Blog 6

Jenkins starts off by what the book is about and key terms that he will be discussing he states “This book is about the relationship between three concepts—media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence.”  We can relate this with Weinberger statement- “We have taken technology and the power of the masses into a whole different level “crowdsourcing”.  We are able to use information and manipulate it anyway we want, whenever we want and most importantly now!” On page two Jenkins states “Welcome to convergence culture, where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.”

Jenkins defines convergence as follows: 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 the kinds of entertainment experiences they want.”  Later on his work he states that “Convergence is, in that sense, an old concept taking on new meanings.”  I think that he is describing our age of mixing old things with new things.  

In turn, media convergence impacts the way we consume media. A teenager doing homework may juggle four or five windows, scan the Web, listen to and download MP3 files, chat with friends, word-process a paper, and respond to e-mail, shifting rapidly among tasks.  We can see how this may tie up within term of how we organize our lives and our work today.  We can tie this up with what Weinberger said:  “In the digital age, computers have become demonically good at sorting through gigantic, complex piles of information” (pg 85).  

Weinberger believes that all miscellaneous has a place if there is a place for it as he described in his orders of order. Jenkins states “Now, convergence has reemerged as an important reference point as old and new media companies try to imagine the future of the entertainment industry. If the digital revolution paradigm presumed that new media would displace old media, the emerging convergence paradigm assumes that old and new media will interact in ever more complex ways.” Almost everything that we organize has been organized by someone else thus we create something new from something old to define us. 

 “In the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms.” Jenkins I think these holds true on the Splashy pants and Old Spice advertising success.