In my opinion, as media scholar, Henry Jenkins fills a big emptiness on media subject in the 21st 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.
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I also like the examples chosen by Henry Jenkins to illustrate the relations between media, technology and humans. They are contemporary and everyone knows them. And this is one of the reasons that the book is so accessible from the point of view of the content. Also, he analyses both from the point of view of the producer and the consumer offering objectivity instead of taking sides.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you that one of the most interesting aspects is the question of who are those new users/producers/consumers. I think with the different examples Jenkins chose he gives a few ideas about them. From the people who try to “spoil” Survivor to the 14 y/o Heather who founded the Harry Potter side the new field of users and producers is huge. Also the example of the Snowman and political debates show interesting attempts of how to combine those old and new media. The audience mainly pays attention when new and old media are combined but something that consists entirely or derived from new media only gains more attention and importance when represented by old media. Take for example the fake reality videos on YouTube of LonelyGirl15 who only really got attention when discussed on TV. Or also the Matrix example. The video game on its own wouldn’t have got as much attention if it had not been in combination with the movie. Well, here I think it also is dependent on the different kind of audiences/users it attracts or is directed to.
ReplyDeleteOk, I guess what I wanted to say, and what Jenkins wants to emphasize with his choice of different examples is that, the field of users is as broad as that of consumers and that we cannot point the finger on one or two groups in particular. This was possible when it came to old media, but as seen in the chapter of Political Debates and the Snowman example, when old and new media collide there is no way to pinpoint any particular group of user and producer.