Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Yesterday in class we discussed chapters 2 and 3 of Henry Jenkins book, Convergence Culture. Chapter 2 is called "Buying into American Idol" and Chapter 3 is called "Searching for the Origami Unicorn".

For chapter 2 I agree with everything that we talked about. In this new day in age we do not always watch commercials anymore (people fast forward through them [DVR] or they "zap" through other channels) so advertisers must think of different ways to get their product out there. Advertisers use the consumers emotional attachment to, for example, with American Idol, they drank out of coke bottles and sat in a red room. Coke knew that loyal watchers had a connection with the people on the show and used the contestants and judges to advertise their product. Also, I agree that gossip creates convergence. Just as the family in the chapter discussed the show and then sent in their vote together. Social media makes it even easier for gossip created convergence. We now have the option of not only talking to people in person around the "water cooler," but we now have a "cyber water cooler" to gossip with. A "cyber water cooler" would be chat rooms, blogs, twitter, facebook, e-mails, etc. that is a way to spread conversation with. This chapter also says how American Idol changed texting. When the show started, out of the people viewing 1/3 of them had never sent a text before, but were now texting in for their favorite performers.

In chapter 3, "Searching for the Origami Unicorn," which is about The Matrix, we mentioned some key terms that deal with that we will discuss on these blog posts:

1. Storytelling



2. World Creating



3. Collaborative Authorship



4. Co-creating



5. Origami Unicorn



6. Cult Films Phenomenon



7. TRANSMEDIA



8. Encyclopedia Capacity



9. Additive Comprehension



10. Collective Intelligence

Storytelling, transmedia, collaborative authorship, and co-creating are all similar. They all deal with how The Matrix was not just the film. The Matrix was not just a film. To co-create the differnt medias, the creators of the film got together with animation artists and video game creators to make the expierence even greater. By just watching the movie you would not get the whole effect, you understood more by seeing the animated shorts and by playing the game, this is what it is meant by storytelling. We are using differnt medias to tell one story which is what transmedia means. The collaborative authorship deals with how a part of the story could be told in the video game, but then the story continues in the movie. World creating deals with the idea of designing a whole new world such as the one Neo enters in The Matrix. Consumers get involved and attached to The Matrix's many worlds (film, gaming, and television) and want to be apart of it. The idea of the origami unicorn and additive comprehension go together. The origami unicorn refers to a "director's cut of Blade Runner, where adding a small segment showing Deckard discovering an origami unicorn invited viewers to question whether Deckard might be a replicant". This is an example of additive comprehension, where this one addition of this sence causes you to change your whole "preception of the fill". The cult film phenomenon refers to movies such as The Matrix where information comes from other movies. "For example, Neo's apartment number is 101, which is the room number of the torture chamber in George Orwell's 1984" there are even more references throughout all three of The Matrix films for the number 101. Encyclopedica compacity refers to the cult film phenomenon. For a work to be encyclopedic it must contain "a rich array of information that can be drilled, practiced, and mastered by devoted consumers. Loyal consumers would look and know what Neo's apartment number meant. However, encyclopdic compacity deals with the high number of hidden messages in the film that maybe no one will really ever know how many their really are but the creators. The idea of collective intellengence is where together you can know more that just by yourself. The loyal fans put their minds together to try to understand The Matrix through all three medias. They helped each other find clues and answered questions. This is similar to the knowledge community that formed for Survivor.