Henry Jenkins Intro and Spoiling Survivor

As I enter into the world of "Convergence Culture," I should begin just as Henry Jenkins did: with a definition of this word "convergence."  According to the reading, my understanding of convergence is that it is some kind of shift in the way media is delivered and consumed- one that is blurring lines between different mediums and platforms and that is changing the way consumer and producer interact.  This change is more a cultural change than a technological change, as it is dependent on consumer-producer interaction more than it is reliant on any new technology.  In this way, convergence is socially driven.  And it is a sneaky thing.  Convergence enters our lives in ways we might not even notice: it enters into my life when my Iphone plays a song I bought on Itunes via my Macbook.  It sneaks its way into my life when I can then turn around and watch a movie on that same Iphone, and then go home and play that same song over my gaming system of choice.  The fact that I confused myself in writing those sentences gives me a sense of how complex a world; how ever-changing of a world we are entering into when we discuss convergence culture.  It is a world where more media, more information is accessible to more people in more places- and faster than ever before!  We know through the Black Box Fallacy that old media does not die- old technologies do- but rather that old media adapts and changes to fit cultural contexts (and those new technologies.)  Perhaps it should be of no surprise then that this culture is one which is searching for identity, as media giants grasp more and more control across all platforms while consumers continue to gain more and more access to all that this new age of media has to offer.  This lack of identity was made clear to me through Jenkins’ exploration of intelligence communities through his case study on the reality show, “Survivor.”

Survivor is a show that I have known of and heard about for the past decade.  I have seen the appeal of reality television, but of all different platforms I would not think of reality tv when I think about convergence.  However, after reading what Jenkins had to say, I have come to a better appreciation for the impact a show like Survivor can have- specifically by way of its impact on fan communities.  I am very intrigued by the idea of “knowledge communities.”  It makes sense that, in a digital world, community would be less proximity-based and more interest or value-based.  After reading about Survivor, I can see any number of other knowledge communities that I have been exposed to.  Upon reading about these communities, I have come to appreciate a few things about them:

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Inclusiveness: knowledge communities are in many ways more accessible than an academic community, or any kind of private community is.  Jenkins referred to the “expert paradigm” as one where a select few individuals know “all” there is to know about a given subject.  The difference inside of this convergence culture is that there is too much to be known for any one person to know it all.  Rather, we depend on our “collective intelligence” to the point where hundreds or thousands of people can bring something useful to the table and in doing so, a knowledge community can know exponentially more about a given subject than any one individual can possibly know.  This is how a person like ChillOne can (allegedly) stumble onto some information and instantly bring something of worth to a community of which (s)he was not an active part.  This inclusiveness underlies the accessibility that is becoming a trademark of the world we live in.

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The Scope of the Knowledge Community:  This ties into its inclusiveness, but I was impressed with the depths of information and knowledge that these communities could provide.  Some of these people probably could have pursued Doctorates with the amount of research that went into “spoiling” Survivor- pouring over topographical maps and satellite images and tracking down contestants based on a first name and a rough physical description.  Obviously, these “spoilers” were not always successful, but what was impressed upon me in reading about them is just what is possible when the sharing of this collective intelligence occurs.  It definitely gave me a picture- and Jenkins mentioned this briefly in the intro- of what is (perhaps) to come: a world where knowledge communities merge into politics and economics and religion.  It’s interesting to imagine that world, when you look at the example of the Survivor Spoilers and the strengths and weaknesses that community showed.

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The Temporal Nature of the Knowledge Community:  The final thing that struck me about these communities is just how flexible and temporal they are.  People aren’t bound to a community the way an American citizen is bound to his or her nationality.  There is freedom amongst the world of knowledge communities.  If a certain community isn’t meeting one’s needs or interests, one is free to move on.  If a certain interest passes- like the show LOST did for me, members of that knowledge community are able to simply move on.  There is a certain amoeba-like quality here, which lends me to believe that these communities will continue to have a growing significance in an ever-changing, ever-diverse, globally-connected world. 

We (don't) have to go back!!!