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Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
Henry Jenkins at Authors@Google (video)
Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award
2007 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpre
...morePaperback, 353 pages
Published
October 1st 2008
by New York University Press
(first published 2006)
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I always like Henry Jenkins and this book is no exception. He does a good job of exploding the one-device idea of convergence and paying attention to the social and cultural processes around convergence and participatory culture without getting too frothy. The first few chapters which examine the role of fan communities and corporations' alternate stances on them were pretty good in outlining the punitive/"collaborative" stances that companies (and different entities within one conglom...more
Emily
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
librarians, writers, people interested in pop culture and/or copyright
It covers a lot of pop culture stuff, which keeps it a fun read, but the concepts he uses them to illustrate are really fascinating- How does writing fan fiction connect writers from different backgrounds and encourage a communal approach to editing and fair use copyright laws? How do fan forums devoted to figuring out a TV show build group-based knowledge instead of individual-based knowledge? How should companies try to control or feed off of the interest people have in their content? How will...more
If you like pop culture and want to learn from media trends and changes you will find this book interesting. Most interesting is the concept of knowledge communitites. A knowledge community is any group of people who through a commom interest want to gather their knowledge to socialize, learn, investigate. Of importance to a knowledge group is the process of learning, gahtering data, decyphering intelligence, and drawing conclusions from this process. The author uses the example of Surivior ...more
This book is strong in media theory but I did not enjoy the author's choice of case studies.
Jenkins defines the convergence culture as a place "where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways." He uses fan culture to demonstrate the emerging power of the media consumer, specifically fan culture around Survivor, American Idol, The Matrix,...more
Jenkins defines the convergence culture as a place "where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways." He uses fan culture to demonstrate the emerging power of the media consumer, specifically fan culture around Survivor, American Idol, The Matrix,...more
I can't recommend this book highly enough. Although the typos and type-setting problems made me want to tear my hair out at times, that should be blamed on NYU Press, not Jenkins. This book is really a must-read for anyone who plans to be involved in education, media, business, parenting, writing, entertainment, government, and/or pretty much any other field in the 21st century. Jenkins assessment of current trends had me nodding my head enthusiastically, feeling like my eyes had been opened. H...more
This book is well written and very thought-provoking, but the case-studies he uses run the risk of rooting the ideas in specific a moment. Whereas works by McLuhan and others are sociological touchstones because their overall themes can serve as starting points for discussion, this book depends so heavily on discussion the Matrix and Survivor (and other limit time-frame shows/movies/etc) that larger themes of our interaction with media can get lost in the minutiae. As a result, it already starte...more
If you want to understand where media is going - like Today - read Convergence Culture's introduction and conclusion. The case studies in the middle are easy to read and quite interesting, but all of the 'meat' you need to understand the concept is in the intro and conclusion.
I love that Jenkins has drawn the human impulse toward play-leading-to-learning into the discussion. I think the more we come to understand that the world is changing in fundamental ways, the more we'll take to he...more
I love that Jenkins has drawn the human impulse toward play-leading-to-learning into the discussion. I think the more we come to understand that the world is changing in fundamental ways, the more we'll take to he...more
This interesting book defines convergence culture with chapters on Survivor, American Idol, The Matrix, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, all showing how media consumers are becoming active participants in the creation of texts. It's a strong argument for an emphasis on media literacy in schools as well as for adults to whom many of the electronic platforms are foreign (or even abhorrent). I especially liked Jenkins's comparison of the "transmedia storytelling" of The Matrix--films, games, ...more
Very neatly ties up fan culture with self-guided and exploratory learning, as well as provides guidelines for how companies should behave (for now anyway) with regard to their copyrights.
