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LOEX Quarterly Volume 34
Until relatively recently, if you loved a book, hated a
journal article, or came up with a better ending to a
movie, the opportunity to widely circulate your thoughts
was limited. Sure, you could talk to your friends or write
a letter to the editor (and hope it got published), but it
was likely your opinions or ideas would not be widely
disseminated. However, with recent advances, particu-
larly in technology, it is now much easier to get involved
and also potentially create something different, but re-
lated, for others to see.
Henry Jenkins, Professor of Humanities at MIT, pro-
vides a comprehensive look at “convergence culture.”
Convergence, he says, “describes technological, indus-
trial, cultural, and social changes in the ways media cir-
culates within our culture.” The circulation of media con-
tent must have the active participation of consumers.
We’re now in the transition stage where media producers
are looking at ways to deal with demands by their audi-
ences for greater participation. This participation is often
enhanced by the “flow” of stories, images, and files that
can exist across multiple platforms – such as books, mov-
ies, fan fiction, and blogs. Current technologies provide
the means necessary for the involvement of fans, custom-
ers, and patrons in communicating, rewriting, defining,
and gaining assistance or providing assistance in a wide-
array of venues.
Jenkins devotes one chapter each in Convergence
Culture to describing phenomena from popular culture:
the obsessive “spoiler” fans of the television show
“Survivor” who gathered information trying to determine
the outcome before the show aired; “American Idol” fans
and their interaction with producers; the active participa-
tion in the fictional world of “The Matrix”; and the online
communities that have developed around the “Harry Pot-
ter” books.
The skills we learn from play, he says, may have im-
plications for how we learn, work, and participate in the
political process, and connect with other people around
the world. Certainly the “Survivor” spoiler community
that developed used very sophisticated methods in their
attempts to find out who was booted off first, where the
location of the next season would be, and other secrets of
the producers. Some of the methods the “location spoil-
ing” group used were the development of contacts with
“travel agencies, government officials, film bureaus, tour-
ism directors, and resort operators.” This group re-
searched climate, latitude, political stability, population
density, road system, ports, and proximity to past
“Survivor” locations. They also looked at demographic
maps of population, agricultural areas, national reserves,
tourism destinations and even city lights seen from satel-
lites at night. All this effort and use of resources seems
quite excessive considering the focus, but the skills these
participants learned during the process may be put to
valuable use in other areas as well.
Jenkins makes some very interesting observations
about “participatory culture,” and the possibility for
greater creativity with less centralized control by the me-
dia institutions. He wants “the power of participation” to
be recognized as “writing over, modifying, amending,
expanding” thus “adding greater diversity of perspective,
recirculating it, feeding it back into the mainstream me-
dia.” If fan contributions were more readily accepted by
those in control, he says, ideas generated by fans could
result in more creative media products.
The concluding chapter switches from “popular or
consumer culture” to “public or civic culture” and gives
examples of political activism aimed at gaining greater
participation. Jenkins says, “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.” The
early returns on the answer to this question seems to be
Yes. Many people, particularly the young and tech-
savvy, are ready based on the popularity of political
blogs, YouTube, and Meetup groups.
Book Review: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.
By Henry Jenkins (New York University Press, 2006)
Virginia Bailey, Abilene Christian University
