CHAPTER 3- RESEARCH DESIGN
3.4 S URVEY D ESIGN
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heart of transmedia storytelling. As Jenkins’ definition points out that a true transmedia component is one that adds a “distinct and valuable”
contribution to the whole, questions 21-30 are asked in couplets aimed at seeing if the viewer is interested in merely in things related to their preferred shows, or if they are interested in these extensions when they add to overall understanding of the characters and stories being told.
3.4 Survey Design
This section will outline the design of the survey and the reasons for the design. The survey consisted of 31 questions. The target group for this survey was television audiences aged 18 and up, living in Taiwan. The reason for the age limit is due to the assumption that most people aged 18 and up would have control over what they watch and over their choice to access extensions on another
platform without parental constraint. For this survey it was not important whether the respondents watch their program via terrestrial broadcast, cable television or accessed it through the internet. The purpose of this study was not to compare this type of data but rather to see the audience-side interest in engaging further with their favorite program whatever it may be and wherever they go to consume it.
The survey was divided into three parts. The first section was basic
information on the respondent. The second was a section of 16 questions designed for research question 1. The third are 10 questions part deals with research
questions 2a and 2b. Parts 2 and 3 both of these sections relied on a declarative statement and a four point Likert scale answer based on how much the respondent agreed or disagreed with the statement. It should be noted that while agreeing to seek out more information or agreeing to interact with some content on another medium, shows a positive intention, the “disagree” category might have been checked if the respondent did not understand the question or was not sure about their answer. The respondents were not primed in anyway about the idea of
transmedia storytelling, 2nd platform experiences, or they may have never heard of things like this as options for exploring their preferred TV show more fully. For
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this reason, the data analysis below focuses primarily on the amount of respondents showing positive intentions to the questions.
To define engagement in this study the questions were whether or not the person would “seek more information” when prompted by possible cues in their favorite television program. The second part of the survey has the same 4-point scale and asked how much the respondents agreed or disagreed with the statement about engaging with the content by visiting a website, purchasing print media, downloading a mobile application, or playing a video game. The idea or “seeking more information” or directly exploring one or another platform for extra content both count as “engaging” with a program from this authors viewpoint. Below the individual parts of the survey will be described in more detail.
3.4.1 Basic Biographical Data
Basic information on respondents was collected to see if there are any interesting variations according to sex, age, and level of education. An optional category was area of employment. These basic categories might prove interesting to see if answers vary across these categories.
3.4.2 Part 1- Types of cues and engagement
Measuring engagement from audiences can be difficult to categorize and Simons gives a great list of types of engagement in his thesis on transmedia, but for this particular study, simplicity was favored (Simons, 2014). For this part of the survey, the questions simply asks the respondent whether or not they would seek more information when prompted by a transmedia cue. At its most basic form this is what engagement is, after all.
Part 1 of the survey is designed to see if there is a type of transmedia cue that would be more effective in stimulating engagement by viewers. Just like the examples of different types of extensions was provided in section 2.3, these are focused on character, story world, and participation based extensions. A fourth set of questions is added for overt product marketing to see if engagement via showcasing products or services is any
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and whether audiences would choose to engage would prove valuable to producers that may want to have product placement or corporate sponsorship featured in their programs.
The figure below shows what Part 1 of the survey is looking at.
Figure 5-Triggers for Engagement
The above illustration should make clear what the first part of the survey is gathering data on. By drawing from Long’s thesis and his categorizing of different types of transmedia cues, we can use the same logic to see what sparks engagement from audiences. (Long, 2007)
3.4.3 Part 2a Platforms for engagement
Part 2a of the survey is looking to see if any one platform is more likely to be used for engagement. If viewers are going to engage with a television show, is there a preferred platform for doing so? Knowing this would aid the transmedia producer to develop content that utilizes that particular platform. Section 2.3 showed some examples of contemporary transmedia productions which have used some or all of the following platforms to expand their narratives: Official websites, Facebook pages, Mobile apps, Print media and Video games. Below is illustrated what part 2a of the survey is meant to
Engagement
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Figure 6-Platform Preference
The five platforms chosen for this part of the survey were done so for very specific reasons. Whereas print media like books or comics and video games would most likely entail spending money to access, platforms like official websites, mobile applications for smartphones and Facebook fan sites could be accessed free of charge. However, between the three just mentioned, choosing to download and install a mobile app is more time consuming than visiting a website, likewise accessing an official website takes a little more effort than joining a fan site on Facebook which is currently the number one social networking site. The data gathered from this section might point to barriers that different platforms might have for accessing transmedia extensions.
Engagement
Facebook?
Mobile App?
Video Game?
Print Media?
Website?
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3.4.4 Part 2b- Simple engagement vs. “Distinct and Valuable” engagement Part 2b of the survey takes a look at two interests. First, it is looking to see if there is a difference between levels of engagement and the type of extension. Are audiences more interested in the type of “distinct and valuable” engagement that Jenkin’s mentions in his book? (Jenkins, 2006) This part of the survey is demonstrated by the below figure:
Figure 7- Distinct and Valuable Extensions
This last data section is of particular interest to the author of this thesis. Are fans of shows interested and willing to follow links or cues to extra content simply because it is related to their favorite show or are they more inclined to do so if that extra content will provide deeper insight or understanding of those narratives or the characters and story worlds in them? This at its heart is what “true” transmedia storytelling is all about, namely the “distinct and valuable” content discussed earlier.