On page 18 of the book, Jenkins gives an example involving stickers that contain Yellow Arrows. What are they? Are they simply just yellow arrows?
On page 23, Jenkins says that he will be focusing throughout the book on the competing and contradictory ideas about participation in this new media culture. He says that not all consumers have access to the skills and resources needed to be full participants in this new cultural practice. I'm currious to find out what skills and resources are needed to understand this. Are these things like access to the internet, or are they more complex?
On page 13, Jenkins discusses the difference between delivery technologies and media. I wonder if there is an example of something that is both?
When reading, I thought about Facebook and whether or not it's ability to converge Instant Messaging and email might someday make the latter obsolete? Are email and AIM then delivery technologies or mediums, both or neither?
While reading the introduction to this book, the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" got stuck in my head and I started to think about how old MTV had changed music (when they actually played music). Prior to music videos, artists were created through the radio and now they are formed mostly through TV. Would Jenkins say that this is an example of convergence or not because it is still recorded sound where the tools to access this media change rather than the medium?
On p13, Jenkins discusses how old media never dies but rather the tools to access it dies. From doing a lot of research in the archives, I have become aware of how information has been preserved for the future to study and wondered how "delivery technologies" will be preserved and if we will be able to access them as easily as say newspapers?
Jenkin's use of the term "collective intelligence" is a little vague. Is this simply the discourse that we generate surrounding a media product or event? He mentions (p.4) that it is an "alternative source" of media power. What exactly does that mean? Who yields it and how does one obtain it? (I assume there has to be a media product or event first right? Or am I thinking of this in the wrong way?)
1. I was a little confused when Jenkins mentioned on page 12 that he's not only a consumer of the new convergent media, "but also an active fan." Isn't this a bit contradictory considering he spent time complaining that he couldn't get a phone that ONLY calls people, and doesn't have the other bells and whistles? He even calls himself "old-fashioned" on page 4. I see the phone technology as a microcosm for everything else that's going on as media forms evolve. So what could Jenkins' contradiction imply?
2. Jenkins talks about the gathering in New Orleans, which carried the slogan: "worship at the altar of Convergence". I've heard rhetoric like this elsewhere. New technologies seem to be supplanting our traditional concepts of religion. Jenkins himself mentions this happening on page 4. Do you think technology can replace faith as we know it, or at least become a more dominant type of faith? THe other example I know of is an idea put forward by a futurist and Defense Department consultant named Ray Kurzweil. He says that within the next 40 years, we will be able to inject nanorobots into our bodies that can constantly replenish our cells, causing us to never die of old age. He says that we can also morph our bodies into different shapes and do other incredible things. People criticized him as promoting a new form of religion. It would be interesting to see a study that argues for this: technology takes over what we know as religion.
3. On page 21, Jenkins defines "transmedia storytelling" as consumers attempting to experience a fictionalized world by being "hunters and gatherers, chasing down bits of the story across media channels, comparing notes with each other via online discussion groups and collaborating to ensure that everyone who has time and effort will come away with a richer entertainment experience." I was a little disappointed that he chose to exhibit this principle with the Matrix franchise. I was thinking instead that a reading of the work of David Lynch would be more appropriate. He should be credited with STARTING the move to glean other media channels when viewers of his excellent TV show Twin Peaks scoured for clues that would explain the show. Dissertations were written about it, as well as college film studies in general. Much speculation of the show can be found on the internet, and this was a full 8 years before the Matrix. And the same could be said about Lynch's films Lost Highway--equally as confusing--because it necessitated outside research to understand what was going on. This one came out in 1997. Do you think it's important to understand the historical context of fans needing to search other venues than to just jump right into the Matrix?
On page 17 Jenkin's discusses the cultural logic of media convergence. Stating, "convergence doesn't just involve commercially produced materials and services traveling along well-regulated and predictable circuits. It doesn't just involve the mobile companies getting together with the film companies to decide when and where we watch a newly released film. It also occurs when people take media in their own hands. Entertainment content isn't the only thing that flows across multiple media platforms. Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels."
I found this to be really interesting because so often we only focus on the entertainment content of media and how it satisfies us to watch our favorite shows that entertain us, but within a media platform a story line is also taken on besides simply the entertainment. I feel that this helps us to see as the book stated that in one setting we may be a one thing but when we leave that setting we enter in another one and portray a different role as we did the first. I guess my question would be how do you see these other things such as relationships, memories, fantasies, and desires in our own lives across media channels? Do you think these relationships, memories, and fantasies throughout media channels influence the way we understand things that take place and help form our thoughts and beliefs in our own lives?
On page 10, Jenkins talks about the main messages that the New Orleans Media Experience was trying to get across to people who attended the convention. He talked of problems that arose throughout the various panels and how convergence is coming, and all the media organizations will survive if everyone works together. I noticed that the New Orleans Media Experience event took place in 2003. Has there been any similar events since? Have these problems been addressed at different conventions?
Also, on page 15, Jenkins talks about his "Black Box Fallacy" that all media content is going to flow through a single black box. One has to wonder whether this will become an actual convient reality? Would aving one "black box" or whatever sort of outlet to control all media content really be easier? If that single component were to break down, would a consumer be out of all their media outlets?
