EM820 Strategic Use of Social Media Week 3

Remediation: presenting content through a new media format than originally presented or conceptualized.

Mediacy: The goal of mediacy is to immerse the user/viewer into the content. To basically make them forget the interface exists.

Hypermediacy: The goal of hypermediacy is to remind the user of the interface while they are using the content. In many cases it is used for organizational purposes.

It was interesting to me to think about perspective when trying to understand these concepts. There are the creators, the presenters, and the users for each of these terms. Each perspective can be accomplished through human action or a tool/media of some sort (I guess a human can present content so can be considered a form of media also).

Older Technologies:
Remediation - Cavemen and other ancient cultures drew pictures on stone walls to communicate ideas and tell stories. Story telling was remediated to take advantage of newer technology by writing on paper using ink. The content (story) was originally presented as a picture on a stone and was remediated via pen and ink with paper.

Mediacy - Sticking with the pen and paper for technology, these tools were created to allow the user (author) to immerse themselves in their thoughts, "seemlessly" transferring their ideas to paper.

Hypermediacy: Print layouts are a form of hypermediacy. The content on printed pages are organized in such a way that you are able to quickly tell where one article or advertisement ends and another begins.

Newer Technologies:
I believe the Disney is well on their way to mastering these concepts beginning with:
Remediation - They take classic fairy tales or TV shows and remediate them as animated films which they can then turn into interactive video games or amusement park rides.

Hypermediacy - sticking with Disney. At Disney World you enter a line that wraps seemingly endlessly through roped off areas to organize the crowds. They take advantage of this "organization" to begin the ride experience communicating parts of the story you are about to enter. For example, with the Tower of Terror ride at Disney MGM you enter the Hollywood Hotel lobby. you are reminded of the interface by the ropes keeping you in line but there are decorations and "cast members" dressed in period clothing to help set the mood.

Immediacy - Once you reach the head of the line you are immersed in a Twilight Zone episode narrated by Rod Serling. It starts as a TV show interface and quickly becomes an immersive experience as you ride the doomed elevator up to your room. Following along with the story you get totally immersed, seeing the ghosts of the original victims in the story on different floors of the hotel.

You are finally snapped back to reality when you enter the Twilight Zone and the elevator doors open and you get a panoramic view of the theme park with nothing in front of you just the open/missing elevator shaft...pause long enough to realize what is happening and scream...then plummet down the elevator shaft to complete the ride.