PHOTOSHOP FOR DEMOCRACY

Photoshop for Democracy

Photoshop for Democracy

In his 2006 book, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins, a major figure in the study of fan culture, continues and expands his work on the fan and bog cultures that exists in digital social networks. In this book, Jenkins introduces the reader to the ways in which these cultures converge in corporate, religious, social, and entertainment aspects of American society. Jenkins endorses the investigation of ideas as they cross media technologies, as well as historical and cultural contexts. In Convergence Culture, Jenkins combines his academic expertise with an accessible style for a general audience interested in media and cultural studies. Even business, religious, and social researchers may find portions of this book relevant to their needs. Jenkins' work is at the nexus of media studies theories that focus on the ideas of media convergence, fan culture, fan fiction, bogging, collective intelligence, and participatory culture.

In Convergence Culture, Jenkins concerns himself with the four aspects of convergence - economic, technological, social, and cultural. By "technological convergence," Jenkins means the digitization of media content. Economic convergence refers to the integration of the entertainment industry into a media conglomerate that controls a variety of aspects of the production of media and results in a restructuring of cultural productions and trans-media activities. Cultural convergence describes the new forms of creativity that emerge from consumers. This could include fan fiction, game modifications, and organic convergence such as "spoiling" communities or imitative and parodic activities that surround the various media productions: the TV reality series Survivor; Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Matrix film series; role playing games that spin off these films; religion as it is served by digital medias; and the politics of the 2004 American presidential election.

Jenkins' Introduction provides an overview of the historical and cultural context that allows for a blurring of these four aspects of convergence, a blurring of the lines between disciplines. While this stance may be antithetical to many traditional academics, Jenkins makes the point that the future portends a move away from highly specialized academic and even corporate disciplines. For Jenkins, today's convergence culture crosses traditional boundaries of specialization and fields of study and allows for almost any form of media to be produced by almost any person or entity, regardless of prior training. This move requires each specialist to intersect with and navigate the information structures and technologies as they exist and change. Convergence, then, for Jenkins, is this blurring of boundaries, fields, and specializations.

Jenkins' core claim in Convergence Culture is that convergence culture represents a shift in the public's relationship to media. For Jenkins, this shift is first through popular culture, where the skills acquired through play also have applications in the worlds of education, work, and politics. Jenkins points to a variety of social, corporate, and academic institutions that are attempting to break their entrenchment by modelling new initiatives on grassroots fan communities. In turn, these new initiatives benefit from what Jenkins calls an era of media ...