Convergence Culture
Convergence Culture: Consumer Participation and the Economics of Mass Media
URL = http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3017
Book by Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press, 2006.
This book on Media Convergence is extensively reviewed at http://www.watercoolergames.org/archives/000590.shtml
Commentary by Trebor Scholz
Trebor Scholz:
"In Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins describes himself as a critical
utopian. "As a utopian, I want to identify possibilities within our
culture that might lead toward a better, more just society. My
experiences as a fan have changed how I think about media politics,
helping me look for and promote unrealized potentials rather than reject
out of hand anything that does not rise to my standards." (p247)
Jenkins first lays out detailed case studies of fan communities of the TV series Survivor and American Idol, Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars, The Matrix Trilogy, and Harry Potter. He describes in detail how these fan communities formed, how they steered the content production of unfolding media narratives, and how they migrated across media, convergence culture. Convergence means that content flows across multiple media platforms, between old and new media.
Consumers appearing as fan communities, Jenkins elaborates, have a bargaining power that they never had before and this collective action can force capitalists to change, he says. Instead of simply thinking of the vote of the pocketbook, he is interested in possibilities of collective intelligence and participatory culture. Collectively, fan communities can make demands to corporate media producers. They can show us new ways of thinking about citizenship and collaboration, Jenkins says." (IDC mailing list, 12/5/2007)
Lecture at the Open Content Symposium
Context of the lecture
The Economics of Open Content Symposium:
The Economics of Open Text
Convergence Culture: Consumer Participation and the Economics of Mass Media
Fred Beshears, University of California at Berkeley Ellen Faran, MIT Press Henry Jenkins, MIT Joel Greenberg, GSD&M Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks
The economics of open text and new models for textbook, university-press, and commercial publishing are described by University of California Berkeley's Senior Strategist Fred Beshears, MIT Press Director Ellen Faran, and University of British Columbia's John Willinsky. New modalities of consumer participation in mass media are discussed by Henry Jenkins, MIT Professor of Literature and Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, Joel Greenberg from the GSD&M advertising agency in Austin, Texas, and Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks's Executive Director of Technical Training and Artist Development.
Industry Study: The Economics of Open Text Fred Beshears, University of California, Berkeley Ellen W. Faran, MIT Press
Convergence Culture: Consumer Participation and the Economics of Mass Media Henry Jenkins, MIT Joel Greenberg, GSD&M Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks
Context for the Symposium
On January 23-24, 2006, Intelligent Television hosts the Economics of Open Content symposium at MIT to bring together representatives from media industries, cultural and educational institutions, and legal and business minds to discuss how to make open content happen better and faster.
With the support of the Hewlett Foundation and MIT Open Courseware, Intelligent Television brings representatives of commercial media industries (publishing, film, music, television, video, software, education/courseware, gaming) together with representatives of cultural and educational institutions who are innovative in this area and legal and business minds in the academy who are studying how to make this happen faster and better. New Yorker economics columnist and bestselling author (The Wisdom of Crowds) James Surowiecki keynotes at the Cambridge meeting, with a presentation entitled 'Openness as an Ethos.'
Intelligent Television has been conducting a year-long investigation into the economics of open content. This project is a systematic study of why and how it makes sense for commercial companies and noncommercial institutions active in culture, education, and media to make certain materials widely available for free, and also how free services are finding new (sometimes commercial) ways of becoming sustainable. The project builds upon written work that Intelligent Television recently completed with the support of the Mellon Foundation and Ithaka on Marketing Culture in the Digital Age, and also upon work now being completed as part of the Mellon Foundation-supported Commission on Cyberinfrastructure in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The project also informs new economic models that Intelligent Television is establishing for its documentary work.