Team leaders for Thursday, 2/14/08: Susannah Turner, Leah Annison, Travis Lamprecht. They will post materials here as comments. Others can comment here or on their own blogs, as they see fit.
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Read in Mirror!
The professor's blog for English 4304, the Writing and Culture Capstone Course for English Majors, Spring 2008. The topic for this capstone course is "Rhetoric(s) of Information, Reading, and Writing in a Digital World."
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Jenkins' Conclusion in Convergence Culture
Conclusion: Democratizing Television? The Politics of Participation
Pages: 240-246
Main Concepts: Al Gore's cable news network, Current, Slashdot, and BBC; Consumer participation, and how it is shaping convergence culture,
In this relatively short section, Jenkins focuses on convergence culture and how it is affecting old media ways, especially television. Many television networks are now focusing on multiple media channels to reach their consumers in order to gain consumer loyalty and to ensure selling their [TV network] content. Three organizations Jenkins discusses is Al Gore's cable news network, Current, a reader-moderated news site, Slashdot, and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).
Gore's Current "network's stated goal was to encourage the active participation of young people as citizen journalists" (240). Amateur media producers could upload their own videos to the Web site, which would allow visitors to view the videos and vote for the best one. Whichever video received the most votes won and was aired on Current's television program. Gore focused on corporate America, not corporate media, because he believed targeting corporate America was the most effective way of getting young people more involved with television. "Gore held firm in his beliefs that enabling audience-generated content had the potential to diversify civic discourse: 'I personally believe that when this medium is connected to the grassroots storytellers that are out there, it will have an impact on the kinds of things that are discussed and the way they are discussed'" (242). Likewise, there was Slashdot.
Slashdot empowered "readers not only to submit their own stories but to work collectively to determine the relative value of each submission" (240). Both Current and Slashdot are encouraging young people to participate in their production, selection, and distribution processes. Current and Slashdot are giving young people a feeling of power, much like Heather's Harry Potter web site and The Sims online.
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was also embracing convergence culture. BBC was taking segments from "broadcasters' content and programs, and [their] viewer's contributions" and mixing them together (242). This process opened up a more participatory culture which helps in shaping digital culture.
Gore's Current, Slashdot, and the BBC are all promoting convergence culture. "Convergence is changing the ways in which media industries operate and the ways average people think about their relation to media. We are in a critical moment of transition during which the old rules are open to change and companies may be forced to renegotiate their relationship to consumers. The question is whether the public is ready to push for greater participation or willing to settle for the same old relations to mass media" (243).
* Sure, technology is ready for us, but is our culture ready to handle it? CAN our culture handle it?
Our generation has been named by MTV's Vice President, Betsy Frank, as "media actives" (244). And, boy, is she right! Ms. Frank argues that our generation has grown up in a world involving multiple media channels - cable television, the vcr, and the internet. As a result of this, we have always been able to get what we want, when we want it. If we want to know how to get to Podunk, VT from San Diego, CA, how many miles it takes, how to avoid highways, and get the shortest distance time, we can know in less than 30 seconds - mapquest.com it! As a result of this convenient multiple media channel lifestyle, our generation "take[s] a much more active role in [our] media choices" (244). New York Times's Marshall Sella said it best when he said, "A man with one machine (a TV) is doomed to isolation, but a man with two machines (TV and a computer) can belong to a community" (245). Convergence culture is becoming what Jenkins called "communal media - media that become part of our lives as members of communities, whether experienced face-to-face at the most local level or over the Net" (245). See Blackberry Link
Finally, throughout Jenkins' book, he has shown how convergence culture is affecting old media ways and how it is "enabling new forms of participation and collaboration" (245). The more television networks and other corporations that allows us, as consumers, to be involved and allowed to participate within our culture, the more knowledge communities will continue to emerge and grow. Although we may not know exactly how to use all of this power the networks are giving us, networks, consumers, and producers are in a critical process of trying to communicate and work with all walks of life toward the common good (for producers and consumers, alike). Above all, by allowing consumers to participate with one another using multiple media channels, collective intelligence is increasingly developing and new ideas are constantly forming.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER...
* Why is it so important for young people's voices to be heard not just on the Internet, but on television as well?
* Do you think democratizing television will actually stimulate young people's interest and participation in the democratic process?
* Technology is clearly up-to-date, but is our culture? What happens if our culture falls behind technology?
