Thursday, December 4, 2014
Today's Convergence Culture
Professor of Humanities at MIT, Henry Jenkins, describes the current convergence culture as "The flow of content across multiple media 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." To professor Jenkins, convergence culture is more than the merging of devices like the phone and mp3 player. It is consumers using various media forms to interact with each other and share their ideas, which leads to creative engagement. Creative engagement is what has appeared through the new convergence culture where consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make new forms of media content that make sense in their everyday lives. These consumers are participating in various ways. Some are creating blogs to expresses their opinions and give advice, while others are interacting with businesses by writing online reviews and "tweeting" at other companies. The type of content they are posting is always changing, along with the participants so this creates a completely diverse and unpredictable environment. My favorite kind of participators are the humorous ones. One of my favorite examples of creative engagement is the "Things Tim Howard Could Save" meme.
Due to the internet and photoshop Time Howard is now immortalized as more than a goalie and thanks to creative engagement and the rising convergence culture, the internet will always be filled with endless entertainment.
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The Tim Howard meme is was very entertaining in my opinion, but I hadn't really considered it part of convergence culture.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, though. The meme allowed different communities to connect (such as soccer fans and non-soccer fans) over a relevant cultural event. And like you said, it helped Tim Howard become "immortalized" into pop culture history faster than what used to be possible.
Before reading your post, I hadn't even considered how great an example memes were of convergence culture. No picture or video today is safe from the Internet humorists, as memes go viral in near instantaneous fashion. Here, what starts as print media or something a design team cooked up becomes hilarious with 10 minutes of photoshop. I also like the way you related this phenomenon to how its perpetual, as memes could be created about anything, even other memes. This type of creative engagement ensures the Internet will always have something new to offer.
ReplyDeleteIncluding the Tim Howard meme was very beneficial to understand convergence culture. Tim Howard went from being a soccer star (traditional media) to a complete internet star. He has gained new meaning through new media. My question would be how many people suffer from the participatory culture, when the meme is not so positive?
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the content on the Internet is always unpredictable. You never know what is going to be the next big hit. I, also, like your example of the Tim Howard memes. I think that is a great example of how online users are taking bits and pieces of different things and putting them together to create something new.
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