Convergence Culture: Where Old and
New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
Insightful Look At The Digital Media Age
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
unpredictable ways.
Henry Jenkins, one of Americas most respected media analysts, delves
beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural
transformations that are taking place as media converge. He takes us into

the secret world of Survivor Spoilers, where avid internet users pool their
knowledge to unearth the shows secrets before they are revealed on the
air. He introduces us to young Harry Potter fans who are writing their own
Hogwarts tales while executives at Warner Brothers struggle for control of
their franchise. He shows us how The Matrix has pushed transmedia
storytelling to new levels, creating a fictional world where consumers track
down bits of the story across multiple media channels.Jenkins argues that
struggles over convergence will redefine the face of American popular
culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many
channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time,
consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a
decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots
efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations
between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces
are at war.
Jenkins provides a riveting introduction to the world where every story gets
told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms. He
explains the cultural shift that is occurring as consumers fight for control
across disparate channels, changing the way we do business, elect our
leaders, and educate our children.
Personal Review: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New
Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
onvergence Culture by Henry Jenkins gives an in-depth and critical look at
how the World Wide Web has transformed traditional media to be more
amalgamate, multi-level, and less isolated, allowing for a more
participatory culture, and illustrating the power of collective intelligence. As
the Internet blurs the lines that once separated specific mediums Jenkins
writes, "Convergence represents a cultural shift as consumers are
encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among
dispersed media content" (p.3). By focusing on a few major examples of
how the media is shifting from isolated experiences into transmedia
storytelling, Jenkins explains the relationship between convergence,
participatory culture, and collective intelligence, illustrating how the "new
media" is "impacting relationships between media audiences, producers
and content" (p.12). He explains that because aspects of our everyday
lives pass through various media, convergence has created a new type of
media consumer who communicates on several platforms. To reach the
new consumer, traditional media must also be present on different forums.
Jenkins explains most of these "discussions" throughout Convergence
Culture within the context of specific pop-culture and political examples.
The first of which begins in his first chapter, Spoiling Survivor, where he
outlines the impact of a communal reception of the TV show "Survivor." By
looking at one of the most democratic uses of the Internet (message
boards), Jenkins analyzes Survivor fans' interactions with "spoilers" of the

show, calling it "collective intelligence in practice" (p.28). Here, he explains
the idea that while not one person knows everything, everyone knows
something and can bring some small bit of relevance to the discussion to,
in this case, find a solution. In addition, Jenkins evaluates how this type of
"bottom-up" collaboration can be both helpful and detrimental to brands
and franchises.
Jenkins explores the grassroots culture of the Internet more in his second
chapter where he discusses American Idol, a TV show made for audience
participation. He begins the chapter by explaining the power of marketing
brands via multiple "transactions," instead of using traditionally isolated
mediums. He writes, "The experience should not be contained within a
single media platform, but should extend across as many media as
possible" (p.69). This method allows for advertisers, like Coca Cola, to be
more than intellectual property; they are emotional capital. And in such a
participant-oriented show that allows viewers to text in their votes, fans
become more involved with the brand and may even become "brand
advocates" (p.73). Jenkins explains, "Participation within such
communities does not simply reaffirm their brand affiliation but also
empowers these groups to assert their own demands on the company"
(p.80).
In his third chapter, Jenkins looks at how the Matrix franchise uses several
platforms to reach its multifaceted fan base, and considers it
"entertainment for the age of media convergence, integrating multiple texts
to create a narrative so large that it cannot be contained within a single
medium" (p.96). As he explains how the transmedia story flows across
different media forums, he illustrates how each medium brings a
"distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole" (p.98). This way, the
story may stretch far beyond the original plot, and the user creates it, and
Jenkins explains that the convergence of media has allowed for such
occurrences. However, Jenkins says that when creators have their hands
in developing the other mediums, like video games, interactive Web
creations and such, the stories are more likely to gain a following and
develop further. His key point in the chapter was that while not all users will
choose to "go deep" with the material, creators must allow the option.
Jenkins then explains the success of the Star Wars franchise and how
users have become co-creators, or participants, in the stories via the Web
and the onset of the digital age. Here, he explains the difference between
participation and interactivity. Jenkins writes, "Interactivity refers to the
ways that new technologies have been designed to be more responsive to
consumer feedback...Participation, on the other hand, is shaped by the
cultural and social protocols" (p.137). So, while the creators decide
interactivity, and users may interact with what is given, participation allows
users to become creators of the story. However, this blurring of creation on
the Web has caused both problems and new directions. Jenkins explores
two schools of thought on this issue: prohibitionists, who are usually
characterized by traditional media, that try to limit all creation outside the

originators, and collaborationists, who are usually led by "new media" and
digital groups, that allow grassroots intermediaries to help promote the
franchised. Jenkins likens this dichotomy with the battle between folk
culture (grassroots campaigns) and mass culture (commercialism), as he
cites several examples of how specific Star Wars spoofs and recreations
have faired with George Lucas and the commercial media in terms of
copyright infringement.
Moving beyond the television and silver screen, Jenkins then discusses
the Harry Potter franchise in light of new media. Besides explaining some
of the campaigns and movements against its content by conservative
groups, Jenkins explores whether schools are doing a well enough job in
educating students in media, and whether or not they are using media to
teach. Using one young girl who created her own website around the Harry
Potter series as an example of the power of the online forum, Jenkins
analyzes the power of collaboration in teaching and using the Web to allow
for a fuller experience from which one can learn. Jenkins writes, "In a
participatory culture, the entire community takes on some responsibility for
helping newbies find their way," in contrast to a classroom where only a
teacher is the guide. He then explores the traditional idea of fair use, and
wonders if the notion should be revisited in the digital age.
In his final example of media convergence, Jenkins visits the political realm
and focuses on the "changes in communications systems and cultural
norms" of the media and the democratization of the Web (p.219) in relation
to the 2004 presidential election. In his discussion, Jenkins cites Howard
Dean's (and later, John Kerry's) use of the Web to raise funds, and that his
early Internet success was a "tipping point" for how we view media.
Instead of the television (a broad, "top-down" medium) reigning, the
Internet (a niche-oriented, "bottom-up" medium) finally had become the
dominant forum. Jenkins says that using tools like Photoshop, fans and
activists are more able to manipulate images to make a political statement,
most evident in the afterm
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