Summary Response Paper 1

In his novel, Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins describes the cultural shift occurring with a new convergence of media platforms and a change in the dynamics of audience participation. According to Jenkins, the audiences’ modes of media reception are more communal than individualistic in this new age of media convergence (26), which is leading to a more participatory culture. This active interaction between audience and media is blurring the distinction between the producer and the consumer of media content. The recurring question in this piece is, “whether changes brought about by convergence open new opportunities for expression or expand the power of big media” (11). Regarding the audience, Jenkins explains the notion of a “collective intelligence,” which is the sum total of information held individually by the members of a group,” (27). The knowledge communities that result from this collective intelligence can be exploited by media conglomerates through marketing concepts like “affective economics,” which “seeks to mold those consumer desires to shape purchasing decisions” (62) or “co-creation,” where “companies collaborate from the beginning to create content they know plays well in each of their sectors” (107). Affective economics was attempted by producers of American Idol in order to create consumers’ emotional attachment to the show. The Matrix franchise successfully accomplished something similar to co-creation through “transmedia storytelling…[which] unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole” (98). The Matrix producers secured a broad, cult following through their horizontal marketing in films, anime, comics, and games. The collective intelligence can also give the audience significant power, as it did during Survivor: Season 6, where a virtual mole caused eventual disinterest in the series after publicly listing all of the season’s results before the broadcast. The audience also had power when the American Idol fan base created a backlash against the program and its sponsors after some fans felt betrayed by the voting process. Jenkins concludes his piece by mentioning the “politics of participation” (252) and how democracy is affected by our newfound power from participation in cultural convergence.

The concepts of “co-creation” and “transmedia storytelling” were of particular interest to me because I cannot decipher the primary goal of media conglomerates when introducing these media innovations. There is obvious economic gain from encouraging consumers to seek out a franchise of their interest on multiple platforms because with the rise in collaboration between media sectors, all producers win when consumers actively pursue an already established taste through multiple media outlets. The interesting part about transmedia storytelling is the attempt to allow “each medium to generate new experiences for the consumer and expand points of entry into the franchise” (107). Intertwining The Matrix films with its subsequent video games, to the point where a person does not fully understand the film without experiencing the game, shows the advancement of media technology and collaboration, and is a clear sign of convergence. The notions of “affective economics” and “lovemarks” take these ideas about franchise loyalty and expansion of consumer involvement one step further by attempting to create a loyal fan-base that “loves” the brand specifically marketed to them. “Lovemarks” are “more powerful than traditional “brands” because they command the “love” as well as the “respect” of consumers: “In reality, audiences want the new work to offer new insights and new experiences. If media companies reward that demand, viewers will feel greater mastery and investment; deny it, and them stomp off in disgust” (107). Producers walk a very thin line between delighting their fan base with new forms of artistic vision in their content, or losing fans altogether by disappointing them. People have different tastes and expectations, both of which apply to outcomes in stories, and these expectations affect the success of a project. If consumers seem more emotionally invested in creations that connect to them horizontally, that is, through different media platforms, then they can become extremely valuable assets to the franchise. If the franchise disappoints these influential fans after the fans have invested emotions and time in it, they can turn into outspoken enemies of the creative art they originally “loved,” which can have a serious effect on the franchise. This example displays the significance of the participatory audience and the depth of their influence in this new era of cultural media convergence.