* Consumers are considering some media channels as "lifelines." Is this a bad thing that consumers are becoming so dependent upon these media channels? (For example, e-mail from Blackberry)
SOME INTERESTING LINKS:
* www.current.com (Al Gore's Current cable news network)
* http://current.com/topics/76253632_google_current
* http://slashdot.org
* participatoryculture.org
* ourmedia.org
Media Concentration
Jenkins believes that media concentration is a rapidly growing dilemma in convergence culture. "Media concentration is a very real problem that potentially stifles many of the developments I have been describing across this book" (248). Media concentration involves monopolies owning the majority of media outlets. Jenkins believes this is a serious problem for many reasons. "Concentration is bad because it stifles competition and places media industries above the demands of the consumers. Concentration is bad because it lowers diversity-important in terms of popular culture, essential in terms of news" (248). Jenkins continues by noting that the consumers or audience is somewhat disregarded during media concentration because it is impersonal. "Concentration is bad because it lowers the incentives for companies to negotiate with their consumers and raises the barriers to their participation...The potentials of a more participatory media culture are also worth fighting for" (248). I believe Jenkins has a good point because we have seen what other forms of monopoly can do to an industry. What happens is the monopolies over time become so comfortable with their status and become less innovative because they are not competing with any other companies. Jenkins' fear is that our media is becoming monopolized therefore it will lose the relationship with its audience, thus becoming dull and too complacent. While many agree with his assessment, others do not. The answer is up to each individual consumer to form their own opinion on the subject.
Links
http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Corporations/Owners.asp
http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternetandTechnology/wm284.cfm
Questions
Do you think media concentration has a positive or negative influence on the media?
What other forms of monopolies can you think of that have had either positive or negative results on their respective industries?
What specific media outlets do you think are concentrated the most?
Jenkins Convergence Culture, Conclusion continued...
p.246 "We are learning to to apply these new participatory skills through our relation to commercial entertainment."
Jenkins speaks of issues under the contrains of "We," in reference to the concept of "Communal Media" the media that we are all involved in, or "media that become a part of our lives as members of communities, whether experienced face-to-face at the most local level or over the Net" p.245.
Jenkins is tying in the fun-non-serious part of our lives with the important matters of politics and power--Most important to realize about Power being Money and Political effects of our interactions with Media
terms:
*Media Fandom
*Active Consumption
*Grassroots Activity
*"Fan Culture"<>Commercial Culture
*Participation--debate over terms of
Claim: "Operating Assumption that increasing participation in popular culture is a good thing" p.248
"Critical Utopian"--personal concern with Political effects of Fan communities
-"to identify possibilites with in our culture...lead to better, more just society"p.247
-vs. "Critical Pessimism"-focus on obstacles to democratic society"-self-defeating--disempowers comsumers as it seeks to mobilize them
Politics of Critical Utopia>>empowerment--what we can do with media
Politics of Critical Pessimism>>Victimization--what media does to us
Media Concentration>"Bad" --lowers diversity, lowers incentive
**Fight for more Participatory Media Culture
Against: -corporate copyright regime
-censorship and moral panic
terms:
*Politics of Participation
*Consumption Communities
New Model: "We are collectively changing the nature of the marketplace, and in so doing we are pressuring companies to change the products they are creating and the ways they relate to their consumers."
term: A New Kind of Consumer Advocacy Group
"A politics of confrontation must give way to one focused on tactical collaboration." p.250
www.sequentialtart.com
"Sequential Tarts represent a new kind of consumer advocacy group--one that seeks to diversify content and make mass media more resposive to its consumers." p.249
www.globalfrequency.org
Warren Ellis - Global Frequency Network
"citizen soldiers use distributed knowledge to overcome the dangers of government secrecy" p.250
term: "digital activist" Howard Rheingold>>"Smart Mobs" - "Groups of people using these tools will gain new forms of social power."
--ie.Texting activists in Manila and Madrid
Cory Doctoran (science fiction writer)
-term: "Adhocracies" -organization characterized by lack of hierarchy --a knowledge culture that turns information into action
www.bittorrent.com
www.frequencysite.com
www.g4tv.com
(Wired) Chris Anderson - term: "The Long Tail"
-"the greatest profit will be made by those companies that generate the most diverse content and keep it available at the most reasonable prices" p.252
www.wired.com
(Slate) Ivan Askwith "producers won't have to compromise"
www.apple.com/itunes/store
Money Power in consumer hands: "Direct downloads will give fans of endangered shows the chance to vote with their wallets while a show is still on the air." p.253
Jenkins' own questions:
"What would it mean to tap media power for our own purposes?"
"Is idealogical and aesthetic purity really more valuable than transforming our culture?"
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