What's stuck with me (will blog on it at http://www.annlytical.com/phd) is that he asserts that the click of a 'like' function is a first stage in building a co-creative knowledge society. It's an interesting dig at those who say 'cyber-activism' isn't really activism and doesn't show any behavioural ...more
What's stuck with me (will blog on it at http://www.annlytical.com/phd) is that he asserts that the click of a 'like' function is a first stage in building a co-creative knowledge society. It's an interesting dig at those who say 'cyber-activism' isn't really activism and doesn't show any behavioural ...more
Jenkins' book basically discusses how the convergence of old and new media (tv,film,radio with interactive technologies) has/will continue to change social and political relations. While old media's messages are typically tightly-controlled and handed out from the top, down; new media requires participation and the mutual creation of meaning between producer and consumer. Jenkins discusses fan cultures behind Survivor, The Matrix, Harry Potter and others, and then uses these examples to discus...more
Jenkins discusses how the convergence of old and new media has and will continue to change social and political relations. While old media's messages are typically tightly controlled and handed out from the top, down; new media requires participation and the mutual creation of meaning between producer and consumer. Khalid presented examples of fan cultures behind films such as The Matrix and Harry Potter and how the interaction between the audiences and the creator is essential for the success o...more
Due in part to his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006), Henry Jenkins is being touted as the Marshall McLuhan of the 21st Century. However, whether or that is a fair comparison is a matter better left to those who better understood The Medium is the Massage.
Media analyst Jenkins uses this book as a platform to examine what, exactly, is really happening to culture at large when new media and technologies appear. Jenkins grounds his analysis in a variety of...more
Media analyst Jenkins uses this book as a platform to examine what, exactly, is really happening to culture at large when new media and technologies appear. Jenkins grounds his analysis in a variety of...more
Tina Ye
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
internet junkies, ad execs, cultural enthusiasts.. everyone really
Recommended to Tina by:
art prof
This was a great book. I have to confess, it is one thing to call myself a dork because I write Actionscript and know what a "Rick Roll" is... but it is another thing to let this MIT professor, who is probably a bigger dork than I will ever be, take me through the hidden backstreets and boulevards of new media culture. Through this book, I learned so many things that I wouldn't have fully realized just from being a bemused observer and participant, from the ambiguously empowering effec...more
Mike
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
"Pop culture" fans and detractors; hermeneutics junkies; assorted others
I'm a text guy, a loving diviner of the messy complexities of the formal object--whether a novel, a pop song, a photo, a film. I get kicks from hermeneutics.
And I found my pleasures amplified when, in grad school, I began digging around in what goes into shaping that text (ye olde production questions) and who and how it gets read, viewed, used (ye olde consumption questions).
But even with these new factors added into the interpretive calculus, too often ideas about me...more
And I found my pleasures amplified when, in grad school, I began digging around in what goes into shaping that text (ye olde production questions) and who and how it gets read, viewed, used (ye olde consumption questions).
But even with these new factors added into the interpretive calculus, too often ideas about me...more
I logged on to Goodreads with the intention of labeling Henry Jenkins my new academic crush, only to find that someone's already done so. Eerie.
Anyway, Jenkins is a cultural theorist who often works with modern popular fan culture, which is a surprisingly small field considering the strange psychology at work and the vast amounts of people in this media-saturated society who take place in some sort of fan group activity, whether it be book clubs and discussing American Idol or rolepl...more
Anyway, Jenkins is a cultural theorist who often works with modern popular fan culture, which is a surprisingly small field considering the strange psychology at work and the vast amounts of people in this media-saturated society who take place in some sort of fan group activity, whether it be book clubs and discussing American Idol or rolepl...more
Thoughtful and thought-provoking look at how new media is changing the ways in which we relate to old media. I found it much more engaging than the more academic articles in Fans Bloggers and Gamers: Media Consumers in a Digital Age -- I was even entertained, enough that I could read it while traveling. One of the things I appreciate about Henry Jenkins is that he writes about the Internet without either glorifying or demonizing it, and that he also looks at older media with a clear eye as wel...more
Tricky thing, relationships between culture and politics. Calling himself a “critical utopian,” Jenkins ascribes all kinds of power to “consumption communities,” or fans. He sees collective meaning-making among fans as beginning to change our institutions, from advertising and entertainment industries to the military, law, and politics – and he sees these changes as fruitful, powerful, and encouraging. Pulling out several case studies in popular culture (American Idol, Survivor, Harry Potter, Th...more
Jenkins' book is a celebration of all things internet-y, and rightly so. While he is at times too optimistic about the present and future of "convergence" and online interaction, that optimism is usually needed to quell the forces of all those people out there telling us that "media" is a waste of time, for people with too much time on their hands, for nerds, for hegemonic mind control, etc. Jenkins is also a touch too homogenous in his assumptions: he seems to imagine a worl...more
Su questo libro è già stato detto tutto, quindi non mi dilungo. In attesa dell'arrivo in italia dell'altro testo di Jenkins (Bloggers, Gamers and Fans), che si prospetta ancor più interessante, sono da leggere soprattutto i capitoli sulla transmedialità in Matrix e sulla fanfiction Harry Potter.</p>
**Aggiornamento, dopo aver letto gli altri commenti: confermo, è tradotto da CANI e redazionato PEGGIO. Refusi a non finire, errori clamorosi nell'ortografia di tutti i nomi propri (Gandolf??),
...more
Zeer goed boek over de complexe relatie die aan het ontstaan is tussen traditionele en nieuwe media met een zevental echt grote case studies (o.a. The Matrix, Harry Potter, presidentiële verkiezingen in Amerika,...) waarin uitgelegd wordt hoe goed/slecht met de nieuwe sociale media werd omgegaan.
