Proof by contradiction
The emergence of transmedia in Singapore (part 2) — The quest for cultural heritage and creative identity
The following article is a combined account of numerous interviews, conversations with Singaporean media creatives as well as market analysis from the period of November 2013 to June 2014. It is the follow-up post to my article from January and should not be taken as a complete record.
In January 2014 I wrote down some first thoughts and compiled observation notes on the state of transmedia in Singapore. Six months later I feel it is time for a quick update as things have changed and seen new directions.
Having worked with Singaporean creators during the past 6 months (not only during meetups and events but also on a professional level as well) my personal focus has shifted. Defining transmedia has been taking a huge step back. In fact, the quest for an adequate definition what transmedia is (or will be) in the Asia region context seems quite distracting and rather non-productive.
“It is true that storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it, that it brings about consent and reconciliation with things as they really are, and that we may even trust it to contain eventually by implication that last word which we expect from the Day of Judgment”.
- Hannah Arendt, “Isak Dinesen: 1885 — 1963” in Men in Dark Times
There are far more pressing (practical) circumstances that need to be addressed on the grassroots level we are working at in South-East Asia. Local creative identity combined with multicultural orientation in stories are but two major aspects.
What constitutes a Singaporean story?
What defines Singaporean culture?
What narrative/format/artistic creation could function as trademark - locally and abroad?
Founded less than 50 years ago, Singapore’s society gradually matures and residents are still in search for a local identity. Amidst a melting pot of Chinese, Malay, Indian, Bangladeshi or Western expat origins, creatives have been struggling to define what constitutes a signature Singapore narrative. In the face of extreme cultural fragmentation within the nation, finding common ground topics has been proven difficult to close to impossible. But fragmentation in culture or ethnicity is only the first layer.
Locational fragmentation due to Singapore’s widespread, decentralized urban structure in conjunction with government-imposed ethnic quotas in public housing blocks add to another form of clustering. This aspect comes especially into play in a time when designing and executing interactive location based story experiences becomes essential for reaching an audience of millennials that has abandoned all traditional media. Here, defining specific clusters and audience behavior patterns paired with incentivized strategies to connect and link up complex narrative structures via platform and device agnostic solutions could become as paramount to a storyworld as the characters included.
“Storyfication before gamification!”
Storytellers should look beyond their regular peers in order to find answers to this complex entity of geo-ethnic challenges. Organizations like UP Singapore addressing location based issues and history preservation with monthly hackathons. The coLAB Chinatown or GeoHackathon are only two recent events. The latter focuses specifically on mapping solutions for location based data. In addition, the Singapore Science Center will soon offer another resource with its annual science data visualization festival.
Traditionally, the Singapore market has been deemed as too small for viable and sustainable revenue models of large scale media projects like feature films or big budget TV series. Talent has been migrating to neighboring countries due to bigger market size and better finance deals. But the real challenge is not the limited market size of a 5.3 million population (similar Asian city states like Hong Kong cope fairly well with just about 7.1 million) but rather how this market is conglomerated.
In a time where niche audiences are recognized, monetizable and more valuable than ever Singapore’s fragmented cluster market should not be seen as a dead loss but as rewarding opportunity. Cross-platform, mobile and interactive content -cost-conscious produced- that serves and garners to a specific niche can create deep value and a strong audience bonding.
While the local media landscape sees fundamental changes, the worldwide trend of narratives migrating to mobile devices is more evident in Singapore than any other South-East Asian nation. Singapore creators face the unique challenge of having to adapt to new story formats and techniques without having found their own artistic voice or signature yet.
Again, this challenge is also an opportunity. A “clean slate” situation could accelerate the adaptation and implementation process of these very formats and eventually yield quick solutions to the question of creative identity.
On the other hand, local audiences are primarily influenced by Western story and innovation imports, in general taking a skeptical position toward everything that is produced locally. As a result, Singaporean creators are moving away from traditional media and started experimenting with participatory cross-platform narratives and transmedia constructions years ago. The concept of forging a storyworld emerges gradually and sees an iterative definition in exploring new story genres.
Storytellers, however, still have to deal with specific limitations imposed not only by government censorship regulations that embrace social harmony and diversity but first and foremost by audience expectations. The demand for stories to be rooted within a believable and instantly relatable contemporary background is dominant. As a result, fantasy or science fiction (even low-fiction) stories remain scarce, despite common popularity of these very subjects in imported Hollywood blockbusters at cinemas or TV.
An entertainment sector that sees vivid growth and vast potential in Singapore is children’s content. The Singapore Book Council’s (NBDCS) Asian Children’s Content Festival is a fixed pillar in the annual events calendar and the first major fest to incorporate a full conference section devoted to transmedia creation and new media business models. Called the Media Summit, it attracts cross-platform practitioners from around the world with a number of experts visiting the city.
With diverse culture, constantly altering geo clusters and new forms of content comes another obstacle. Having not one but four official languages constitutes another facet of the overall creator’s challenge. The aspect of hybrid vocabulary could be one of the major linchpins that glues general audience acceptance with cultural identity.
Instead of trying to find an acceptable mixture of these official languages the answer might be found in Singlish. Already a combination of the four main languages it is commonly used in colloquial language, yet, by no means recognized officially. Advocates of Singlish argue that this very dialect inherently holds a part of the local identity, as it constitutes the commonly accepted terms and linguistic traditions of this melting pot society.
Ahead of the nation’s 50th anniversary in 2015, things getting into motion, highlighting long suppressed social issues. Incidents like the Little India Riot, the increasing discussion about xenophobia and racism plus the latest installment of a defamation lawsuit against a local blogger gradually set stage for change (one way or another).
The latter is notable not so much for its political implications but rather for providing a new precedence of a rapid crowdfunding campaigns and the public powers that come with it.
Now, where does all this leave the imminent implementation of transmedia concepts to the local market? Despite the fact that transmedia is still in its infant stage and most creative work is done on a grassroots level, there will be agile change throughout the industry within the months to come.
I dare to say that Singapore’s media landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift with StarHub having gained a free-to-air license and commissioning original programming. TV is suddenly no monopoly anymore. Additionally, in the near future, SingTel appears to attempt to jump on the original content wagon as well.
At this point in time it is not clear how this new competition will influence or even change the content being produced. Will the TV sector emerge as the main driver for innovation as it did in other countries? It is also unclear how local web content will be able to offer alternative programming. There are only scattered, small players existing on the market, most being independent or sponsored YouTube channels.
The emergence of a webseries ecosystem which could counter balance TV programming has yet to be ignited. Will TV, Smart TV and internet providers be the first to induce successful web based short format content as a method of asset diversification?
Let me close this second update from the midsts of Singapore’s silent new media revolution with this motto that could serve as temporary answer to some of the questions asked above:
“United by Diversity”
I will keep continuing my observations, conversations and analysis in order to document further developments of the Singapore market (and potentially surrounding markets like Malaysia and Indonesia) in upcoming posts. Please do comment and share your experiences within our community of storytellers and content creators. This is meant to be an ongoing discussion and by no means a how-to-guide.
