people the confidence to do so because no one will find out it's them. And some people take that ability and put an interesting spin on it to advocate doing the right thing, such as this cancer awareness post. 

This website is laid out just like a blog, that's a common layout I see in many other websites. Other websites that rely on user-submitted content use the blog format because it's easy to update and it's easy for viewers to keep track of these updates. The latest post by a user is on the very top of the page.

Websites like these are updated often because it's kept alive by a large community of people. It's an effective website because it's easy to read everything top to bottom, and each post tells an a short, interesting story.