Henry Jenkins - Convergence Culture

Henry Jenkins

"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" 

Technology Change has been Culturally lead.

Old media examples: 

Film
Newspapers
TV
Network Radio
CD's
Books

Old media, such as 'Film' have been culturally lead. For example, 'Netflix' and 'LoveFilm' are examples of new media, which have been developed from old media. 

Hegemony

Hegemony means Power or Dominance. 

 People are able to take more control over new media, which enables them to feel more involved. For example, on the X Factor, there is a downloadable app for your mobile phone, where you can 'be the judge'. This makes people feel more involved and apart of new media technology. 

"Convergence Culture is the future, but is taking shape now. Consumers will be more powerful within Convergence Culture, but only if they recognise and use that power as both consumers and citizens, as full participants in our culture" 

Michael Wesch - Media and the Online Age

Media and the Online Age - Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch is a cultural anthropologist and media ecologist who is exploring the effects of new media on human interaction.

Cultural Inversion

Michael Wesch has applied his theory of Cultural Inversion to the purpose of the video sharing website YouTube. The main beliefs of the theory state that we express individualism, but we value community, we express independence, but we value relationships and we express commercialisation but we value authenticity and that YouTube revolutionises our sense of community.

Individualism

Some people may believe that they are an 'individual' if they are sat in their bedroom recording themselves on a webcam and then post the video on youtube etc. However, that one individual is not the only one who does this, therefore everybody involved creates a community within the online age. 

TWITTER

Twitter is a good thing to have if you have a desire to follow celebrities, as you get to see what they post or 'tweet' about in their every day lives. You can also follow your friends on twitter, but to me, this use is just exactly the same as what you would use Facebook for.

I personally do not use Twitter, I much prefer Facebook and Instagram. The main reason behind this is because I have always used these social network sites and therefore I am a lot more familiar with these, where as I am new to twitter and find it quite confusing to use.