1.2 Notes: Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture

This short film features Henry Jenkins who discusses participatory culture, convergence culture and transmedia. For me it really made it easy to see that we are are currently at the centre of a cultural shift - going back to the days of when story telling was pastime for all and not just limited to major media corporations. Here I have outlined the central points Jenkins raises and followed up with an example below.

Key Points about participatory culture:           

• Prior to the 20^th Century we lived in a participatory culture, telling and retelling stories.  The stories or folklore belonged the people or “folk”
• The 20^Th Century saw large companies monopolise folklore, by claiming ownership of the stories, placing them under copyright to prevent the stories being told by others
• 20^th Century media technology allowed for stories to be told to a maximum audience but without involvement from them.
• Limited access to 20^th Century technology meant that only a few large companies could tell stories.
• New forms of media technology such as the internet and mobile phones allow people once again participate in the telling of stories without the inclusion of large media companies.
• New forms of media technology are accessible to the general public and not monopolized by industry
• We are returning to a participatory culture, but on a large scale using media and technology
• Those who are repressed can tell their stories
                                                                                                                              (Jenkins 2009)

Key Points about convergence culture:

• It is where multiple modes of media are used to tell a story including old media (such as reporting for a newspaper) and new media (such as citizen journalism – reporting events on Facebook)
• It is also where groups of people come together to create media content through “collective intelligence” – pooling their information piece together the story
• It is where different media technologies are used to tell a story (e.g. using the internet, TV, comic books, movies to tell the one story)
• It is not limited to large corporation but relies on input from all walks of life
• Obama used convergence culture in his political campaign, advertising his message on all forms of media to reach maximum audience and allowing participation by others by uploading his speeches on YouTube along side mashups, fan videos and protest videos.
• Challenges the validity of copyright law, as people reclaim the principles of folklore by reusing and recontextualising the stories put under copyright by large companies and create new meanings
                                                                                                                             (Jenkins 2009)   
  
  
  
• Example: The Woman to Drive Campaign on Facebook and YouTube
  
  Under Saudi Arabian religious law the woman of Saudi Arabia are banned from driving. Using social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube they are protesting the ban to a global audience (AlJazeeraEnglish 2011) in a way not possible using traditional media sources. This is an example of participatory culture allowing the repressed to tell their stories as they now have access to the technology for recording and distribution. It is also and example of convergence culture - as demonstrated with the below movie the story has now been picked up by traditional news media and has appeared in newspapers, on television and in other online environments (such as this blog). The message of the campaign is spread through different media sources (old and new), subsequently raising awareness of the issue to the largest possible audience.
  
  
  
  
  
   

Favorite Quotes from Jenkins:

“We are definitely in a moment of transition. A moment when an old media system is dying and a new media system is being born” (Jenkins 2009)

“We take control of the media as it enters our lives and that’s the essence of convergence culture” (Jenkins 2009)

AlJazeeraEnglish. 2011. Saudi woman driving for change. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEETb3SOuc4 (accessed 4/10/11).

HDCMediaGroup. 2009. Henry Jenkins. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJaqXVaOaI (accessed 13/9/11)

Pereira, N. 2009. Henry Jenkins on Transmedia. http://cinematech.blogspot.com/2009/05/great-video-w-henry-jenkins-on.html (accessed 13/9/11).