We really enjoyed doing the extracurricular transmedia stuff’

How I Met Your Mother and the beginnings of transmedia in the sitcom genre

Bibliographic Data

ID12928360
AuthorsVíctor Álvarez Rodríguez (0000-0003-4918-4261, Universidad de Cádiz, corresponding author), Lucía Caro Castaño (0000-0003-2720-1534, Universidad de Cádiz), David Selva-Ruiz (0000-0002-9251-0045, Universidad de Cádiz)
Year2024
Volume16
Issue1
Pages45-61
Publication date2024-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCatalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1757-1898 • E-ISSN: 1757-1901
PublisherIntellect (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/cjcs_00098_1
OpenAlexW4393989987
LanguageEN
References cited16

The sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–14) applies a narrative with a transmedia perspective, using advertising techniques that had been unusual for its genre up to that point. We refer to the reverse product placement tool as a technique to expand the narrative in a ground-breaking way through books apparently written by one of the characters in the series. This study explores the communicative dimensions applied by its developers through an exploratory-descriptive methodology that offers a qualitative analysis. We conduct a bibliographic study alongside an exclusive interview with the co-creator of the series, Carter Bays. Consequently, our study dissects the communicative process from a semantic and advertising perspective with an international reach. Finally, the results identify a paradigmatic case that takes advantage of the communicational context to build a transmedia narrative, giving rise to an intertextual and parasocial interpretation

Media studies · Sociology · Cinema and Media Studies · Digital Games and Media · Media, Gender, and Advertising

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