Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture, argues that technology and mass media have moved to a more participatory “convergence” culture, where the traditional flow from producer to consumer has been altered. Now the consumer becomes the producer and creates the media he or she wants. ‘Convergence culture allows small communities all around the world to gather around given topics and interests and produce information, media, etc., on those things’ [1]. Fan culture is an example of the possibility for these small meaningful communities that are not limited to geographical space.
In Convergence Culture Jenkins argues that fan culture is characterized by these five things:
- Appropriation – A person appropriates in their own life a particular text, work, and practice relating to their fan object. Often these objects are reinterpreted in their own life.
- Participation – There is an openness for people to participate at all levels within the community. They are so inspired by it they write music, create events, etc.
- Emotional Investment – People become really invested in this this object, topics, etc. It is something they are really into and something they want to talk about.
- Collective Intelligence (rather than the expert paradigm) – There is room for everyone to have something to say and contribute to the collective understanding of the group. Collective intelligence doesn’t need credentials, degrees, etc., experiences and insights are beneficial to the community and conversation.
- “Virtual” Community – These are communities that are not necessarily built around face to face meetings. Some of these people know each other and some are unknown, but more often than not these groups will have times to meet face to face. [1]
Media companies and producers are now catering to the fans’ needs; before, people really had little say in what to watch becasue they had no choice but today, people have more choice than ever which is forcing these producers to look more into what the fans want. In other words, consumers are gaining a new power as they learn to operate within a networked society and as they learn to share media they’ve produced with each other.
So who are these fans that are shaping new media? According to Henry Jenkins, these fans are ‘highly motivated, passionately committed, and socially networked. They are early adopters of new technologies and willing to experiment with new relationships to culture’ [2]. He also mentions that more than half of teens online produce some form of media and many of them share what they produce with others. This suggests that these fans are not only shaping new media and the content that is being produced but they are actually producing cultural content themselves.
The expansion of this fan culture changes the context in which media content gets produced and distributed which impacts all of us one way or another.
Sources:
[1] Jenkins, Henry. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old media and new media collide. Retrieved on March 26, from http://books.google.ca/books id=RlRVNikT06YC&dq=fan+culture+henry+jenkins&printsec= frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=IpLLSa3oMMLonQfNxajkCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
[2] Berry, Darrell. (2006). Henry Jenkins: On convergence culture. Retrieved on March 26, from http://www.bigshinything.com/henry-jenkins-on-convergence-culture
