Jenkins- Part 2

A major topic throughout Chapter 6 of Jenkins’s book is a shift in the way people get their political information. It is moving away from the mainstream broadcast and adopting a more narrowcast, grassroots approach. This phenomenon is mainly seen in the younger generations. A great way to think about it is push vs. pull. The old way, push media, releases information to a large audience. They information is therefore created for a broad range of opinions and not very specific. A pull medium puts the information out there, but does not assume it will reach a large audience. Those who are interested will seek out the information and “pull” it for their use. Broadcast news would therefore be a push medium, while the Internet is a pull medium.

Interestingly though, Facebook and Twitter have so many users that they can almost function as a broadcast medium. In the past couple of days, the KONY 2012 video has gone viral. Over 32, 000,000 (and counting) have viewed the 30-minute video since it was uploaded Monday. Most of them are young people who don’t normally keep up with world news, a lot of them are not even old enough to vote. Jenkins quotes another author, David Buckingham, who wrote a book called The Making of Citizens, who said,“children and youth feel powerless in their everyday lives and, as a consequence, have difficulty imagining how they might power in a politically meaningful fashion”. These people are donating money, signing a petition, and organizing events- all via social media. They are learning that their social networks can be a lot more powerful than they realized. I have participated in their campaign, reposting the video and encouraging my networks to watch it. But I think it is important to question it as well. I am giving the whole issue critical thought, researching and forming my own beliefs.

I anticipate a lot of political content on Facebook and Twitter as the election draws closer. I agree that it is a great way to reach the young people, but I hope that my generation doesn’t just vote just because everyone is telling them to, without educating themselves.

From reading these chapters, I have come to find convergence culture a bit complicated. But I can see that its main strength is that it is a participatory culture. We are no longer just talked at via television; anyone can now take part in the conversation. I think digital craft and DIY are very much a part of convergence culture- they are a creative way to join the conversation.