Transmedia Storytelling: Neuroscience Meets Ancient Practices

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Every day you wake up to a flow of information. Your alarm clock sounds and you check your smart phone for email and Facebook posts. You scan a newspaper over breakfast; listen to the radio as you head to work. You get a warning about local traffic from your navigation device and have it search for the nearest coffee bar on the detour. Your assistant sends a text message saying that your first meeting has been delayed. Your day has only just started, you haven't even sat down at a computer and there is already a constant conversation. It's the same for your customer. We live in a socially-networked, transmedia world. The wealth of information across so many channels is both an opportunity and a challenge. We need effective organizing systems and filters that connect information in the world with things that have meaning and relevance. This is true of the sender and the receiver. We need to find a way to break through and hear or be heard, whether you are an individual, an … [Read more...]

Transmedia Storytelling Podcast for Hispanic MPR.com

From http://www.hispanicmpr.com/: A podcast interview with Bonnie Buckner and  Pamela Rutledge A Think Lab co-founders is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. They discuss transmedia storytelling with podcast host Elena del Valle.  You can find the podcast on the HMRP website listed as "HMPR Bonnie Buckner, M.A., Pamela Rutledge, MBA, Ph.D. to play or download. The podcast will be listed in the May 2011 section of the podcast archive.   … [Read more...]

Perpetuating the Fear of Technology

Shame on LA Times columnist Sandy Banks for perpetuating ignorance and the fear of technology in her column “The stage is too big for kids” . If you want to see a parent who needs to learn more about technology, read this column. It exemplifies the response of people who aren't willing to learn what it's like to be a kid living with technology today. Let me say at the outset, I have a problem with people who quote research without at least telling me what research they are quoting so I can look it up and read it myself. But that's just a pet peeve of mine. The main point is that Banks' column is contributing to what communication scholar George Gerbner calls the "Mean World" syndrome, where the negative or violent content content of mass media makes people believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. In the first paragraph, Banks mentions cyberbullying, online perverts and “Facebook depression” as things “stalking our kids.” Kind of front-loaded … [Read more...]

5 Reasons Why Sharing Regrets Online Can Help

Life is full of choices. When things don't go as we plan or hoped, we feel regret. It is a common and universal experience. At the risk of stating the obvious, regret is considered a negative emotion. But unlike other negative emotions, such as sadness, regret can be more difficult to manage because it involves self-blame--regret is about lost opportunities and possible selves. The regret can be painful and enduring. Online sites like SecretRegrets.com can help because, as we've discussed in previous posts, the human brain doesn't discriminate against virtual environments when it comes to social connection. Research shows that the depth of our regret is often related to our ability to achieve closure (Beike, Markman, & Karadogan, 2008). We can get closure by finding a 'second change'-having future opportunities to make a new choice. For events that cannot be changed and where the circumstances are not repeatable, closure is harder to get. Psychological closure happens when we … [Read more...]