"Convergence Culture"

It was said by Professor Graf in a recent class lecture and it is an observation by many—technological advancements and the usage of new media are simply improvements on existing technologies and platforms. When we speak of “new” media we observe that much of it is molded from the form of a preexisting media. As a publishing professional, one of the most innovative technologies I am observing today is the interactive digital publishing capability; taking static, print magazines and bringing them to life via the Web and the incorporation of rich media. Having made this technology the focus of my online advocacy class projects, I was intrigued by one title among the list of recommended readings. I found it interesting, how it parallels this idea of old media and new media “colliding,” as the digital publishing interface was just that—a collision of print magazines with the Web, the interactive capabilities of rich media, and the participatory dynamic that uploading rich media will foster.

That book is “Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.” In it, author Henry Jenkins presents an unexpected series of examples whose social influence was paramount but either overlooked (at least by me!) or underplayed. The book speaks largely to the cultural trend today, when a single event and/or medium somehow prompts unsolicited involvement and interaction from a large, voluntary audience, and how—in the cases incorporated into this book—the event and/or medium takes on a life of its own, if you will, largely due to the audience’s involvement! In turn, audiences create new ideas and uses by way of new social media. These new uses then influence or otherwise impact the original work. With this convergence a collectivism emerges within audiences in the most unlikely of places and it incorporates those characteristics most prominent in Web 2.0—collective intelligence and the participatory element.

Survivor is the first of the phenomena noted in “Convergence Culture.” The reality television series gained popularity quite suddenly, but even more remarkable was the level of involvement it prompted from many members of the viewing audience.

“Spoilers” were soon identified—a group that would make poignant use of collective intelligence and the Internet, server hacking, satellite photos and other means to heighten their level of involvement with the show. This group of plot spoilers aimed to share their knowledge, putting the outcome of the show in their hands and out of the hands of the producers, in a radical attempt to unveil many of the show’s secrets prior to its network airing. The spoilers’ participation segued from watching and studying the show for clues to influencing production. Show producers would soon become both cat and mouse planting clues and misleading viewers to stay one a pounce ahead. Ironically, the spoilers’ presence within their fan base—or lack thereof—would be the ultimate litmus test of the show’s popularity.

With the television show American Idol, unprecedented audience participation also occurred, but the participatory element differed from Survivor in that the show’s creators designed and so anticipated participation. Readers should not be mislead by the title of the chapter—the focus is on the concept of building a brand by way of allegiance, loyalty and water cooler gossip, and there are a number of reality shows—The Apprentice, namely along with a few less mainstream television shows—who used this formula with success.

The text-your-vote function, which merged telephone use and text messaging with the television-viewing experience, is a significant example of convergence worth incorporating into the book. But, the author, having spent less time on this than other points in this chapter must have found it less thrilling. With this particular example I find that—as new ideas are built on older ones—it equates to the call-in formats for radio and television. It is a new mediation of two-way communication and audience participation.

The next three chapters segue to film and introduce The Matrix, Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises as examples. From these film industry empires, Jenkins points out the evolution of creative works that can quite reasonably represent “pro/am” at its best. It is in these chapters, I believe, that Jenkins presents his best examples of convergence. With these examples the films yielded a spawn of amateur projects through other channels and media. Many of those works then gained substantive notoriety.

The Matrix, Jenkins tells us, is one thread in a media web of comic books, anime cartoons, and video games that fully tell the Matrix story—what he refers to as trans-media storytelling. We learn that in viewing the Matrix film, the majority of us only received a fraction of the story. But there is an underground Matrix cult amongst us in the theatres that “got” it—that is, they are receiving the full story by way of the parts told by the various media outside of the film. Subsequently, some members of this cult are taking this idea of trans-media storytelling and creating their own plot derivatives in other media.

Under normal circumstances, the word “imaginative” would not be used to describe “unoriginal” creative works, like the Matrix fan fiction, and amateur filmmaker Evan Mather’s web-distributed films like, “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars.” But Jenkins helps us see otherwise. Spending a great deal of time on the advocacy efforts spearheaded by Heather Lawver, the teen creator of a Harry Potter inspired, fantasy-based “school newspaper,” Jenkins helps us fully see their inventiveness through the fan fiction and fantasy websites that evolved from the Harry Potter empire. Targeted initially for copyright infringement, the various creators of these Potter spin-offs banded together to provide a reasonable defense that fan fiction and the like took these franchises from cultish to mainstream because of their pervasiveness and subsequent popularity. It is a timely and effective transition to the last two chapters, where the book moves on to focus on new media in advocacy and for political agendas, coming full circle with its relevance to the online advocacy component of this class and, perhaps, the original intent of the book even.

If I was to sum up the objective of this text, it is to underscore the power and potential of audiences and fan participation and more specifically, young audiences and fans—those using grassroots media to mobilize in order to get the mainstream media to publicize, as the text mentions with the materialization of the Internet into political campaigns to attract youth voters, and among youth advocates to foster support. This segues to an interesting old media/new media collision with the idea of “democratizing television.” Here Jenkins shares with us Al Gore’s attempt to create a television network that fosters youth participation through citizen journalism. In this example we see collective intelligence and participatory culture merging with a traditionally linear and mainstream corporate media. Certainly not a stretch when one considers the political interest and demographic makeup of viewers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

It is not everyday that one’s required reading incorporates such novelties as Survivor, American Idol and The Matrix in research! If nothing more, I found it an interesting read, but had some difficulty in taking the research of these oddities seriously. The book does challenge us to identify our own observances of media converging. I was surprisingly engaged at times, and even found myself searching for comparisons and contrasting elements in the fan base and lifestyle that emerged from the Star Trek franchise. Today, fans of Star Trek have organized a Trekkie experience off-screen and here on earth and that began with simple convention gatherings but has since transcended into Internet chat rooms, and now—according to my Trekkian cousin, virtual worlds and even “Second Lives.”

So, I’d encourage the cohort to read “Convergence Culture” as it offers an inventive and entertaining way, through our familiarity with pop culture, to adapt us to what we are still beginning to understand and apply with new media and online advocacy.