Blurring Boundaries, Transmedia Storytelling and the Ethics of C. S. Peirce

Abstract

Transmedia storytelling denotes a process in which instalments of a story are spread across multiple media platforms to create an integrated experience that promotes audience engagement. Gambarato and Nanì discuss the specific ethical issues of transmedia storytelling through the conceptualization of ethics developed by Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce proposes an immediate connection among aesthetics, ethics and logic, which enriches and enlarges the approach to ethical issues in the realm of transmediality. This chapter concludes with two case studies—the transmedia projects The Truth about Marika from Sweden and Final Punishment from Brazil, analysing to what extent the two cases comply with Peircean ethics.