You know, after reading a few of the article from The New Yorker, read the introduction of Convergence Culture, and watched the presentation of Henry Jenkins I start to really realize that to really understand how media works one has to pull them outside of the spectrum and look at it from afar. Before this class, I never really thought about how media worked through networks of people and how media information acts as a social catalyst for any number of cultural movements. Henry Jenkins really has an outsider's perspective when peering into the media world. He sees the ways that media works through the networks of people throughout the world. I, as a young adult, have been engulfed by this explosion of media since I was just a boy. I never thought about how images and information changes people and how they think. But I'm starting to look from the outside.
In the book "Convergence Culture" by Henry Jenkins, he says that "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 3). I really do believe that and I believe that social networking through the internet is changed who I am and who I am going to be when I'm older. Now is that exactly all bad? I really don't think so. It gives me an understanding of connection between people. It gives me a unique consumption of information everyday that I'm not always exposed to in everyday life. It allows me to reach a broad spectrum of people that I probably have something in common with. I can reach them at almost any moment I need to. Now in terms of gathering people together for a social change? I think this new media we are dealing with is the greatest gift we could have.
After reading about the sit-ins from blacks in the 1970's and the modern day protests that were gathered through twitter I come to think that this ability to rally people who believe in a cause together in a short amount of time is exactly what we need; the ability to create change to a flawed society quicker than ever. We live in a western society where we stress how much change is important in regards to detrimental cultural issues. Through media connections such as Twitter, we are allowing ourselves to rise against the imposing quicker than ever and create that change with less of a push back. It will take not days but hours for people to unite together. I think this will catch on in years to come. Change will be something that happens everyday and it won't seem so drastic as much as it has in the past. It will become apart of who we are as people.
I like that you mention how after this class, you have really taken a step outside to look into new media and how it is changing the world. I think that our generation has grown up in this new media revolution and we really don't take a step back to see its overall effects because we are so accustomed to the way we do things technologically through all the forms of new media. I respect Jenkins and his outlook on the new media world and how he has such an appreciation for it and just as he mentions the change that is taking place, I like the way you refer to change as just becoming a part of who we are.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a really interesting idea that I had not though of before. The idea that change is just going to be a part of who we are instead of something that happens in the future is a good point. That does, in a way, make our generation responsible for change because we can no longer put that responsibility on the future generation. And as you mentioned, because of social networking, information travels much faster and people are able to bring about change much quicker than ever before.
ReplyDeleteGreat headline. I'm glad to see you gaining this generational media self-consciousness.
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