Cross-media Communication: Where it all started for me.

Monique de Haas, in her website, Crossmedia Communication defined crossmedia communication as "communication where the storyline will direct the receiver from one medium to the next" making it possible to transform the sender-receiver form of communication to "multi-dimensional communication".

I came across the idea of cross-media communication in the Netherlands where we were trained to create cross-media programs for children. My first encounter of it was in a session with Rob Prass, through his talk on "Learning Through Games and Play". He discussed how games are being used in educational programs in Europe and showed us an episode of Bamzooki. Weeks later, at the 20th Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam, we attended a seminar on Hands on TV (HOT) moderated by Children's BBC's Sue Nott.

The seminar featured speakers who talked talked about the successful formats in cross-media entertainment and how they were created. Bruno Felix of Submarine, NL did the introduction on interactive television and cross-media formats. The most exciting part for all of us EPPC participants was the presentation by Paul Tyler of Gameware Media who presented about Bamzooki, a mixed reality game show in which children use computer-designed fantasy animals (which they call "zooks") to fight with one another. It was very exciting for us because only a few weeks ago, Rob Prass was showing us an episode in the Corner Room and now we're face to face with THE creator!

Bamzooki offers "unique cross media output delivering a fully integrated televisoin and internet experience where contestants make and race computer generated creatures "zooks". The website allows users to download a creature building software that allows them to create and own their own running, jumping and crawling zooks. The software allows the users to upload and download Zooks into a massive online database for entry in to the daily leagues and galleries. There's also the chance to appear in the televised game show that provides a battle arena for the Zooks. The website also offers a community forum where members can share tips and tricks.

As someone from the entertainment industry though, what piqued my interest the most was Nuno Bernardo's presentation of Sofia's Diary. For me, Sofia's Diary is the total cross-media package for the teenager combining the traditional media like TV, books and feature films and new media like the Internet and mobile. An article on this website describes Sofia's Diary as "an Interactive Mobile Service uses new technologies to tell in an interactive and multi-channel way the story of a typical 17 years old girl, Sofia. This is one of the first projects to simultaneously use as a complementary way diverse medias with specific contents and mechanics for each media. Sofia's Diary content is published on the Web, in a teen magazine, on daily newspapers, aired on a teen Radio station and a Cable TV Show. Users can follow the story everywhere and interact with it using their mobile phones".

Well, this is what started it for me. I do hope I get somewhere with it. I'm now exploring the Philippine landscape to see if we have a semblance of cross-media entertainment locally. Hopefully, with this thesis, I'll be able to contribute, if not start, a significant contribution to this body of emerging knowledge (at least locally).

**all photos on this page courtesy of Adi Panuntun