Week 2: Reading... A valid albeit slightly humorous analogy...

In his book Convergence Culture, Jenkins writes:

Fan digital film is to cinema what the punk DIY culture was to music. There, grassroots experimentation generated new sounds, new artists, new techniques, and new relations to consumers which have been pulled more and more into mainstream practice. (p. 136)

Although it is a fitting analogy, I still smirk when I think about the comparison of hardcore punk bands like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols being compared to Star Wars geeks.

Yet another similarity between these two groups is their "anti-establishment" ideals, evident in the lyrics of punk music and evident by fan film's disregard for copyright laws.

Source: Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

Image Credit: Stock photography purchased by Emily Wray from http://www.photos.com.

Week 2: Reading... A Response to Nick Briscoe

CONVERGENCE CULTURE CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION WK2 PST1

Here’s the deal. I am not against copyright. I don’t have an issue asking for permission to use material created by others. I do however have an issue with the way certain corporate entities have dealt with the issue thus far. “Marketers have turned our children into walking, talking billboards who wear logos on their T-shirts, sew patches on their backpacks, plaster stickers on their lockers, hang posters on their walls, buy they must not, under penalty of law post them on their home pages. Somehow, once consumers choose when and where to display those images, their active participation in the circulation of brands suddenly becomes a moral outrage and a threat to the industry’s economic well-being.” (Jenkins, 2006, p.142) I completely agree with the aforementioned statement. Corporations desperately need to catch up to the times, and accept the fact that consumers want more interaction.

Companies want their products to become infamous, and love when their products become part of culture, only on their own terms. However, societies and cultures do not work in such a fashion. Once an item becomes part of popular culture and becomes embedded into everyday life, it should be expected that consumers will want to share images, quotes, music, and so on. Particularly when that piece of media means something to the individual, will the desire to express themselves by using favorite media as that outlet. Isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? The point being that a monolithic empire such as Star Wars (1977), for instance, is an example of a beast that cannot be stopped. Countless fan films, posted images, and such. Yet the franchise remains strong, because of its continued discussion and sharing among fans to help keep the flame alive.

I agree that the artists who create material by all means should receive credit, and their due worth. I also believe that corporations and conglomerates such as the RIAA and MPAA need to devise a better solution in which to deal with the issues at hand. Suing fans, criminalizing consumers, locking down products with DRM and the like have not only not worked as well as they would like, but have put them in a bad light.

I don’t only blame the media companies; I blame the law too. There needs to be clearer guidelines written into copyright laws with expansion on fair use (for education, social/cultural freedoms, and other non-commercial usages). As Jenkins (2006, p.142) states “...media companies are giving out profoundly mixed signals because they really can’t decide what kind of relationships they want to have with this new kind of consumer.” Jenkins (2006, p.138) quotes Greg McCracken as stating “Corporations must decide whether they are, literally, in or out. Will they make themselves an island or will they enter the mix? Making themselves an island may have certain short-term financial benefits, but the long-term costs can be substantial.” The cost may be already apparent. There are a growing number of web “television” sites that offer original creative content for free, and allow the downloading, and sharing of their shows. They make their money off of advertisements, which they count on being spread. There are bands that are forming their own record labels that allow free downloading, and sharing of their content, and put more focus back onto the artists. Changes are happening.

Source: Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

EL WRAY
THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2009 - 11:32 AM

Every quote you have cited in this post, I have highlighted in my own copy of Jenkin's Convergence Culture. Particularly poignant is the listing of all the ways/places marketers want their brand or message displayed. God forbid anyone take the initiative to post something somewhere they didn't think of first! Marketing is all about endearing a product to the consumer - sending such mixed messages is not the way to do that.


Source: CONVERGENCE CULTURE CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION WK2 PST1, Nick Briscoe, http://web.me.com/nicholasjbriscoe/NicholasBriscoe/Blog/Entries/2009/7/14_Convergence_Culture_Chapter_4_Discussion_Wk2_Pst1.html retrieved on July 16, 2009
Image Credit: Stock photography purchased by Emily Wray from http://www.photos.com.

Week 2: A Response to Abram Siegel

Knock Knock (Chapter 2)
Posted on July 12, 2009 by addogaudium

Jenkins’ second chapter in Convergence Culture reveals the history behind American Idol and the huge PR machine it really is. I have never watched American Idol because a.) I don’t have a TV and b.) I don’t like to hear people sing at the top of their lungs constantly, which I have noticed to be the case when hearing excerpts from the show played on the radio. Don’t people sing softly anymore? That’s one thing that MJ was killer good at. You know who else could sing softly really well was Karen Carpenter. Alas, digression...

