Not so transmedia: channels and participatory culture in Skam Spain audiences

Abstract

The media and entertainment ecosystem have been increasingly incorporating content based on transmedia narrative models, because of the multiplication of channels, the evolution of ICT, and the adoption by audiences of a more active role within the creative processes. The generalization of the multiplatform distribution of these new narratives facilitates the leading role of the public, which is organized in communities that have emerged and grouped around the content. The Skam Spain series, the object of study of this research, is framed within these parameters, following the model of the original series of Norwegian origin. This fiction is an example that could seem representative of the use of transmedia to expand its narrative possibilities and at the same time get closer to its followers. Among the objectives that are proposed are the identification of the transmedia aspects of the series in its fourth season, defining the role of the broadcast channels, identifying the content that generates the greatest interaction, and valuing the role of the fan community as generators and participants. of the expansion of the narrative world. A mixed methodology is applied, focused on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of eight episodes of the fourth season of the series Skam in Spain. After developing this study where the expansion of the narrative channels and the interaction with their fan communities can be observed, having as a strong point the breaking of paradigms in the use of the channels to promote engagement with the audiences, the results obtained point to the application of a timid transmedia narrative of the channels used by the series, as well as the metafictional resources that allow crossing that line between fiction and reality, also defined by the concept of the fifth wall.