np/MediaEcosystems ▶
YouTube URL MediaEcosystems bookmarklet Name / label / descriptive title

Cameron Hay (9 March 2026). 'Why the UK is Quietly Having a Cinema Civil War', Frontier Media
Concept: "the use of 'ecosystem', in addition to allied concepts such as platform, became more prominent. Ecosystems allow actors to create value that none of them is able to do on their own. This article explains why the concept of media ecosystem can be useful in media management research and in practice and defines and operationalises the concept in a model that can be used for empirical research and in practice" (Kostovska et al., 2020).
Concept: "The complex relationships between user-generated social media and professionally created news media are best understood as a complex media ecosystem with its own emergent behaviors that only become visible when studied from a perspective broader than considering a single medium in isolation. Some of the key debates regarding social media's effects in spreading mis- and disinformation can be studied in richer ways by applying quantitative methods that integrate information across multiple types of media using a media ecosystem model. Understanding these characteristics of media ecosystems could help political parties, activists and others who depend on media to advance their messages" (Zuckerman, E., 2021).
Context: The clip, which has been narrated by Cameron Hay, [LinkedIn] which as he explains on the Frontier Media Ltd. [Instagram] website: "Hey, I'm Cameron. I started Frontier Media as a young fella living in Sydney, Australia in around 2016. I began narrating star wars videos for my channel 'Geetsly's' on mac, and editing on iMovie. What was supposed to be a short term fling turned into a 10 Year+ career. In that time, I've moved continents, grown the company with my team (many of which have been with me for years) & have been figuring out this life thing one step at a time. That's the short version anyway… Glad you're interested enough to actually be reading this Faq though! PS: I have south african heritage, with family spread all over the anglosphere. That's why my accent might sound a bit weird to some of you;)" https://www.frontiermediaco.com/
Bibliography: Kostovska, I., Raats, T., Donders, K., & Ballon, P. (2020). "Going beyond the hype: conceptualising 'media ecosystem' for media management research". Journal of Media Business Studies, 18, 6–26. [academic source] Zuckerman, E. (2021). 'Why study media ecosystems?' Information, Communication & Society, 24(10), 1495–1513. [academic source]

The 'Prometheus' (2012) transmedia campaign
Background: "Ignition, RSA Films, and 20th Century Fox worked together to build a multi-phased effort that introduced fans and new audiences to the rich story world around Prometheus through a potent mix of social, traditional and transmedia storytelling. We launched Peter Weyland's TEDTalk from 2023 at TED2012, partnered with both Mashable and Verizon FIOS to debut a David 8 product commercial and joined forces with Microsoft to unlock an exclusive clip from the film on stage during Microsoft's E3 X-Box Smartglass announcement event. The campaign hub was designed and executed as a fully-realized company website, which spiraled out additional content, interactive experiences, and original videos. Each event was supplemented through puzzles, social media cross-pollination, and other tactics that ensured maximum visibility and engagement over the course of the campaign. The campaign for Prometheus has been held up as a benchmark for digital marketing by Forbes, Mashable, and Fast Company, among others" (Boes, N., Saloj, W., & Webster, M., 2023).
Discussion: "Alien, like Star Wars, is what we can now call a 'transmedia franchise'. It has pioneered ways of expanding storytelling across media boundaries. ... Though initially conceived as a cash-in on the popularity of science fiction in the aftermath of Star Wars, Alien grew from a hugely successful film into not only a franchise but a whole universe. ... One of the extras on the 2010 Alien Anthology Blu-ray collection was a special feature called Weyland-Yutani Inquest: Nostromo Dossiers. This was a collection of corporate documents detailing the professional lives of the Nostromo spaceship crew. ... Similarly, transmedia marketing campaigns have grown to include fictional evil corporate websites, exclusive events at conventions, personalised advertising and franchise universe websites. We argue that Alien’s transmedia marketing is particularly captivating because it is closely linked to the film’s production. As a result, these marketing campaigns are arguably becoming as creative and entertaining as the films themselves" (Frame, G., & Abrams, N. (2023).
Consider (Simon): "Prometheus remains a fascinating case study. Its ambition to use transmedia storytelling to enrich its universe was admirable, but the execution faltered. For fans who connected the dots, the experience was rewarding. For others, it was alienating—no pun intended. In hindsight, had Ridley Scott and his team integrated more of these materials into the film itself or made their existence more apparent, the reception might have been very different. This is a reminder for storytellers: innovation is powerful, but only when it enhances the story for all audiences, not just the select few who dig deep enough to find it" (Finnegan, J. (2024).
Point: As Anna Wróblewska explains: "'We can define transmedia as projects that use a variety of media platforms, both in the field of new media and traditional channels of communication. Transmedia distinguish themselves from the usual interactive projects mainly in the fact that each new medium contains new content, and the different stories told in all of them are combined in a harmonious, non-contradictory whole. Transmedia projects contain a lot of subjectivity, allowing for storytelling from many points of view. As a whole, therefore, a transmedia project consists of: ilm, games, books, websites, and social media sites, but also the online world: urban games, concerts, and even theme parks'" (Przegalinska, A., 2015).
Related: Luke Scott (2012). 'TED Talk 2023' http://newpractices.co.uk/clipping/#lpYUW0ekPSA
Related: Ridley Scott (2012). 'Prometheus' https://www.youtube.com/embed/HHcHYisZFLU?start=6 http://newpractices.co.uk/worldbuilding/#HHcHYisZFLU [Wikipedia] [imdb]
Also: 'Weyland Industries Testimonial (2012)' https://www.youtube.com/embed/R2pMXsYXZyQ
Also: 'Prometheus Transmission' https://www.youtube.com/embed/B2gh_B4UxoQ
Also: 'QUIET EYE | Elizabeth Shaw' https://www.youtube.com/embed/zKaHud-f_Ss
Also: 'Mission | Project Prometheus' https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qbcd-KVW3Ng
Bibliography: Frame, G., & Abrams, N. (2023, May 23). 'How Alien mutated from a sci-fi horror film into a multimedia universe'. The Conversation. [academic source] https://theconversation.com/how-alien-mutated-from-a-sci-fi-horror-film-into-a-multimedia-universe-204567 [video clip] Boes, N., Saloj, W., & Webster, M. (2023). 'Prometheus: Transmedia Campaign'. Behance. [Behance] Przegalinska, A. (2015). 'Prometheus – A Transmedia Campaign': 79–89. [academic source] [academic source] Walden, K. (2023). “Building Better Worlds”: The Rise of Alien’s Online Marketing Campaigns. Alien Legacies: The Evolution of the Franchise. N. Abrams and G. Frame, Oxford University Press. https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/id/eprint/14299/ [pdf] Finnegan, J. (2024, November 25). "Why Prometheus Failed, or How to Use Transmedia Storytelling in Cinema". OutWrd. https://www.outwrdplus.com/post/why-prometheus-failed-or-how-to-use-transmedia-storytelling-in-cinema

