Interactive Media

Media as we know it is changing. whether this is for the better I cannot say. I can say that, when you compare today's media to that produced fifty or more years ago you can see a remarkable difference in the way it is packaged and sold.

 Today more digital media is sold, allowing a more flexible presentation of content. While the stories follow the familiar movement of Freytag's triangle -having a beginning, middle and an end- it strays off a bit by allowing heavy user interactions. That is, it allows users to chose how they want to view the media as well how much and in what order. This form of choosing does exist in the traditional form of publishing as well but mostly allows for one possible outcome.

 The first of these to come out were text based RPGs and choose your own adventure books. They changed how people thought of producing content and even the way the creators interacted with their followers. with each book or game made creators provided the raw content needed for users who can pick and choose what is best for them or even re-invent more ways to enjoy the content stretching the enjoyment out from hours to days or even weeks.

 While maybe books, games and movies are still published in the traditional style there is a growing niche market for media that incorporates multiple plot lines.

The Evolution of the Story Map

Before Gustav Freytag's pyramid was introduced to the world another thinker, Aristotle, had noticed the differences between a good story and a bad story. He had discovered that it had a beginning, middle and end the same way Fretag had. It was this realization that was fed down the line through writers who wanted to make compelling stories until it took the form of an M.



This M shaped story line is called a story map and is used to help guide writers through the pitfalls of their writing.Story Maps can show a writer where the holes in their story and help make it more engaging to the audience.

As noted on the picture the story map is an expanded version of the Freytag Pyramid. With the added categories, the story map is easier to use as a guideline but one feature of the story map is it's ability to map out internal conflict as well. The story map can show the transformation between the character's sense of self in the beginning of the story versus her sense of self near the end.

The Three Points of Good Stories

Many of the greatest media pieces produced in the western world follow the simple structure of Freytag's Triangle. They have an exposition, climax and denouement. The beginning of a story introduces your characters and the world they inhabit. This part of any story begins to build suspense until you reach the climax. The climax is the height of the story where the emotional energy of the story is dispersed and settles into the Denouncement. At this point, any character that is affected by the climax should have changed in some way.

When these steps are followed, the writer completes the contract they had with the consumer and the consumer is left feeling satisfied. However, should the writer fail to complete these steps xe is breach of contract and ends up hurting xir story. A good example of this is Batman Begins.

 During the movie, Christian Bale's character Bruce Wayne begins as a young man who had lost his way and managed to get arrested halfway across the world. He is rescued by Ra's Al Ghul and trained to become his heir. He is then put to the test and asked to kill someone, which he refused to do. Up until this point, the movie follows most of the rules in Freytag's Triangle. It has introduced the characters and the world they live in while also generating suspense but continues to keep that suspense bottled up.

 So instead of a Freytag Triangle, we get something like this:

 By the theory of the triangle, the movie is doomed to fail but is saved by it's comic background and action sequences.