The Basic Concepts of Media Convergence - Essay Example

Review essay on Henry Jenkins concepts Henry Jenkins, born in 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of the celebrated American media scholars who have written several important books on new media and media convergence. He is known as a key theorist of new media and media convergence from the perspective of its users and participatory culture. Some of the most noted works by this great media scholar includes Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture and What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville Aesthetic. In a reflective exploration of the new media technologies, the vital contributions of Jenkins to the understanding of new media become obvious. In the contemporary world, every aspect of human life is influenced by the rapid changes in communications, storytelling and information technologies which affect the ways in which people interact with each other. As Jenkins maintains, media convergence cannot be comprehended as mere technological shift, because it alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences. Jenkins makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the contradictory nature of media change through the theory of media convergence which indicates sites of tension and transition in the media environment. “The American media environment is now being shaped by two seemingly contradictory trends: on the one hand, new media technologies have lowered production and distribution costs, expanded the range of available delivery channels and enabled consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and re-circulate media content in powerful new ways; on the other hand, there has been an alarming concentration of the ownership of mainstream commercial media, with a small handful of multinational media conglomerates dominating all sectors of the entertainment industry.” (Jenkins 2004, P 33). Therefore, it is essential to comprehend that Henry Jenkins has made incredible contribution to the understanding of new media and this paper makes a reflective exploration of Jenkins as a key theorist of new media and media convergence from the perspective of its users and participatory culture. Henry Jenkins has been recognized as one of America’s most respected media analysts and he has made essential contribution to the understanding of new media and media convergence. Significantly, Jenkins makes an important attempt to expose the various cultural transformations taking place as media converge in his work Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, in which he offers valuable insights on the immediate and future direction of media, culture, and omnipresence. In this celebrated book, the author deals with the relationship among three pertinent concepts, such as media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. “By convergence, I mean the flow of content across multiple platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want. Convergence is a word that manages to describe technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes depending on who’s seeking and what they think they are talking about.” (Jenkins, 2006, P 3). Thus, Jenkins maintains that the circulation of media content is based on the consumers’ active participation and he criticizes the idea that convergence is primarily a technological process which draws together various media functions within the same devices. According to Jenkins, “convergence represents a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content… Convergence does not occur through media appliances, however sophisticated they may become. Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others.” (Jenkins, 2006, P 3). Media convergence is one of the basic concepts in the new media and Jenkins indicates the importance of convergence as an essential force to redefine the face of American popular culture. According to him, media convergence can alter the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres and audiences and it is not merely a technological shift. “For the foreseeable future,” Jenkins argues, “convergence will be a kind of kludge – a jerry-rigged relationship between different media technologies – rather than a fully integrated system. Right now, the cultural shifts, the legal battles and the economic consolidations that are fueling media convergence are preceding shifts in the technological infrastructure. The way in which those various transitions play themselves out will determine the balance of power within this new media era.” (Jenkins 2004, P 34). Therefore, it is essential to maintain that Jenkins comes up with an insightful explanation of the nature of media convergence which is fundamental to the understanding of new media. According to him, media convergence should be realized as an enduring process which occurs at various intersections of media technologies, industries, content and audiences and it is not an end state. “There will never be one black box controlling all media. Rather, thanks to the proliferation of channels and the increasingly ubiquitous nature of computing and communications, we are entering an era where media will be everywhere, and we will use all kinds of media in relation to one another. We will develop new skills for managing information, new structures for transmitting information across channels, and new creative genres that exploit the potentials of those emerging information structures.” (Jenkins, 2001, P 93). Therefore, Jenkins makes essential contribution to the understanding of new media by explaining the important cultural transformations in the concept of media, including media converge. He also maintains that struggles over media convergence will have a great influence in the making of an overall new type of American popular culture. Significantly, Jenkins purports that it is indubitable that a new cultural order will emerge from the ‘digital renaissance’ in new media. In a reflective exploration of the concept of media convergence in relation to the new media, it becomes lucid that Jenkins offers valuable definition of media convergence which is fundamental to a general understanding of media culture in the contemporary life. According to his interpretations, convergence is a term that can describe technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes in the new media culture. Significantly, convergence should be comprehended as a cultural and social process to the extent that it is a technological process. “Keep this in mind: convergence refers to a process, but not an endpoint. Media will be converging and diverging for some time to come. There will be no single black box which controls the flow of media into our lives. Thanks to the proliferation of channels and the portability of new computing and telecommunications technologies, we are entering an era where media