Convergence Culture FromALICE DUVERT

I am not familiar with media studies and my English is not so good, but Jenkins' book was quite easy to read thanks to many clear examples.
In his book, Jenkins tries to figure out what is the relation between media convergence, participatory culture and collective intelligence.
According to Jenkins, media convergence should be seen as a multiplication of media’s types and media contents. It is also the fact that the relation between all the media is becoming stronger and stronger. So new media are not replacing old media, they just cooperate and reinforce each other.
Participatory culture would be the active consumer’s participation is these changements. Indeed, consumers are no more passive media spectators. Producer and consumer interact with each other so that they may have several position. A consumer can easily become a producer. This phenomenon is easy to understand and for my point of view, it is more visible on the internet (youtube, wikipedia, myspace, all kind of blogs...). So there exist new rules in the media production, even in not everyone is equal in front of this production. In order to become a producer you should have specific abilities. For example, a lot of people use Youtube to watch videos but not every user uses it to post video. Even if it seems quite simple to post a video, you must have some tools and knowledge in order to do so.
Finally, collective intelligence is the result of the fact that consumption has become a collective process. According to Jenkins, everyone has a role to play is media production and can bring his own part of knowledge. And this collective intelligence would be an alternative source of media power. This phenomenon doesn’t have to be under estimated because it already has a great impact through popular culture.
What Jenkins wants to stress in his book is first that the idea of convergence doesn’t mean that all media content is going to flow through a single black box. He takes the example of mobile phone. Indeed, with a cell phone you can do much more than just call your friends. You can play games, take pictures, make movies, surf on the internet etc... So you might think that all media are converging is this little box. Actually, Jenkins wants to show us that there is a multiplication of black boxes even if media are converging. According to Jenkins mobile companies will be part of media convergence but they won't own it.
Then, Jenkins points out the fact that convergence is a cultural and social process as much as it is a technological one.
And finally, we are all still learning what it means to live in a convergence culture because we are taking part to this new phenomenon, which is a process that keeps going on.
I think Jenkins' analysis is totally relevant in a context of globalization. And we may think that this convergence culture is challenging our educational system. Indeed, the new mission of education would be to give the possibility to everyone to be a media producer. Because we are no more passive spectators, we all should be able to participate to this convergence culture.