Exploring Participatory Culture Summary

Convergence culture is a recent media culture that allows consumers to stay connected with all their media content. Jenkins, in his books, ‘Convergence Culture' and ‘Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture' explores this cultural development and how it can be used positively, negatively and confused with other types of convergence. User generated content is a product of this convergence and it has led to many fanbases growing larger than could ever have been predicted, with thousands of fan generated content for properties such as the ‘Harry Potter' series, ‘Star Wars, and ‘Twilight'. The ability for consumers to interact with each other, discuss and critique the original works has changed the landscape for media production

Jenkins used the term to describe narratives that were heavily media integrated and that used cross-platform methods to be propelled. Whereas before, a narrative would stick to a single medium, whether it be a radio show, television program or video game, ‘transmedia' allowed for a narrative to be spread across multiple platforms reaching a variety of different audiences. The first major recorded use of ‘transmedia' is by the Wachowski's after the release of ‘The Matrix'. After the success of their 1999 science fiction action film the Wachowski's released a number of animated short films, comic books and video games that would all relate to the original film and future sequels. By doing so they expanded ‘the potential market for property by creating different points of entry for different audience segments'. However, issues arose when it became apparent that in order for fans to fully understand the sequels, they would have had to have consumed all other canonical media associated with it. This caused fan backlash as many believed it was unfair to expect every fan to have read every comic book and played every game when that wasn't originally what they'd signed up for. They'd originally been given a film and it was disrespectful to assume they'd make the jump to other mediums. ‘Some would argue that the Wachowskis (…) have pushed transmedia storytelling father than most audience members were prepared to go.

This user generated content would help build the fan base and the online community. ‘Because there is more information on any given topic than anyone can store in their head, there is an added incentive for us to talk among ourselves about the media we consume.' (Jenkins, Fan's bloggers, and Gamers; Exploring Participatory Culture, 2006) Jenkins noted that Star Wars fans were ‘among the first to embrace' the potential of user generated content. Generating hundreds of ‘web movies', stories and other pieces of media, it quickly spread to other fandoms to the point where now it's almost become a part of many fans entertainment experience. Every popular film franchise, television show or novel series has an army of fans online creating their own stories using existing characters and settings or by creating their own. However, in a world where intellectual property is becoming more precious than ever, issues arise when fans misuse fan faction and try to profit off of it. An example of this involves JK Rowling, the author of the ‘Harry Potter' novel series, and a fan-written encyclopaedia titled ‘The Harry Potter Lexicon'. (John Eligon, New York Times, 2008) For seven years a fan of the Harry Potter franchise created an encyclopaedia detailing characters, places and events that