Throughout the entire introduction, Jenkins refers to the importance of participatory culture and converging media. On page 3 specifically, Jenkins said "The circulation of media content depends heavily on consumers' active participation." Similarly, Jenkins discusses the importance of collective intellegence and media. How do these thoughts dispel the "passive audience" idea we read about in prior readings?
On pages 4 and 5, Jenkins uses cell phones as an example of media convergence. Can we think of any other examples? An example I thought of is the Playstation gaming system; the unit can be used for video games, to watch DVDs, listen to music, etc.
On page 11, Jenkins quotes Ithiel de Sola Pool: "Freedom is fostered when the means of communication are dispersed, decentralized, and easily available. Central control is more likely when the means of communication are centralized, monoploized, and scarce." What does this say about modern media, popular culture, and entertainment? What are the pros and cons of this approach, and how does this relate to Jenkin's idea (page 17) about how media is used in good and bad ways (many forms of digital media are inexpensive, media can inspire creativity, free expression, and diversity; media texts can also prolong excessive conglomerate power and support dominant, discriminatory ideas)?
On pages 13-15, Jenkins addresses the idea of media as a cultural construction and technology as simple delivery systems. Futhermore, on page 15 Jenkins said, "Part of what makes the black box concept a fallacy is that it reduces media change to technological change and strips aside the cultural levels." What does this statement imply about the importance of media over technology? Should the focus be on analyzing developing technologies or on media texts?
I thought the same thing that Jillian mentioned she did when I read the Introduction of this book. I thought of the impact that the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" on MTV had on the future of radio. I was actually surprised that Jenkins didn't mention this at all in the Introduction. Would Jenkins consider what happened to that video and the future of radio as a convergence?
Jenkins also mentions the person who first introduced the concept of convergence. Ithiel de Sola Pool in 1983 first coined the idea of convergence in a book. I am wondering what Pool would think of convergence today and all the impact it has had on the media. Good? Bad? Out of Control?
@ Holly, the yellow arrows are just stickers with phone numbers on them that began as a grassroots thing, with people leaving recorded commentaries at the phone numbers, but have since been taken up by advertisers as a strategy to draw attention to their products.
@ Dugan: Jenkins is saying he is a fan of various media products/content (TV shows, video games, etc.) not that he is a "fan" of convergent media technologies themselves.
On page 18 of the book, Jenkins gives an example involving stickers that contain Yellow Arrows. What are they? Are they simply just yellow arrows?
ReplyDeleteOn page 23, Jenkins says that he will be focusing throughout the book on the competing and contradictory ideas about participation in this new media culture. He says that not all consumers have access to the skills and resources needed to be full participants in this new cultural practice. I'm currious to find out what skills and resources are needed to understand this. Are these things like access to the internet, or are they more complex?
On page 13, Jenkins discusses the difference between delivery technologies and media. I wonder if there is an example of something that is both?
ReplyDeleteWhen reading, I thought about Facebook and whether or not it's ability to converge Instant Messaging and email might someday make the latter obsolete? Are email and AIM then delivery technologies or mediums, both or neither?
While reading the introduction to this book, the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" got stuck in my head and I started to think about how old MTV had changed music (when they actually played music). Prior to music videos, artists were created through the radio and now they are formed mostly through TV. Would Jenkins say that this is an example of convergence or not because it is still recorded sound where the tools to access this media change rather than the medium?
ReplyDeleteOn p13, Jenkins discusses how old media never dies but rather the tools to access it dies. From doing a lot of research in the archives, I have become aware of how information has been preserved for the future to study and wondered how "delivery technologies" will be preserved and if we will be able to access them as easily as say newspapers?
Jenkin's use of the term "collective intelligence" is a little vague. Is this simply the discourse that we generate surrounding a media product or event? He mentions (p.4) that it is an "alternative source" of media power. What exactly does that mean? Who yields it and how does one obtain it? (I assume there has to be a media product or event first right? Or am I thinking of this in the wrong way?)
ReplyDelete1. I was a little confused when Jenkins mentioned on page 12 that he's not only a consumer of the new convergent media, "but also an active fan." Isn't this a bit contradictory considering he spent time complaining that he couldn't get a phone that ONLY calls people, and doesn't have the other bells and whistles? He even calls himself "old-fashioned" on page 4. I see the phone technology as a microcosm for everything else that's going on as media forms evolve. So what could Jenkins' contradiction imply?
ReplyDelete2. Jenkins talks about the gathering in New Orleans, which carried the slogan: "worship at the altar of Convergence". I've heard rhetoric like this elsewhere. New technologies seem to be supplanting our traditional concepts of religion. Jenkins himself mentions this happening on page 4. Do you think technology can replace faith as we know it, or at least become a more dominant type of faith? THe other example I know of is an idea put forward by a futurist and Defense Department consultant named Ray Kurzweil. He says that within the next 40 years, we will be able to inject nanorobots into our bodies that can constantly replenish our cells, causing us to never die of old age. He says that we can also morph our bodies into different shapes and do other incredible things. People criticized him as promoting a new form of religion. It would be interesting to see a study that argues for this: technology takes over what we know as religion.
