From Cinema to Audiobook: Sharing Media Features

Abstract

This essay is part of a research project that seeks to analyze, based on Intermediality, the boundaries between sound media products such as audiobooks and podcasts. One of the conclusions of this larger project is in the way fictional sound media use cinema features to create what we can understand as immersion in the narrative diegesis. In this essay, we show how cinema, as a type of multimodal media, becomes fundamental to the construction of features for fiction audiobooks, such as tracks and sound effects, as well as vocal performance, a feature that, along with the rhythm, is the oldest in literary history. Using Lars Elleström's model in The modalities of media II (2020) and analyzing different audiobooks, we establish some categories. For soundtracks: iconic, based on the similarity with non-musical elements (Mickey Mousing); symbolic, the conventions in rhythms and other musical elements; and indexical, which refers to the manifestation of time, geographical location, or specific social group. Sound effects are distinguished into depictional sounds (to illustrate actions), deictional sounds (to create ambiance), and descriptional sounds (by convention). The methodology is comparative, seeking similarities and differences between these sound media products. Our intention is to expand Elleström's model so that it can support the understanding of these new-and not-so-new-qualified media types. In addition to Elleström's theories, we also bring those of Agnes Petho, Jorgen Bruhn and André Bazin.