Writing and Producing Cross-Media/Transmedia Content for Young Audiences: Aiming for Edutainment in a Television Christmas Calendar

This chapter explores an attempt to design an attractive cross-media edutainment experience for children and young audiences through a case study of the television Christmas calendar Kometernes jul/Christmas of the Comets. The original idea behind the 24-episode serial for December 1–24 was to use a popular family fiction format to spur an increased interest in natural sciences. After discussing theoretical understandings of multi-, cross-, and transmedia storytelling and ideas of working with different forms of cross-media strategies as an industry buzz, the chapter explores the many negotiations between the academic stakeholders, the screenwriters, and the broadcaster TV 2 when trying to create a production that would be both highly entertaining and engaging while taking place in a natural science arena and offering opportunities for cross-media communication and information around this.