Advertising has come along way since it started out with a goal to sell more product. I’m sure that at heart, all advertising will serve that purpose but it has evolved since then. According to Jenkins (and other sources I’ve read long ago and forgotten the names of), the goal of advertising now is to make you feel warm and fuzzy all over when you are confronted with a given brand name. “Coke! I remember that Coke used to sponsor American Idol. Man I loved that show! I’ll never forget that time when...” or “McDonalds! Man, my dad used to take me to Mickey D’s every Saturday to get the Big Breakfast. Man that was awesome! Sometimes he would even let me get a Danish! Dang I wish they still had those things...”

Being confronted with a successfully advertised brand will bring warm fuzzy feelings of nostalgia. Hopefully. You may have your occasional outliers who, you know, found a chicken head in their McNuggets, or something like that. Jenkins mentions that AT&T received a bit of backlash when people realized that American Idol was pretty much fixed from the onset (at which point I’m thinking, “Seriously people, did you really think you had a say? Why? Oh wait, the TV told you...”), but then AT&T got the iPhone and at that point Satan could have become their main spokesman and no one would have cared.

The main takeaway from this chapter was that Madison Ave realizes that most of us don’t really want to be advertised to. Or do we? Here comes the next move in the chess game between consumers and advertisers. “Well! We’ll just figure out some slick way to make you come to us!” and my how it has worked. Sure, we watched the Superbowl for it’s commercials, but that’s not what we’re talking about now. Jenkins references The Apprentice as the perfect incarnation of this strategy. Here, Donald Trump assigns the contestants the task of figuring out how to promote a real product, and the real product gets promoted before our very eyes! And this is the show, not the commercials. And we love it! Jenkins references a Proctor & Gamble exec who observed that not only was their toothpaste promoted on air, it was woven into the plot in such a way that the viewer actually ended up rooting for the new toothpaste for the sake of the contestants. Genius!

But is any of this really new? I suppose that Donald Trump has taken product placement to a whole new level but it has been around a while. Neither is it a new development for brands to seek to capture the consumers’ hearts. Disney has long been the master of this game. The Disney brand name has been invited into the homes of consumers for decades. They have protected the image of that brand name meticulously and few if any have anything other than those warm and fuzzy feelings associated with it. And their work has paid off to the point that now they have built quite an empire for themselves. (This is a list of the companies Disney has 100% of ownership of, in addition to being part owners/large share holders in GE, TiVo, a petroleum company, etc.)

Who else are you inviting in?

Source: Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press.

Emily Wray, on July 13th, 2009 at 11:19 pm Said:

Insightful post…

There are two things I’d like to comment on specifically…

1) I’m sure you get this a lot (probably not as often as the opposite reaction), but good for you Abram for not having a TV! I haven’t had cable for almost 10 years now… although that’s not to say that I don’t ever watch network channels or movies… It’s a point or a movement rather… making the decision to find other things to do with your time. Notice that I didn’t say “better things.” I hear constant complaints about how there is never enough time in the day or if I only had X then I could do Y. Turning off the TV (or not having one at all) is the impetus for leading an entirely different kind of life.

2) The closing question in your post asks: “Who else are you inviting in?” Answering without hesitation – APPLE. Since I purchased my first iPod, followed my Macbook, followed by my second iPod, followed by my new MacBook Pro, followed most recently by my new iPhone… well, you get the picture… Not only am I loyal to the brand, but I am a walking advertisement. I will stop and preach the virtues of Apple to anyone who is willing to listen. Although I realize it’s a little sad to feel so attached to material possessions… I have love feelings for these machines. I carried my MacBook on my back for two years while I traveled the world with a band. I’m practically married to the one I am typing on now.

But just to put my Apple lust into perspective, it’s not the products themselves that I’m in love with… as a designer, a student and an aspiring everything… it’s the potential they as creative tools.

Source: Knock Knock (Chapter 2), Abram Siegel, http://addogaudium.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/knock-knock-chapter-2/ retrieved on July 12, 2009
Image Credit: Stock photography purchased by Emily Wray from http://www.photos.com.

Week1: Reading... Convergence Culture

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.