So here I am reading yet again another Jenkins article on Convergence Culture! I thought by now we would all know the term 'Convergence Culture' like the national anthem, but yet, here I am. Though I may be dissing the fact that I had to read the same source for now the third time since starting Uni, I have to say Jenkins does know what he is talking about.
Jenkins describes convergence culture as the place where new and old media collide, where it is about the cultural shift of consumers being encouraged to seek information from multiple media sources and being seen as a change in the way media is consumed by an individual. Jenkins has definitely done his homework on convergence culture. But coming to the end of the reading, I knew I would be seeing the 'T-Bomb' being dropped. Yes, just when we were not expecting to see the 'T-Bomb' being dropped, Jenkins just goes ahead and discusses transmedia storytelling. (Yay! My favourite term) Though transmedia storytelling refers to convergence culture, as it describes how the media is used to create new worlds that the audience was not expecting.
Whilst on the hunt for a great convergence culture image, I came across the book review of Convergence Culture by Justin Marshall. Marshall discusses the video Greenpeace made to create awareness of the contaminants that both Mac and PC use. Though the video has nothing to do with contaminants in computers, it does create an awareness that computers do suck. It is seen as a convergence cultural piece as it allows the audience to seek information from other sources as well as this. Youtube, where the source was found, is definitely a new place where individuals can explore new media forms to seek information.
References
* Jenkins, H (2006) 'Worhsip at the altar of convergece. A new paradigm for understanding media change' in H. Jenking, Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide (pp 1 -24) New York: New York University Press URL http://www.nyupress.org/webcharters/0814712815intro.pdf
It certainly seems that convergence culture is a very prominent digital media and communication topic, one that is very important to discuss. It's amazing how media has evolved and shifted. Who would have thought 10 years ago we would be blogging online for a university assessment. Times have certainly changed.
ReplyDeleteFully agree with you there on how much Jenkins stuff i have read! But i do find him easy to understand and he uses examples well. Convergence culture is a massive area in terms of new technologies, but has a lot of room for improvement and problem solving, so i guess we had better get used to the idea of it.
ReplyDeleteNice youtube clip too!
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ReplyDeleteWe have definitely done convergence more than once in this subject. Lucky it is interesting topic! It is easy to see how convergence has become a part of our lives. There is always a new technology emerging that claims to do more.
ReplyDeleteIts great that convergence has evolved into what it is today. I see how the past was easy to be improved on and developed into what we have presently, but i cant even begin to imagine what we have in store for us in the future in the way of convergent culture. Soon every aspect of our lives can be easily accessed via a single imput.
ReplyDeleteHaha, If Convergence Culture is the national anthem, Social Networking Sites is in the chorus!
ReplyDeleteConvergence Culture is a pretty big part of the online world, so many different aspects of life converge on one device, one website. As Corryn Queenan cleverly points out in her blog, Facebook is in some ways the greatest convergence of socialising, chatting, photos, video sharing, news, debate and stalking on the one website!
check it out:
http://corrynqueenan.blogspot.com/2011/09/facebook-is-new-www.html