Even though I find the subject matter fascinating and truly relevant to my scholastic/professional pursuits, I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to immerse myself in Jenkin's Convergence Culture (2006). I lose focus on the central themes because I am overwhelmed and distracted by all the details he provides.
Yes, I realize how ludicrous and backwards this sounds: "I can't concentrate on the main topic because the author provides too much supporting evidence!" To me, Jenkin's ideas and examples could be more succinctly conveyed. Perhaps it's because the phenomenon of media convergence is not new to me that I feel somewhat beat over head as I finish each chapter.
Given that Jenkin's book was written in 2006, much of what he writes about and predicts has already come true. If not for collective convergence, "old" media, in its individual forms (print, broadcasting, etc.), would be close to extinction. In order to survive, these individual mediums of expression had to evolve, taking the best qualities of each and combining them to form a new type of SUPER media.
Jenkin's explores the idea of collective intelligence in fan communities who pool their individual resources and knowledge in an attempt to uncover details about reality show before it is ever aired on television. Spoiling, as it is known, becomes a game between the show producers and these mega-fans. The idea is that one person can't know enough to spoil a season on his/her own, but that it is possible with collective bits of intel is received and vetted from all members of the group. The practice of spoiling becomes more like a game when the show producers and other fans attempt to sabotage the information being collected by the spoilers.
In an upcoming post, I'd like to examine a few of Jenkin's ideas on branding/marketing with Chris Anderson's new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, which explores the business side of new media models. Stay tuned...
Sources: Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.
It's not at all ludicrous. Jenkins spends much more time explaining the shows and movies he uses as examples, rather than getting into the content. Not only do I believe that he could have used better examples in a couple of chapters, but I think he could have cut the chapters in half if he would have focused more on the content and less on the shows. I felt like I was reading a fan book Survivor and American Idol rather than a book on convergence.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way as you Emily, when I try to read the chapter until I get to a suitable enough stopping place and then go back and read all of the info on the sides. Weird format. At least it's a fairly easy read.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think I've mentioned this in class, but you guys are pretty smart, so I might not have, but there is this thing called "skimming" that most of us do when it comes to academic books. Because so many writers can be ridiculously verbose the thing is to get what the author's point is as quickly as possible and then double check the assumption as you skim through the remainder of the chapter. I apologize for my sarcasm, I pulled an all-nighter last night and seem to be doing it again... Anyway, please don't torture yourself with mental overload. Just gather up the salient points, make sure you aren't missing anything pertinent and then move on. :-)
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