Thesis Thoughts

I have to finalize what I finally want to do soon. Sev (the Sev Sarmenta, my thesis adviser) told me to organize my thoughts and do my related literature and I did just that. Now I have this thick print-out of journals and researches I've downloaded from the Internet. I am so happy because Sage Publications gave me free access to their cultural journals and so I've a lot to read now. I want Henry Jenkins' Convergence book... I have to check that one out in the Ateneo Lib or Powerbooks.

Today I pitch the Band Age to UniversiTV and I'm still thinking how they would respond to the proposal. It seems easy to me, well at least on my level. As for my thesis, last night I was thinking, what would this thesis be about.

Although I've been getting a lot of researches on the topic of crossmedia from other countries, very little information on crossmedia is available locally. I don't even know if there's a cross media project "out there". I'm saying this of course as someone who is working in the entertainment industry and as far I know, nothing similar to crossmedia communication is happening locally. The closest I can think of is what ABS-CBN is doing to Pinoy Big Brother. They have the TV components - the regular show on Primetime and the Uplate (on ABS-CBN) and the PBB on 23 and the Live Streaming in the morning on Studio 23. They also have the website that has news, pictures and features for voting and "interactive" stuff (which is actually a call to spend more money using your cellphone: download this, text in to win this, etc.). In previous seasons, ABS-CBN also published PBB Magazines.

Based on what I'm currently reading on the subject, this doesn't make it the cut to be considered as crossmedia storytelling, but does it qualify as crossmedia communication? Again, latching on the meaning I got from Monique de Haas, I don't think so. A student of mine who works for ABS-CBN said that it has a division that executes promotional efforts through different platforms but it still is not crossmedia.

Which got me to thinking last night, what if I research on the possibilities of crossmedia communication in the Philippines? Are Filipinos ready for the experience? When I encountered the crossmedia concept in the Netherlands months back I was amazed at how they were doing things and how one can adapt it using much simpler means. Hence, our proposal for Band Age, which adopts the crossmedia concept using very simple websites such as YouTube and Multiply. It doesn't have to be executed on a grand scale, well, perhaps it depends on who you want to reach.

As I was discussing to a friend what crossmedia storytelling is, I gave the story of "Ederlyn" as an example. I told her, if a TV show about Ederlyn or a tabloid column is regularly written about Ederlyn, she could well be the pioneering crossmedia queen! "Sino si Ederlyn" text jokes started out with this simple text message: Ui, invited tau s bday party ni ederlyn 2m ng 6pm. CnO b un? Kilala m b?FinOrward lng skn e. (Hey, we're invited to Ederly's birthday party tomorrow at 18:00. Who is she by the way? Do you know her? This message was just forwarded to me.) Perhaps it was Ederlyn's kitschy name but this message was forwarded and forwarded that by now, Ederlyn has become a household name. For my Film and Video class, one group produced an "Ederlyn" short film and a musical variety show was produced by MusiCASA; and this was just in UST, I'm sure an "Ederlyn" craze is also happening in other places. Which got me thinking, whoever thought of starting this Ederlyn thing is up to thinking... is there an upcoming movie somewhere? But months have passed and still no word about an Ederlyn... sayang!

This friend of mine did not receive any forwarded Ederlyn jokes, pity on her, but she did tell me of a similar "phenomenon" which happened years back, the story of Chona Mae. Chona Mae is a maid from Romblon who blogs. Her blog has 279,502 hits. Again, whoever thought of Chona Mae should have made a lot of money if they told her story crossmedia.

So what's my thesis about? Hmmm... nothing certain yet. But I'm thinking of an exploratory study on the possibilities of doing crossmedia locally, with a survey on its viability using the Ederlyn and Chona Mae stories as examples. Hmmm... whatchathink?