By convergence, I mean 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 entertainment experiences they want. (introduction, 2) The term, participatory culture, contrasts with the older notions of passive media spectatorship. Rather than talking about media producers and consumers as occupying separate roles, we might now see as participants who interact with each other according to a new set of rules that none of us fully understand. (Introduction,3) 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. (3) Consumption has become a collective process --and that's what this book means means by collective intelligence, a term coined by French cybertheorist Pierre Levy. None of us can know everything; each of us knows something; and we can put pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills. collective intelligence can be seen as alternative source of media power. (4) >>> "collective meaning-making" convegence paradigm : new and old media will interact in complex ways. digitization set the conditions for convergence >> distribute content across various channels rather than a single media platform convegergence is reshaping american popular culture >>> impacting relationhips between media audiences, producers, and content. World of media fandom >> Jenkins is an Aca/Fan >>scholarship in fandom for 2 decades >>> fan communities roles between producers and consumers are shifting. media change >> period of prlonged transition to new media (digital media) old media never die MEdia definition by Lisa Gitelman: two levels: -Media is a technology that enables communication -Media is a set of associated protocols or social and cultural practices that have grown up around the technology. Media are not delivery systems (just techonologies) >>> media are also cultural systems convergence is more than a technological shift (blackbox fallacy) convergence refers to a process not to and endpoint. media convergence impact the way we consume media and the way we produce media. fans of popular tv series: -sample dialogue -summarize episodes -debate subtexts -create original fan ficition -record their own soundtracks -make their own movies -distribute world-wide via the internet the media that is flowing is not only the one produced by corporations . flow of media produced by people. people take the media in their own hands. pros and cons. corporate convergence (concentration, multinational media conglomerates ownership of mainstream entertainment) cohexist with grassroots convergence ( new media low production and distribution costs:: annotate, appropriate, archive, recirculate) consumers in the AMerican MEdia environment old consumers: passive, predictable, isolated individuals, silent, invisible. new consumers are active, migratory, socially connected, noisy and public. cosumers are fighting for the right to participate more fully in their culture. what it means to consume media? knowledge communities around mutual intellectual interests >> social nature of contemporary media consumption. >> knowledge becomes power. transmedia storytelling as a new aesthetic :: the art of world making >>> consumers as hunter and gatherers, chasing down bits of the stroy across media channels, comparing notes with each other via online discussion groups, collaborating to have a richer entertainment experience. CHAPTER 4. Fans Fan Cultures :: tradition Power of fandom Early adapters of new media technologies Fascination with fictional universes > inpires cultural production Most active sector of the media audience >> insists on the right to become full participants Shift on the visibility of fan cultures >> Internet: distribution channel of amateur cultural production. >public -Example of things that fans make: costumes, fanzines, fan videos, digital films, machinima FAN FILMS "Fan digital film is to cinema what the punk DYI culture was to music. There, grassroots experimentation generated new sounds, new artists, new techniques, and new relations to consumers which have been pulled more and more into mainstream practice." (132) -machinima -mashups FOLK-VERNACULAR Current moment of media change >> "reafirm the right of everyday people to actively contribute to their culture." >>> folk culture traditions 19 century in AMerica : -quilting bees -barn dances (in a folk culture there is no clear division between producers and consumers) FAN FICTION (fanfic) A term originally referring to any prose retelling of stories and characters drawn from mass-media content. Convergence >>>New vernacular culture encourages broad participation, grassroots creativity, and a bartering or gift economy. This is what happens when consumers take media into their own hands. "Within congergence culture, everyone's a participant --although participants may have different degrees of status and influence." (132) STAR WARS widespread circulation of commodities: -dresses -sheets -plastic light sabers -action figures mythology, religion, legend Star Wars or Bust by Jason Wishnow ::: doccumentary about star wars fans. http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/star_wars_bust/ "Star Wars is, in many ways, the prime example of media convergence at work." (145) Machinima http://www.machinima.com -ideas coming from amateurs and making their way into commercial media. -Hybrid of "machine" and "cinema" :: 3-D digital animation created in real time using game engines. Fetts Vette by Windspire Entertainment MMORPGS http://www.mmorpg.com/index.cfm?bhcp=1 Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games : people interacting through avatars ina graphically rich fantasy environment. -Star Wars Modders and Mods http://www.moddb.com/mods The Sims at the mall Forms of audience engagement that are shaped by cultural and social protocols rather than by the technology. (290) Culture in which fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content. (290)