Participatory Cultures
Hello!
I am a little tired today after yesterday’s massive effort! I also had to go shopping to buy a mother’s day present, which wasn’t exactly as easy as it sounds! My sister and I just couldn’t decide which shade of pink was right. Such a dilemma! Anyway, considering I haven’t touched on Jenkins’ ideas about the emergence of ‘participatory cultures’ within the New Media Economy, I thought I would investigate some research studies. Basically, participatory cultures have emerged with the evolution of new media technologies. These technologies are being marketed and used by consumers (irrespective of their skill level) and are now cheaper and easier to access than ever before. As I discussed in an earlier post, ‘prosumer’ and ‘produser’ are becoming popular buzz words, reflecting the blurring of lines defining media producers and consumers. Henry Jenkins (2004) refers to prosumers using new media technology as “amateur artists” whose creative work “…should be valued on its own terms, judged by the criteria of the subcultures within which these works get produced and circulated.”
Further, as John Banks mentioned in the Week Seven lecture, cultural critic Henry Jenkins suggests in his book Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, that “…the devoted viewers of television programs like Star Trek have created their own unique fan culture around their favoured media texts” (cited in Pustz, 1998). For example, some ‘devoted viewers’ have become so obsessed with shows like Star Trek that they have created their own films based on the show.
Another effective illustration of participatory culture activity is evident in the small-scale network, DTV, who is experimenting with Internet broadcasts of TV programs, “…using the same free-to-download open source approach to its software that spawned the Linux operating system and the Firefox web browser” (Anderson, 2005). Posing a threat to big TV companies around the world, DTV’s authors “have banded together under the banner of a fledgling non-profit organization called the Participatory Culture Foundation ” (Anderson, 2005). This website is really interesting as a reflection of the whole participatory culture movement and the types of activists supporting it.
Overall I think, like John Banks that Henry Jenkins views the idea of prosumers revolutionising the capitalist world a little too optimistically. For example, Jenkins states:
Whilst I believe that in the near future we will witness a stronger collaborative relationship between enterprise and consumers, yet at the end of the day, if people aren’t being paid to create work, they won’t do it. As I have discussed in earlier posts, there are huge legal issues involved with game and music fans using Copyrighted material to appropriate or imitate original creative works. I hope that the examples I have shown today have provided you with some idea of what is happening between media producers and consumers in the current media environment! Have an awesome weekend, and I’ll post very soon!
Em x
References
Anderson, M. 2005. Internet TV at a crucial fork in the road. New Scientist, 188 (2529): pp.30-32. (accessed May 12, 2006 from ProQuest: Multiple Databases).
Jenkins, H. 2004. Taking media into our own hands. http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=biotech&sc=&id=13905&pg=2 (accessed May 12, 2006).
Jenkins, H. 2005. Welcome to convergence culture. http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/12/articles/pdf/12_01.pdf (accessed May 12, 2006).
Pustz, M. 1998. Fanboys and true believers: Comic book reading communities and the creation of culture. The University of Iowa, 588 pgs. (accessed May 12, 2006 from ProQuest: Multiple Databases).
I am a little tired today after yesterday’s massive effort! I also had to go shopping to buy a mother’s day present, which wasn’t exactly as easy as it sounds! My sister and I just couldn’t decide which shade of pink was right. Such a dilemma! Anyway, considering I haven’t touched on Jenkins’ ideas about the emergence of ‘participatory cultures’ within the New Media Economy, I thought I would investigate some research studies. Basically, participatory cultures have emerged with the evolution of new media technologies. These technologies are being marketed and used by consumers (irrespective of their skill level) and are now cheaper and easier to access than ever before. As I discussed in an earlier post, ‘prosumer’ and ‘produser’ are becoming popular buzz words, reflecting the blurring of lines defining media producers and consumers. Henry Jenkins (2004) refers to prosumers using new media technology as “amateur artists” whose creative work “…should be valued on its own terms, judged by the criteria of the subcultures within which these works get produced and circulated.”
Further, as John Banks mentioned in the Week Seven lecture, cultural critic Henry Jenkins suggests in his book Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, that “…the devoted viewers of television programs like Star Trek have created their own unique fan culture around their favoured media texts” (cited in Pustz, 1998). For example, some ‘devoted viewers’ have become so obsessed with shows like Star Trek that they have created their own films based on the show.
Another effective illustration of participatory culture activity is evident in the small-scale network, DTV, who is experimenting with Internet broadcasts of TV programs, “…using the same free-to-download open source approach to its software that spawned the Linux operating system and the Firefox web browser” (Anderson, 2005). Posing a threat to big TV companies around the world, DTV’s authors “have banded together under the banner of a fledgling non-profit organization called the Participatory Culture Foundation ” (Anderson, 2005). This website is really interesting as a reflection of the whole participatory culture movement and the types of activists supporting it.
Overall I think, like John Banks that Henry Jenkins views the idea of prosumers revolutionising the capitalist world a little too optimistically. For example, Jenkins states:
Consumers are learning how to use these different media technologies to bring the flow of media more fully under their control and to interact with their significant others. The promises of this new media environment open up expectations of a freer flow of ideas and content.”
Whilst I believe that in the near future we will witness a stronger collaborative relationship between enterprise and consumers, yet at the end of the day, if people aren’t being paid to create work, they won’t do it. As I have discussed in earlier posts, there are huge legal issues involved with game and music fans using Copyrighted material to appropriate or imitate original creative works. I hope that the examples I have shown today have provided you with some idea of what is happening between media producers and consumers in the current media environment! Have an awesome weekend, and I’ll post very soon!
Em x
References
Anderson, M. 2005. Internet TV at a crucial fork in the road. New Scientist, 188 (2529): pp.30-32. (accessed May 12, 2006 from ProQuest: Multiple Databases).
Jenkins, H. 2004. Taking media into our own hands. http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=biotech&sc=&id=13905&pg=2 (accessed May 12, 2006).
Jenkins, H. 2005. Welcome to convergence culture. http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/12/articles/pdf/12_01.pdf (accessed May 12, 2006).
Pustz, M. 1998. Fanboys and true believers: Comic book reading communities and the creation of culture. The University of Iowa, 588 pgs. (accessed May 12, 2006 from ProQuest: Multiple Databases).
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