Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

This abstract presents a practice-based case study of a character-driven transmedia storytelling project developed for children and young learners across digital platforms and educational settings. The project is centered on the creation of an original fictional character, a ginger cat named Antoine Croissant, who functions as a narrative guide within an evolving storyworld that combines storytelling, cultural exploration, and greek language learning. Initially launched through social media storytelling, the project gradually expanded into schools, live storytelling sessions, and online workshops for children learning Greek as a second language, forming a transmedia educational universe that operates across both digital and physical learning environments.
Originally, the project emerged from the author’s established presence as a digital storyteller on social media, where she operated under the narrative persona of “Nonna Lina”. Through regular TikTok & Instagram live storytelling sessions and short-form narrative content, the author developed a sustained practice of reading, performing, and improvising original stories for a growing audience of children and families. Acting as  “the official social media fairy guide,” she explored how voice, character, and narrative continuity could foster emotional engagement and audience participation within platform-based environments.
This case study forms part of the author’s doctoral research, which examines storytelling in video content on social media and explores the shift from cross-media production models toward transmedia practices with educational applications.
Within this context, the character of Antoine Croissant was gradually introduced as part of an expanding narrative practice rather than as a pre-designed transmedia product. As audience familiarity with both the storyteller persona and the fictional character increased, the storytelling activity began to move beyond live performance and short-form content. The narrative world gained coherence, continuity, and recognizability, which in turn prompted interest from educators and cultural institutions. This shift led to the adaptation of the stories for live storytelling sessions in primary schools and for interactive workshops, marking the project’s transition from social media storytelling to an educational transmedia universe.
As the narrative universe expanded, the project gradually took on a transmedia structure, with each platform supporting different narrative and educational functions. YouTube became the primary space for longer-form storytelling and episodic narratives, allowing for deeper story development and sustained attention. Instagram operated as a character-based extension of the storyworld, offering brief narrative fragments and point-of-view content that reinforced familiarity with the character and supported emotional continuity. Live storytelling sessions in schools introduced embodied and dialogic forms of narration, while online workshops enabled linguistic participation and collaborative story creation, particularly in contexts where Greek is taught as a second language.
This distribution of storytelling across platforms aligns with core principles of transmedia storytelling, as described by Jenkins, while also revealing important pedagogical adaptations. In this case, transmedia logic is not driven by commercial expansion or audience consumption, but by learning objectives, age-specific needs, and the affordances of each medium. Narrative pacing, character agency, and levels of audience participation are adjusted depending on whether the storytelling takes place on social media, in a classroom, or in an online learning environment.
From an educational perspective,the transmedia structure supports narrative-based learning, playful engagement, and cultural exploration. Learners encounter the storyworld through different entry points and are encouraged to interact with the narrative by contributing ideas, imagining alternative story paths, or creating sub-stories connected to the central character. This participatory approach positions learners not as passive recipients of content, but as active contributors to a shared narrative space, fostering both engagement and creative expression.
From the author’s dual position as creator and researcher, the project provides a practice-based lens through which to observe how transmedia storytelling functions as an educational methodology. Reflections from practice indicate that learners engage differently with the narrative depending on the platform and setting, with variations in attention span, emotional involvement, and linguistic participation. These observations inform an ongoing analysis of how transmedia storytelling strategies are reconfigured when applied within educational contexts rather than entertainment-focused media environments.
This extended abstract concludes by proposing that educational transmedia storytelling constitutes a distinct and evolving field of practice at the intersection of digital culture, audiovisual storytelling, and learning. By examining a living, character-driven transmedia universe that originated in social media storytelling and expanded into educational settings, this case study contributes to contemporary discussions on how narrative,platforms, and pedagogy intersect. The project is positioned as a foundation for further doctoral research into transmedia storytelling as an educational practice, offering insights relevant to researchers, educators, and practitioners working with digital narrative forms.