will be everywhere and we will use all kinds of media in relation to each other… Ready or not, we are living within a convergence culture.” (Jenkins, 2006, P 16). Another important contribution of Henry Jenkins to the understanding of new media has been his work Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture (1992), in which he “offers an ethnographic account of a particular group of media fans, its social institutions and cultural practices, and its troubled relationship to the mass media and consumer capitalism.” (Jenkins, 1992, P 1). According to him, the media fans generate a complex subculture which is based on the commercial culture of the time and they are the active producers and skilled manipulators of program meanings in the new media culture. Similar to the nomadic poachers, the media fans construct their own culture as an alternative social community with specific cultural preferences and consumption practices. Through an insider’s perspective on the media fan community, Jenkins offers insightful account of the media fan community its interpretive strategies, its social institutions and cultural practices etc and there are vivid examples from fan artifacts which present the authors ideas to the readers in a convincing manner. In the book Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture, Jenkins maps some of the most important dimensions of the media fan life and he is effective in revealing the complexity and diversity of fandom as a sub-cultural community It is important to realize that Jenkins rejects stereotypes of fans as cultural dupes, social misfits, and mindless consumers. To him, media fans play the active role of the producers of meanings within the new media culture and they construct an alternative social community within the broad media culture. His work Textual Poachers offers an essential contribution to the understanding of new media culture represented by the media fan community. “Textual Poachers identifies at least five distinct (though often interconnected) dimension of this culture: its relationship to a particular mode of reception; its role in encouraging viewer activism; its function as an interpretive community; its particular traditions of cultural production; its status as an alternative social community… Such an approach recognizes that fan culture is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon, inviting many forms of participation and levels of engagement. Such an approach also traces a logical progression from the immediate reception of a broadcast toward the construction of alternative social identities.” (Jenkins, 1992, P 1-2). Therefore, Henry Jenkins offers an important contribution to the understanding of the media fan community which has become one of the pertinent aspects of new media culture of the contemporary society. One of the central contributions of Henry Jenkins in the contemporary age of the new media has been that he offers an essential explanation of the required skills to live in the new media culture. The fundamental mission of education in general is to make sure that the individuals can benefit from learning in acquire the basic requirements of participating in the community life. Thus, Henry Jenkins makes an essential contribution to the understanding of the ways in which one should lead his life so as to fit in the new media culture. Jenkins offers convincing explanation of thee various means to confronting the challenges of participatory culture through media education in the 21st century. According to Jenkins, “participatory culture is emerging as the culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate and re-circulate media content in powerful new ways. A focus on expanding access to new technologies carries us only so far if we do not also foster the skills and cultural knowledge necessary to deploy those tools toward our own ends.” (Jenkins, 2009, P 8). Therefore, Jenkins convincingly suggests the importance of media education in the 21st century in order to confront the challenges of participatory culture. A profound analysis of media in transmission as suggested by Henry Jenkins confirms that this celebrated media scholar of contemporary American media culture comes up with two essential models of media changes: media convergence and participatory culture. Significantly, Jenkins points out the current trend within the entertainment industry which highlights the increased concentration of media ownership in the smaller trans-media and transnational conglomerates. “As a consequence of these new patterns of media ownership and production, there is increasing pressure toward the technological integration of the various content delivery systems, what industry analysts refer to as convergence. Technological convergence is attractive to the media industries because it will open multiple entry points into the consumption process and at the same time, enable consumers to more quickly locate new manifestations of a popular narrative.” (Jenkins). In conclusion, Henry Jenkins has been one of the most important media scholars in America and he has researched and written about literature, film and media studies, gender and cultural studies etc in general. Through several of the important works he has written, especially Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Jenkins offers an essential contribution to the understanding of media change in its full context. Significantly, Jenkins has been effective in suggesting how popular culture comprehends the new media culture with its changing, convergent forms of digital media content. The greatest contribution made by Jenkins to the understanding of new media is his arguments concerning the two essential models of media changes: media convergence and participatory culture. In short, Henry Jenkins is one of most notable media analysts of the contemporary American media culture and he has made incredible contribution to the understanding of new media and media convergence from the perspective of its users and participatory culture. Bibliography Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. P 1. Jenkins, Henry. 2001. “Convergence? I Diverge.” Digital Renaissance. Technology Review. P 93. http://phase1.nccr-trade.org/images/stories/jenkins_convergence_optional.pdf Jenkins, Henry. 2004. “The cultural logic of media convergence.” International Journal of Cultural Studies. SAGE Publications. 7(1). P 33–43. http://eng1131adaptations.pbworks.com/f/Jenkins,+Henry++-+The+Cultural+Logic+of+Media+Convergence.pdf Jenkins Henry. 2006. Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York: NYU Press. p 3. Jenkins, Henry. 2009. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. MIT Press. P 8. Jenkins, Henry. “Quentin Tarantinos Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture.” Web Mit Edu. http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/starwars.html Read More