Just started reading Janet Hague, Murray's books and on the holodeck. The future of narrative in cyberspace first two chapters of very interesting. One of the key things to remember about this book is written from the perspective of somebody who is in right at the very start of the new Transmedial age.she discusses in the opening chapters. Some ideas about the fundamental nature of the immersive Transmedial experience. The impact that it has on the viewer/consumer the impact that this type of technology might have on society at large.

Janet Murray uses images of a Transmedial experiences found within fictional setting to explore both a utopian and dystopian the Transmedial future. She uses the holodeck found on the starship enterprise, as an example a utopian Transmedial future. A future in which the consumer uses the Transmedial environment to stimulate their  imagination.The consumer, effectively reaching into the Transmedial world and controlling what he or she sees and does. It is a world where the Transmedial environment can be used to confront social, personal problems/issues. A world where the Transmedial experience augments and adds to the everyday lives of those who consumed it.

She positions, this utopian view against the dystopian view presented by movies such as Huxley's Brave New World and Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451. In these fictional depictions of the Transmedial experience, the  experience takes over the consumer superseding the consumer's real-life. Effectively, the Transmedial environment controls the consumer, ultimately telling the consumer  what he or she should want and feel.

The transmedial experience within these dystopian views of the future meets the consumer's shallow immediate basic lusts (sexual excitement etc) and in so doing breaks the link between the consumer and the real world. Murray uses these examples to tease out some  the more esoteric moral issues surrounding transmedia and the consumption of transmedial product. For many these are still relevant questions today.

As perhaps it does for anybody working in this space the question raised is how  do I want the consumer to operate in the transmedial world I am about to create?

Janet Murray makes it clear in these chapters that the idea of a new media/medium somehow corrupting it's user and society at large is not in itself a new. And again, she helpfully drawers our attention to  some of the more historical examples of where new media types  have been seen as a danger to society something incredibly negative. Even the book, and the humble printing press were seen as dangerous. When they first appeared.

Although the moral questions raised within this chapter are interesting. I don't  want to spend too much time thinking about them. They are surely questions which have been asked, fears that have been expressed, whenever a new media platform has become available, and information is available in a new form.

 What I do think is relevant for me is a basic understanding where the consumer sits in the transmedial space?

The arguments, Janet Murray is raising about audience control, social impact relate directly to what we call audience participation.

How do you get the audience to participate? How do you capture them?

These are fundamental issues that I think I want to explore in my dissertation .