Convergence Culture.
- What is the author's understanding of convergence culture?
Is the flow between multiple media platforms. In this article by Henry Jenkins, it says “n the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms.” It is the way consumers understand a brand or product based off little bits and pieces they have gathered through the media.
2. What is creative engagement? AND 3. How are the participators engaging?
The way I understood it, creative engagement has been caused because of the way consumers react to the media. They have learned something are in return are going to act. For example, Henry described the way consumers react to popular shows like American Idol and Survivor. These shows are fan based - viewers must get involved. For Survivor, viewers are so hooked they need to know what will happen next week so they try and find out, which can lead to spoilers. With American Idol, viewers are no longer watching commercials so they have had to improvise advertising. They do so but extreme product placement and sponsors - like CocaCola or Ford. It’s all because of a reaction to a medium. Which has now lead to participation which is creative engagement.
Hayley,
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, a creative engagement is caused because of the consumer’s reaction to the media. In other words, their engagement is a reaction to what they are seeing and what they are experiencing. Although it might be a good or a bad reaction, as you also mention, they react to it and they act according to how they feel about it. So in a sense, the engagement and the participatory action become big aspects of the convergent culture, which is putting things together. I like your reference to the example of Survivor. Viewers must find a way to know what is going on in the show and this show has a high level of engagement from the audience. Sometimes we become participants without us knowing, but I think we have a say in how engage we want to be. Either way, we are part of a convergent culture, and we as consumers act upon multiple media platforms.
Hayley,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your thoughts on what Henry Jenkins describes as a convergence culture. The media plays such a big role in people's knowledge and understanding of so many different things. The media has become the primary, go-to source of information that they otherwise probably would not know about or understand. I personally believe that participator's are engaging every day, even if they don't realize their doing it. There's mean different avenues for how a participator can be engaging, but the user definitely has a say in just involved they choose to be. I think social media plays the biggest role in how engaged a consumer is, but like you mentioned, a show like Survivor is very depended upon fan engagement.