Henry Jenkins refers to 'convergence culture' as more than just a technological shift but rather as altering the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets and audience.
Jenkins focuses on collective intelligence arguing that knowledge cultures will gradually alter the way that commodity cultures or nation states operate. He also pays attention to the emerging power that consumers have in influencing the production and distribution of media content.
Fiction Press
FictionPress is a growing network of over half a million writers/readers, and home to over 900,000 original works. FrictionPress is a web site that allows writers to showcase their works and creativity and an opportunity for readers to comment and discuss the content through online chat rooms and forums. http://www.fictionpress.com
Sumo TV Cviewers
SUMO.tv is the first video site with its own TV channel, found on SKY channel 146 (in the UK). It features the best in Viral Video and Internet clips, as well as showcase the talent available on the Internet with User Generated Content. You have to log on to the site to watch a full library of content, rate the clips, leave the creator's comments and show the clips to your friends. The best videos of the website will be broadcasted on their TV channel. http://www.sumo.tv/
Regulating Media Content
- Push away from consensus style media and towards narrowcasting.
- Jenkins suggest that comsumers are expected to determine what is appropiate for their families.
- Previous years ago, the state had control over TV broadcasting but now the internet has proven to be harder to control or restrict.
- Fiction rated- up to parents to regulate children’s access to stories.
http://www.fictionratings.com/guide.php - It is your obligation to leave areas that are unpoliced, misrated or allow adult content. if you are not of the age of consent in your area. FictionPress.Com is not responsible for the misrating of adult oriented content but will remove content if the misrating is brought to the attention of FictionPress.Com staff.
• In order to keep SUMO.tv available for all ages, there is a family filter which can be turned on by parents who are logged on.
• Will the tension between narrowcasting and regulation result in more or less media diversity?
Redefining intellectual property rights - Will the general public preserve and expand its right to participate or will corporate restrictions on intellectual property use gradually erode away the concept of free expression? (Jenkins)
- Fictionpress.com allows a space to publish stories and read them without any governmental restrictions. Jurgen Habermas and the public sphere- forums and chat rooms are created to allow communication between authors and readers. They have an ‘affective voice’. http://www.fictionpress.com/fl/0/0/1/
- Anyone can post stories up through the World Wide Web as long as they abide to the terms and conditions. http://www.fictionpress.com/reg/’FictionPress.Com respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same’
- Gilles Delvze ‘Postscript to Control Societies’ suggests the Internet provides freedom, but only as long as you play by the rules.
- SUMO.tv gives an opportunity for people to create their own videos and get them viewed by the public. If they are good enough, it gets broadcasted on a channel and the producers of the film get paid.
- SUMO.tv allows viewers to post comments on videos as long as your logged on.
Re-engaging citizens
- Jenkins suggests that activism draws models from a fan culture or that popular culture becomes the venue through which key social and political issues get debated.
- Poetry used to express political views and current affairs.This is an example of where consumption and citizenship are blurring.http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2336530/1/
- Also, people can produce videos on political, environmental, humanitarian and current issues to get their voice across on SUMO.tv.
In an era of privatization, cultural policy is increasingly being set not by governmental bodies, but by media companies; we lose the ability to have any real influence over the directions that our culture takes if we do not find ways to engage in active dialogue with media industries. - Popular culture used as raw tools to express political sentiments
Remapping Globalization
• A new pop cosmopolitanism is being promoted by corporate interests both in Asia and the West, but it is also being promoted by grassroots interests, including both fan and immigrant communities, who are asserting greater control over the flow of media content across national borders. (Jenkins)
• Stories are published in 12 different languages. Mostly European. The only Asian languages accessible are Filipino, Japanese and Chinese.
• Poetry based on different types of religion
• Haiku- a type of Japanese Poetry
• SUMO.tv also broadcasts all genres of videos from different cultures and countries - Collective intelligence
Rethinking media aesthetics - The way we consumer media is changing
• SUMO.tv makes use of different types of mediums.
• Content is available on your phone or to pass to friends via MMS, Bluetooth etc Get 24 Hour Access to our WAP Site for the cost of a text message.
• Virtual video games of the net. http://www.sumo.tv/games.php
• The producer's of the best and most popular channels on MySUMO.tv have the chance to come to our TV studios and produce their very own programme on our SKY TV channel, SUMO.tv! - Goes back to the point Jenkins makes in his article that 'convergence refers to a process not an end point'
- The emergenceof 'the new intertextual commodity' coined by P. David Marshall (2002) allows for media to be everywhere.
- As we use different types of media in relation to each other, the consumer is more deeply engaged in a 'narrative universe'.
Conclusion - Media convergence seems to be opening doors for more diversity, enriching popular culture and even free expression.
- The Internet has given the public and citizens more power to engage in creating their culture through public spaces like blogs, forums and shared stories and videos.