Anderzijds: inhoudelijk iets te Amerikaans boek, soms wordt er te lang over bepaalde zaken doorgeboomd en helemaal up-to-date was het boek niet meer. De cover zei nochtans dat het inhoudelijk...more
Anderzijds: inhoudelijk iets te Amerikaans boek, soms wordt er te lang over bepaalde zaken doorgeboomd en helemaal up-to-date was het boek niet meer. De cover zei nochtans dat het inhoudelijk...more
Chris
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommended to Chris by:
Intro to Texts & Technology course
Excellent book. Approachable, informative writing style; thorough consideration of a variety of concepts, using relevant examples from multiple media sources as appropriate to make his point. Clear, direct, and poignant, Jenkins avoids entirely the droning academic language that pervades texts of this sort but chooses instead to discuss media as what it really is: material to be given to and digested by the mass public. He's down-to-earth, practical, and matter-of-fact. His sense of humor co...more
In general I enjoyed Jenkins' text and style though I wouldn't say I had a lot of "ahhh, right" moments. A lot of space is devoted to explaining examples of convergence without analyzing much in terms of big picture. I took two main lessons: 1. The idea of a digital participatory media revolution is a fallacy. In reality we have an evolving convergence of media that takes on many forms. 2. The paradigm is always evolving and it is incorrect to think that an all new all-encompassing ...more
Listened to a talk at work today by Hanson Hosein, who teaches in the Master of Communications in Digital Media program at UW; he had several books and web sites to recommend. I'm putting some on the to-read list (but conscientiously excluding the "how to use social networking to market your products" books).
I'm not convinced that the incidents of consumer involvement cited by Jenkins have become mainstream, but it's fascinating to see that the growth of Internet-based, crowdsourced art forms--which I'm convinced will became a major force--are not done in isolation from mainstream media but are echoed in those media.
I read this book for a class, and yet I still managed to like it! Obviously, any book written about TV/internet/media is going to be outdated almost before it is published, but that didn't diminish many points about where we have been and where we are going. It was kind of like a glimpse back in time, but with enough insight to still have some relevance today.
I saw Professor Jenkins speak in Eugene, Oregon, on the eve of the election. His topic was new media and the political process; he was exceedingly charming, insightful, and smart. More is available on the his blog, "Confessions of an Aca-Fan."
Though Bob McChesney was my first academic crush, Henry Jenkins is certainly a rival for my affections, even though much of what they say is at odds.
This book is approachable yet groundbreaking at the same time, arguing that true media convergence will be driven by the public's production, not consumption of mass media.
McLuhan-esque? Kinda, but Jenkins spanks McLuhan from a theory perspective, IMO. He's way more tuned into mass media/technology from a policy perspective than M...more
This book is approachable yet groundbreaking at the same time, arguing that true media convergence will be driven by the public's production, not consumption of mass media.
McLuhan-esque? Kinda, but Jenkins spanks McLuhan from a theory perspective, IMO. He's way more tuned into mass media/technology from a policy perspective than M...more
A compelling exploration of "convergence culture" in all its facets, from fan fiction to transmedia properties to the potential of these trends for politics. Despite the very timely topics it covers, the book hasn't aged at all.
I'm trying to read more non-fiction and I'm glad I started with this. It's smart, easy to read, informative, and has changed the way I view almost all the media in my life. I recommend it to anyone who, well, watches TV.
Interesting to read this five years later...in some ways it feels very dated and on others it maps where we've been since in a fairly prescient way. Wish I'd read it when it first came out.
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