3. On page 21, Jenkins defines "transmedia storytelling" as consumers attempting to experience a fictionalized world by being "hunters and gatherers, chasing down bits of the story across media channels, comparing notes with each other via online discussion groups and collaborating to ensure that everyone who has time and effort will come away with a richer entertainment experience." I was a little disappointed that he chose to exhibit this principle with the Matrix franchise. I was thinking instead that a reading of the work of David Lynch would be more appropriate. He should be credited with STARTING the move to glean other media channels when viewers of his excellent TV show Twin Peaks scoured for clues that would explain the show. Dissertations were written about it, as well as college film studies in general. Much speculation of the show can be found on the internet, and this was a full 8 years before the Matrix. And the same could be said about Lynch's films Lost Highway--equally as confusing--because it necessitated outside research to understand what was going on. This one came out in 1997. Do you think it's important to understand the historical context of fans needing to search other venues than to just jump right into the Matrix?
On page 17 Jenkin's discusses the cultural logic of media convergence. Stating, "convergence doesn't just involve commercially produced materials and services traveling along well-regulated and predictable circuits. It doesn't just involve the mobile companies getting together with the film companies to decide when and where we watch a newly released film. It also occurs when people take media in their own hands. Entertainment content isn't the only thing that flows across multiple media platforms. Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels."
ReplyDeleteI found this to be really interesting because so often we only focus on the entertainment content of media and how it satisfies us to watch our favorite shows that entertain us, but within a media platform a story line is also taken on besides simply the entertainment. I feel that this helps us to see as the book stated that in one setting we may be a one thing but when we leave that setting we enter in another one and portray a different role as we did the first. I guess my question would be how do you see these other things such as relationships, memories, fantasies, and desires in our own lives across media channels? Do you think these relationships, memories, and fantasies throughout media channels influence the way we understand things that take place and help form our thoughts and beliefs in our own lives?
On page 10, Jenkins talks about the main messages that the New Orleans Media Experience was trying to get across to people who attended the convention. He talked of problems that arose throughout the various panels and how convergence is coming, and all the media organizations will survive if everyone works together. I noticed that the New Orleans Media Experience event took place in 2003. Has there been any similar events since? Have these problems been addressed at different conventions?
ReplyDeleteAlso, on page 15, Jenkins talks about his "Black Box Fallacy" that all media content is going to flow through a single black box. One has to wonder whether this will become an actual convient reality? Would aving one "black box" or whatever sort of outlet to control all media content really be easier? If that single component were to break down, would a consumer be out of all their media outlets?
Throughout the entire introduction, Jenkins refers to the importance of participatory culture and converging media. On page 3 specifically, Jenkins said "The circulation of media content depends heavily on consumers' active participation." Similarly, Jenkins discusses the importance of collective intellegence and media. How do these thoughts dispel the "passive audience" idea we read about in prior readings?
ReplyDeleteOn pages 4 and 5, Jenkins uses cell phones as an example of media convergence. Can we think of any other examples? An example I thought of is the Playstation gaming system; the unit can be used for video games, to watch DVDs, listen to music, etc.
On page 11, Jenkins quotes Ithiel de Sola Pool: "Freedom is fostered when the means of communication are dispersed, decentralized, and easily available. Central control is more likely when the means of communication are centralized, monoploized, and scarce." What does this say about modern media, popular culture, and entertainment? What are the pros and cons of this approach, and how does this relate to Jenkin's idea (page 17) about how media is used in good and bad ways (many forms of digital media are inexpensive, media can inspire creativity, free expression, and diversity; media texts can also prolong excessive conglomerate power and support dominant, discriminatory ideas)?
On pages 13-15, Jenkins addresses the idea of media as a cultural construction and technology as simple delivery systems. Futhermore, on page 15 Jenkins said, "Part of what makes the black box concept a fallacy is that it reduces media change to technological change and strips aside the cultural levels." What does this statement imply about the importance of media over technology? Should the focus be on analyzing developing technologies or on media texts?
I thought the same thing that Jillian mentioned she did when I read the Introduction of this book. I thought of the impact that the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" on MTV had on the future of radio. I was actually surprised that Jenkins didn't mention this at all in the Introduction. Would Jenkins consider what happened to that video and the future of radio as a convergence?
ReplyDeleteJenkins also mentions the person who first introduced the concept of convergence. Ithiel de Sola Pool in 1983 first coined the idea of convergence in a book. I am wondering what Pool would think of convergence today and all the impact it has had on the media. Good? Bad? Out of Control?
@ Holly, the yellow arrows are just stickers with phone numbers on them that began as a grassroots thing, with people leaving recorded commentaries at the phone numbers, but have since been taken up by advertisers as a strategy to draw attention to their products.
ReplyDelete@ Dugan: Jenkins is saying he is a fan of various media products/content (TV shows, video games, etc.) not that he is a "fan" of convergent media technologies themselves.