Timothy Coombs on transmedia storytelling and strategic communication

Strategic communication faces many challenges as digital worlds alter the way organizations and stakeholders communicate with one another. In transmedia storytelling, each voice tells a story that adds uniquely to a larger story arc called the storyworld — the thread used to connect the various voices and creates consistency between the stories.

Dr. Timothy Coombs presents the basics of transmedia storytelling, how it can be applied to strategic communication, and two cases that show the potential value of adopting a transmedia storytelling approach.

A professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University, he researches crisis communication. He has authored two books in crisis communication, Ongoing Crisis Communication and Code Red in the Boardroom, as well as being co-editor of the Handbook of Crisis Communication, the forthcoming Reputation Challenges in Sport: Theory and Practice, and numerous book chapters on the topic.