Spreadable Media Ch. 2-3

     Residual value, generally speaking, is the value that remains in an object when its useful life has ended. “Useful life” refers to the use for which it was made. For example, the use for which a car is designed is to serve as a mode of transportation. Once a car reaches the end of its useful life, it can no longer be used for that purpose. The only value that remains is the car’s residual value, which in this case would be the value of the scrap metal and various vehicle parts that could potentially be used in other vehicles. Residual value in the context of physical and digital objects can be thought of as the value an object has in its afterlife. The authors in Spreadable Media discuss the residual value of digital content in terms of cultural and economic value. Cultural residual value exists largely due to the nostalgia of content from the past such as retro video games. Economic residual value exists largely due to the discovery of forgotten content from the past that is made newly available. An example of economic residual value that is discussed in Spreadable Media is the resurfacing of old WWE videos. The use for which these videos were made was the promotion of local WWE events. When the usable life of these videos ended, they were thought to have no residual value and many of these programs were lost. As time passed, however, demand was created for these old videos, thus increasing their residual value. Digital environments catalyzed this value as fans were easily able to share and distribute them.


     Transmedia engagement is the use of multiple mediums to encourage and increase levels of engagement by viewers while also creating new sources of revenue for the creators. Examples of the multiple ways of engaging a narrative using transmedia engagement include webisodes (online episodes that supplement the main story or tell new stories in relation to the main story), comics, video games, and interactive websites. An original example of transmedia engagement is the interactive viewing experience for AMC’s Breaking Bad called Story Sync. During the live airing of a new Breaking Bad episode, users could go to this interactive website. In real time as the show progressed, users be given polls, quizzed on previous occurrences in the show’s history, reminded of occurrences from previous episodes that relate to a particular scene in the new episode, and much more. This interactive experience supplemented the television show, and encouraged users to watch the new episodes as they aired in real time. Breaking Bad Story Sync also served as an additional source of revenue for the show’s creators as they obtained ad revenue not only from the airing of the show on television, but also from the traffic generated on their website. Since Breaking Bad’s run has ended, the spinoff show Better Call Saul which is airing currently has its own Story Sync during airings of episodes, and continues to keep Breaking Bad’s viewers engaged.