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"Cross-media is part of our lives," comments Alessandro Nanì, a new lecturer at the BFM School.

Alessandro Nanì, a cross-media and trans-media specialist, has been appointed lecturer in the Cross-media Production curriculum at the Baltic Film and Media School. He received his MA degree at the BFM School this summer. Alessandro Nanì has been the assistant to Professor Renira Rampazzo Gambarato since his second year of Master studies and this gave him opportunity to teach during his studies. He now teaches full time at BFM.
 

You graduated with a Master’s degree in this spring. Why did you decide to specialise in this field of study?

There were several factors. The first one was my personal interest, and the second one was the fact that I have always been interested in communication and media in general. I studied photography and public relations previously and have always dealt with delivering messages. I have tried to communicate through images, visual as well as in words. Four years ago, I participated in an international project with BFM that focused on delivering short films. We were quite involved with cross-media and multi-media and the experience offered me a real insight into this field. I realised that it was really interesting.

In your opinion, what makes studying and working at the BFM School interesting?

I definitely admire the quality of lectures presented by international staff – they are very good. Here in Estonia perhaps some people feel like we are in a faraway corner of northern Europe; however the composition of our staff places this school in the heart of Europe.  Similarly, I would say that the level of teaching is high and that BFM is really unique because it offers the integrated curricula of communication, media and film studies.

Do you use your field of study – cross-media - in your everyday work and life?

Absolutely, I deal with cross-media all the time - not only at the university. I have also established a company, which is developing large cross-media projects that are linked to films in Estonia. Cross-media is a reality for me every day - every time that I watch TV, use the Internet, or see posters for a political campaign.  I probably see media in a slightly different way compared to the average person because of what I do.

How could people become attached to cross-media?

People often utilise several forms of media without being aware of it. For example, if you see a company’s advertisement on TV and then you connect to the Internet and try to find some information about this company, you have access to everything that the company has prepared for you – information, offers, etc. Or suppose a person sees a poster with a QR code at the bus stop. They can take a picture of it and then be directed to the website and there they can explore the whole content of the page. We are an intrinsic part of cross-media and we have an experience with this field on a daily basis - it is now a part of people’s everyday life. They use cross-media every day with or without being aware of it.

Are there any differences in utilising cross-media in different countries?

Yes, there are substantial differences for various reasons. They can be cultural reasons or related to the infrastructure. Cross-media is heavily linked to the use of the Internet. Experiences with cross-media tend to be less popular and less desired in countries where there is no Internet or where the Internet infrastructure isn’t well developed. Differences may also occur in particular areas of one country. For example, Italy is a country with big cities that have a very well developed Internet infrastructure.  But Italy is also a country with a lot of mountains and people from some of these villages up in the mountains don’t have access to broadband and the Internet and they utilise cross-media without them. That is the difference.

What is your main source for gaining information?

The Internet is my main source. It is becoming a medium that delivers content that was originally produced for a different medium. For example, when I watch the news through the Internet – is this watching TV or is this using the Internet? It is a little bit of both, because news was originally created for TV, but then it was uploaded to the Internet. This is my personal way of gaining information. Of course I don’t gain information only from news - I also do my own research, and I explore the content of some other web pages that are interesting.

Does the Internet have any effect on cross-media?

The World Wide Web is changing the world for the better in my perspective, but some people would disagree with this statement. The Internet is growing a lot nowadays. Cross-media experiences, which are connected with the Internet, are being produced in countries where the Internet didn’t exist a few years ago.  When we talk about Estonia, the Internet is everywhere. In fact, Internet coverage reaches over 90% of the Estonian population. Of course, cross-media isn’t only for the Internet, it can also use other platforms. However, I can say that a majority of cross-media experiences do use the Internet. So if we lose this component, we lose a big part of it. I believe that cross-media and trans-media will definitely become our natural environment in the future.

Interview by Beáta Baranová, Erasmus intern at TU's Baltic Film and Media School. Student of Journalism and Art Studies at Palacky University, Czech Republic.

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