Convergence Cultue (Where me and old me collide:)

In my opinion, as media scholar, Henry Jenkins fills a big emptiness on media subject in the 21^st Century with his book called “Convergence Culture”. When all media continue to grow day by day, there is a need to analyse the differences between past, today and future. At this point, I think, Jenkins' book tries to show all possible changes during developments on our daily life and on media such as TV, Internet and other technological subjects and devices. He also compares and examines the relationship between people, media and technology. The main thing which effects me on Jenkins' book is the organizing and content of the book. To reach combination of new and old media, he chooses good materials to support his ideas and also he brings new ideas to simple and usual examples from daily life such as: The Matrix, Harry Potter, American Idol and Star Wars. When he calls new terms as “convergence” culture, he uses definitions of folk, mass and popular culture, and he says; “popular culture is what happens as mass culture gets pulled back into folk culture”(p. 140) and I think, here, he completely has good explanation for all scheme of culture and media in the past and today. When Jenkins points out his ideas about trans-new-media and participation and collaboration of people, the question that I ask is who are the users of this new “thing”? This is the most important point which Jenkins argues and also for me, this part is the best part of the book to get new opinion about popular new media. Another feature that I like on Jenkins' book is doubled layer. When he critics the consumers, he does not forget producers. He analyse both side of the white screen as people (consumers-producers) who are in front of the screen and companies (producers) which are behind the screen. Literary, Jenkins' style is very understandable and he has obvious points to determine and explain. In addition, it is a good thing to feel as in the movie The Matrix when I look the cover of the book, because it makes me ready to enter “mess”and “mass” areas of new media and new collide culture.

media diary

I decided to keep my media diary in the beginning of December, namely between the 9th and 13th. The period before Christmas holidays was quite busy so I am not sure if my usage of media was quite relevant but I noticed throughout these five days that I have mostly the habits I have when my schedule is not that busy. I have to mention a detail which I consider important: I have lived without a TV set for almost five years now and I do not intend to buy one. I “divorced” from the TV when I moved to Bucharest and started my studies. Since then computer has replaced it somehow. Even now when I use TV I watch mostly Discovery Channel, History Channel or Animal Planet. If there are good movies in the programme I do not hesitate to watch either, but mostly I watch movies on my computer, online or on DVD. I dislike totally entertainment shows like Big Brother or the kind and I do not watch news unless I am around TV by mistake and hear them. I do not read newspapers, maybe Helsingin Sanomat, the online edition and National Geographic Magazine and Museum (the online magazine of American Association of Museums).
I use mobile phone quite rarely and that is only for messages and conversation, when strictly necessary. I prefer sending messages using my computer. Sometimes I get confused in all the functions that my phone has, I do not know to use them all. I also use the iPod mostly when travelling or walking. I noticed I spend quite a lot of time in front of the computer mostly chatting with friends, reading all kinds of articles and doing my homework. I use the computer both at school and home but mostly at home, as at school I do more reading than surfing the internet. The average time spent online varies depending on the day of the week. Usually in weekend I can spend a whole day in front of the computer. I use Facebook everyday, including the chat, Farmville and Yahoo Messenger mostly. I usually leave them open and I go on doing my stuff until somebody talks to me. I also use Google for finding the information I need and most of the times I end up on Wikipedia, jumping from link to link. I enjoy watching movies a lot, especially horror movies and for that I use tvshack or Youtube. I also use Youtube for listening to music as I do not carry around with me all the cds. I usually prefer listening to metal combined with classical music but other genres such as jazz and folk music are also appealing. I check my Yahoo mail and university portal everyday and most of the times I have mails to reply to. Sometimes I read other blogs; usually I have some favourite bloggers which I follow regulary and I also have my own blog where I post every month. I don’t have any certain topics, I write what I feel and the number of posts varies depending on what I have to say. I think it is very relieving to keep a blog and sometimes quite fun. Also, the online dictionaries are used often when I have to read or write assignments and I am not sure about the meaning of certain words. It is very difficult to spend one day without using the computer and a computer without internet is kind of useless to be honest. Sometimes, (in exceptional cases) when I do not use the computer for one day I feel like something in my life is missing. I do not know if this is good or bad but I got used to the idea that it is a normal thing of my life. I used to live without a computer not so long ago but I accepted that times changed and I changed myself, too. I am not that lonely anymore now when I can stay in contact with my family and friends, even virtually. If it is to name something I cannot spend my day without, that would be computer with internet connection.

I also kept a detailed media diary for the five days on my personal blog: http://silviadimitri.wordpress.com/category/media-diary/