Watchmen, Alan Moore (2009)
CTCS 482 syllabus pre-2026
Cinema and Media Studies Division
CTCS 482: Transmedia Entertainment Storyworlds
Spring 2026 / Units: 4.0 Tuesdays, 2:00 – 5:50
SCI 108
Course website ctcs482.com
Instructor: Kiki Benzon (she/they)
Office Hours: by appointment
Contact: kbenzon@cinema.usc.edu
Teaching Assistant: Julia Camus
Contact: jcamus@usc.edu
Teaching Assistant: Maegan Capistrano
Contact: mcapistr@usc.edu
Course Description
Transmedia entertainment is characterized by storytelling that extends across multiple media platforms—film, television, games, comics, performance, web content, and other digital and analog forms—to construct expansive, often collaboratively shaped narrative environments known as “storyworlds.” These worlds are shaped by creators, studios, and fans, producing dynamic and participatory media ecosystems. This course investigates the theory and practice of transmedia storytelling through the lens of worldbuilding, a multidisciplinary process through which complex fictional and nonfictional universes are constructed and sustained. Drawing from examples in popular culture (Star Wars, The Walking Dead) as well as experimental and independent instantiations of transmedia storytelling, we will consider how storyworlds unfold across constellations of media texts and how audiences inhabit and transform them. The course culminates in a transmedia design project, in which students will conceptualize, prototype, and pitch an original storyworld and transmedia campaign.
Learning Objectives
You will emerge from this course with
– a grounding in transmedia theory and worldbuilding design practice
– an understanding of multimodality and media specificity
– familiarity with the technological, design, and marketing strategies involved in creating transmedia ecosystems
– a working archive of mainstream, independent, and experimental transmedia projects and franchises
– a team-produced transmedia storyworld bible and pitch
Required Readings and Supplementary Materials
Readings will be provided as PDFs, which can be accessed on our course website, ctcs478.com.
Course Notes
Please allocate $30 for film, games, and expenses app purchases.
Description and Assessment of Assignments
Participation (10%): Engagement with ideas, activities, and discussions is imperative for your success in this course. You begin with full marks for participation, but this will be reduced if you haven’t read/watched/played the assigned works or don’t participate in class discussion or activities. Always engage in work presented by your peers (presentations, etc.) as a matter of mutual respect for each other’s research and creative efforts.
Critical Comments (20%): Over the course of the term, please submit to the course website, ctcs482.com, five critical comments on the week’s required reading(s) (4% each = 20%); comments (300-500 words) should be posted to our course website, ctcs482.com, by 5pm on the day before class (i.e., Tuesdays). The comments should present an analysis of arguments/ideas communicated in the week’s readings and, ideally, extrapolate from these ideas to consider related works, concepts, or experiences of critical interest. Comments will be evaluated in terms of their clarity and intellectual verve; your comments may be referenced in class. Posts made on the week of your presentation do not count as one of your required five critical comments.
Team Presentation (25%): Students will work in teams of 3 or 4 to design and deliver a 45- to 60- minute presentation; topics include case studies of transmedia storyworlds that exemplify the weekly themes and subjects that involve various kinds of transmedial practices. Teams will be determined after our first class. As well as outlining the storyworld’s history and structure—its evolution, cross-platform dynamics, stakeholders, etc.—the presenters should analyze the project in terms its aesthetic, technological, social, and cultural elements. The presentation should not focus solely on the assigned readings.
Team project (45%): This the major deliverable for the course and will require a creative and collaborative energies. You will work in groups to imagine, plot, theorize, design, document, and pitch a transmedia storyworld of your own invention. You will map out extensions of this world across multiple platforms towards narrative expansion and the enrichment of a coherent storyworld. At term’s end, you will present your project to an expert panel (15%) and submit documentation (30%) that describes your storyworld and its narrative extensions.
A Note About Time
CTCS courses are conventionally four hours long to accommodate feature film screenings, which are customary in Cinema and Media Studies courses. Because CTCS 482 is focused on transmedia works has no in-class feature-length screenings, our course will normally run for only three hours and include about 120 minutes of lecture/discussion/activity and 45-60 minutes of team presentation time. If we need to take the full four hours for a longer activity, guest speaker, or project development, I will let you know in advance.
Content Notice
In this course, we will at times engage with difficult or disturbing subject matter related to race, gender, class, and other sites of oppression. I will do my best to provide content warnings, and I would ask that you also let us know if material you will be presenting contains potentially painful or stressful content. Please let me know if you are concerned about particular subjects or media works in our itinerary.
Assignment Submission Policy
Written assignments should be submitted on time and in electronic form either to the instructor or to the course website, as indicated by the assignment. Creative/practice projects should be submitted in a format that facilitates access and evaluation of the project. Critical comments should be posted to the relevant week on the course website, ctcs482.com. Papers and projects submitted after the due date will be penalized half a letter grade per day late to a maximum of four days, at which point the assignment will receive a zero. Critical reflections submitted late will not be graded.
Attendance (CAMS division policy)
In accordance with university recommendations, all meetings of this class (except the first week) will be held in person. Students who become ill and need to self-isolate will be supported in their efforts to stay current with classwork and assignments, to the extent possible. Please contact me at least one hour before class start time if you become ill and need to self-isolate. Do not come to class if you are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 or other illnesses. Requests for longer term exemptions must be supported by a written accommodation request from the USC Office of Student Accessibility Services (OSAS) https://osas.usc.edu.
Content Distribution and Synchronous Session Recordings (USC policy)
Recording a university class without the express permission of the instructor and announcement to the class is prohibited unless conducted pursuant to an Office of Student Accessibility Services (OSAS) accommodation. Recording can inhibit free discussion and thus infringe on the academic freedom of other students as well as the instructor. Distribution or use of notes, recordings, exams, or other intellectual property, based on university classes or lectures without the express permission of the instructor for purposes other than individual or group study is also prohibited (see Living our Unifying Values: The USC Student Handbook, page 13).
AI Generators
In this course, we are interested in the critical use of AI tools in creative and scholarly work. Thus, AI tools are permitted but only in the ideation, prototyping, and iterating phases of project development; 4 you may use AI to write code. AI tools must be conscientiously and transparently deployed: they must be acknowledged in the work you are submitting. For any assignment for which you have used AI, please include an addendum explaining the rationale and tactics for its employment. For example, indicate the prompts you used at a specific stage in your development process, or provide your instructor access to essay drafts or iterations so that they can clearly trace the development and authorship of your work. Using an AI tool to generate content without proper attribution will be treated as plagiarism and reported to the Office of Academic Integrity. Please see USC Libraries AI Generators Citation Guidance for further information