Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a great book. I have to confess, it is one thing to call myself a dork because I write Actionscript and know what a “Rick Roll” is… but it is another thing to let this MIT professor, who is probably a bigger dork than I will ever be, take me through the hidden backstreets and boulevards of new media culture. Through this book, I learned so many things that I wouldn’t have fully realized just from being a bemused observer and participant, from the ambiguously empowering effect of Harry Potter on children to the great lengths Survivor spoilers would go to prove themselves masters of their craft.

The foundation of this book is the concept of media convergence. Basically this is the idea that content (stories, music, whatever) were once media-specific but due to both the grass-roots activity of fans and consumers and the top-down activity of industry giants, content is becoming increasingly trans-media and amorphous. It is no longer the case where producers produce static content for the masses and masses consume it. (Although the author lightly questions whether this was ever the case.) Anyhow, this causes a ton of confusing new issues which the author emphasizes we have not yet arrived at solutions for – issues of ownership, agency, distribution, profit margins, ethics, etc. Solving these issues together, legally and otherwise, thus becomes the big challenge for us today.

This book takes the format of 5 or 6 in-depth case studies looking at a specific franchise or topic caught in media convergence. The texts seem is very well-researched, taking insight from everything from media industry conferences to student projects. It is also written in an easygoing style sans excessive academic toughness. An interesting feature I found was that interspersed throughout the main text are several mini case-studies to supplement the discussion at hand.

Perhaps the strongest message I took away from this book was that, in order for content producers to flourish in this “new order,” they should embrace the role of fans and consumers in growing the content. They should encourage them to build upon the worlds they invented rather than restricting their sense of ownership and their imaginations. Folk culture, in this way, is making a gradual comeback in the wake carved out by mass culture, but it is a folk culture heavily inspired by mass media nonetheless.

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