Max’s book on Cross-Media!

Max Giovagnoli has completed a book on cross-media: Fare cross media. From Big Brother to Star Wars. Theory and Techniques of the Integrated and Distributed Use of Simultaneous Media. Check out this description:

Performing cross-media entails carrying out information, entertainment and communication campaigns in an ‘integrated’ manner, thereby simultaneously utilising a range of media forms within large editorial projects. From reality show (Big Brother, Operation Triunfo, Talpa) to film promotion (Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Ring 2). From multi-medial journalism (BBC news, SKY TV 24, RAI news 24) to video mobile telephone use and internet serials. From inter-business, institutional and political communication, to the creation of emotional marketing campaigns and new formats for cable links. The book describes, through examples, simulations, and contributions by leading international scholars, the techniques, the scenarios and the fundamental rules necessary in order to carry out communication project distributed across various media forms. Among the first publications in Europe on the subject, the work uses the research on collective imagination, emotional competence, project management and alternative dramaturgies to give order to a discipline where, to this day, too much scope is given to the talent of the individual and to an improvisation that generates mysterious successes or unexpected flops in the sectors: information, entertainment and communication.

I so look forward to getting the book (not reading it, as it is in Italian!). I was lucky to have Max interview me for the book, I was unfortunately REALLY busy and wasn’t able to contribute as much as I would of liked. [How can anyone be too busy to contribute to a book?!]

But anyway, it is a great sign that cross-media books are coming out and Max’s should be fanatastic. At present, I’ve only been able to find one book that address the cross-media phenomenon: that is Angela Ndalianis’ academic treatment of the subject in her book Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment (2004). There are some books on convergent journalism and some interesting ones on alternate reality games (ARGs). The later ones are highly relevant, as ARGs are the most developed form of CME. However, they are only one type of CME. MIT Media theorist Henry Jenkins is set to bring out a book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Intersect, which should be great. And Drew Davidson has been commissioned to write one too. All very exciting. I’ve added all of these to the Cross-Media Books section on the right sidebar.

Congrats Max!

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