University Lüneburg, Global Classroom Project of Leuphana (2021). 'platformization'
Synopsis: the paper advances a theory drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship, which spans: software studies, business studies, critical political economy, cultural studies. Central to this is the transformation of the concept of a platform as a 'thing' to the concept of 'platformisation' as a process (Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & Dijck, J. van., 2019).
Point: "The usage of the platform concept, both in academia and in business, has seen a number of key shifts since the start of the new millennium. Predating the arrival of contemporary tech behemoths, such as Google and Facebook, the fields of (network) economics and business studies already popularised and theorised the term platform, most prominently in Japan, France, and the United States (Steinberg, 2019). In the early 2000s, US companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco provided management scholars with rich examples of how to attain 'platform leadership' (Gawer & Cusumano, 2002). One of the most influential contributions to this scholarship conceptualised platforms (e.g., game consoles) as 'two-sided markets' (Rochet & Tirole, 2003). Platform operators aggregate, on the one side buyers or end-users (e.g., players) and on the other side sellers or complementors, such as game publishers. Later contributions incorporated work from neighbouring fields including industrial organisation economics, strategic management, and information technology. This body of work has had significant impact on business discourse and strategies deployed by platform companies, much more so than critical media perspectives" (Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & Dijck, J. van., 2019).
Point: "we therefore understand platformisation as the penetration of the infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life. And in the tradition of cultural studies, we conceive of this process as the reorganisation of cultural practices and imaginations around platforms" (Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & Dijck, J. van., 2019).
Point: "One body of work that is at the forefront of theorising the shifting relationships among users and platforms concerns work on labour. By introducing concepts such as 'aspirational labor', 'relational labor', and 'hope labor', cultural studies researchers have critically examined how specific practices and understandings of labour emerged within platform markets (Baym, 2015; Duffy, 2016; Kuehn & Corrigan, 2013). As Duffy (2016, p. 453) points out, newly emerging occupations, such as streamers, vloggers and bloggers, tend to reify 'gendered social hierarchies', that 'leave women's work unrecognized and/or under-compensated'. Considering platformisation from this perspective means analysing how social practices and imaginations are organised around platforms. This, in turn, shapes how platforms evolve as particular data infrastructures, markets, and governance frameworks" (Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & Dijck, J. van., 2019). "The ecosystem of online platforms is very heterogeneous, ranging from large international companies to small national or local start-ups. Many institutions and think-tanks have made an attempt to provide an overview of the existing platform ecosystem. It is difficult to collect comprehensive and comparable data on online platform companies. Due to the absence of a common legally binding definition of online platform as well as national registries for active platforms, current estimates of the size of the platform economy are limited to survey data and only partially reflect information available on revenues of the parties involved: including platforms, people working via platforms and third parties (Pesole et al., 2018; Brancati, Pesole and Férnandéz-Macías, 2020; Barcevičius et al., 2021). In many cases, the information that can be gathered is mostly from trade union work and thanks to close cooperation with existing work councils and European institutions" (Sabanova, I., 2018).
Further to this: Data and Organisations: A Collaborative Open Course For Master Programs https://dataandorganisations.org/
Bibliography: Poell, T., Nieborg, D., & Dijck, J. van. (2019). 'Platformisation'. Internet Policy Review, 8(4). [academic source] [academic source] [pdf] Sabanova, I. (2018). 'Policy Report: Online Platforms and Platform Work'. Futureofwork.fes.de. https://futureofwork.fes.de/our-projects/mapping-platform-economy/report [pdf]