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in magazines to representations of phones and television in ads or literary fiction,
or as material artefacts (sweets, key chains).

The six types are interrelated in that they combine two axes: symmetry and
activity. Symmetrical combinations can be radical as in fusion, active but respecting
distinctions as in cooperation, or passive as in grouping. Asymmetrical relations can
likewise be radical substitutions, active transfers where both media remain distinct,
or thematizations where what is transferred does not basically affect the other
medium in which it is incorporated. Fusion, cooperation and grouping are symmet-
rical combinations of media side by side. Substitution, transfer and thematization are
asymmetrical relations, where one medium acts on another rather than the reverse.

TABLE 7.1: A Typology of Intermedial Relations
Symmetric Combinations Asymmetric Relations
(A + B) (A B)

Transformation Fusion Substitution
Exchange Co-operation Transfer
Connection Grouping Thematization

These six intermedial forms – fusion, substitution, co-operation, transfer,
grouping and thematization – are in practice often combined. A border case is when
a medium is used to store or spread texts for another medium. When televised films
are recorded on video, or when Internet or postal services distribute all kinds of
media texts – either as physical units (like books or records) or in digital form for use
in various machines (MP3 files or e-books) – this is both active cooperation and a
transfer of one media content through another mediating channel. Remediating
transfers may further include moments of explicit thematization. And when media
texts are accompanied by follow-up stories, advertisements and related commodities
like toys or T-shirts, this supplementary circulation extends and intervenes in the
reception process, thus affecting the meanings constructed around the primary text
and implying a dialectical play of articulation where transfer and cooperation merge.
The boundaries between media are continuously crossed in everyday practices; but
then, they are also continuously reinforced by more or less subtle demarcations of old
or new differences between media circuits.
One should thus not conclude that all intermediality blurs distinctions between
media circuits. Some do, but others do not. Magazines and television programs can
publish reviews or reports on Harry Potter books and films, without in any way chal-
lenging the distinction between these various media circuits as such. On the other
hand, a long-term fusion of previously separate communication technologies in the
form of computers may possibly erode the boundaries between them – culturally,
socially, functionally and institutionally. The transfer of Harry Potter narratives
between books and films may for instance make it hard for some readers/viewers to

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