A VISUAL DEPICTION OF MEDIA TODAY:

When you watch a television program, you are using media.

If the television program has commercials, you are watching media with advertising.

If the television program (with advertising) spans across another medium, such as the internet, this is converged communications.

If the writer develops the program across various mediums, and you must interact in multiple mediums to gain insight as to the entire storyline, this is transmedia storytelling.

.And last, if the writer also provides content which alters how you perceive the program, this is called additive comprehension.

The graphic illustrations above illustrate how efforts in media communications have evolved and expanded over recent decades.  Through this process, the roles of consumers, the content produced, and the roles of the producers have evolved and expanded.

Changing Roles....

First, consumers are no longer order-takers.  Rather, they can also be producers and editors themselves.  Consumers also help direct (and sometimes dictate) the content expected from commercial producers.

Second, media content has changed as well.  The most recent content evolution involves transmedia storytelling, as described by author Henry Jenkins.  Transmedia storytelling is the art of using different media mediums to develop a story (Jenkins, 2006).  For example, parts of a story may be relayed through a film production, while other pieces form through the use of video games and comic books.  It should be noted that this is not the same concept as one story being commercially shared through various mediums; rather, with transmedia storytelling, one can only experience the entire story by participating in all the forms through which the story unfolds. (This topic is also addressed in Time Travels in Popular Media, Time Travel in Popular Media .)

Furthermore, within transmedia storytelling, we can see examples of producer evolution.  I venture to say that most producers started their careers for the sake of art and its creation.  However, their endeavors become more rich, meaningful, and expansive through converged communications. This also means that there is more for the producers to gain from a commercial perspective, which eventually equates to increased revenues. As the number of mediums that content spans expands, the fan base and consumerism potentials also proportionately expand.  For example, some producers create “worlds.” Their dynamic characters pursue different adventures within the different media realms.  Meanwhile, fans find themselves lured in, often jumping from source to source to gain additional insight and clues surrounding the stories.

However, there is always more room for growth and continued evolution.  The key for practitioners of converged communications is to figure out where this growth may occur.  I am not creative- nor am I imaginative, so I’m not the best person to speculate where this growth might be.  Possibly some kind of tracking mechanism that stores data gathered as consumers are exposed to specific media content, and through which the consumers gain status by their level of engagement?

Or maybe we will simply loop back around and recycle older mediums to meet our modern needs. 

And through this process, as producers continue to incorporate additive comprehension to shape our consumption experiences and direct our thinking, we (as consumers/producers/media drivers) in return, will develop a stronger, collective voice which will either accept, reject, or modify the morsels which we are being fed.

 

References

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York, NY: New York

               University Press.

Jones, M. and Ormwod, J. (Editors). (2015).  Time Travel in Popular Media.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland &

               Company, Inc.

 

Jenkins and Today’s Converged Culture

Expertism vs. Collective Intelligence

In the introduction and the first two chapters of Convergence Culture (2006), Henry Jenkins described the primary differences between the old paradigm (expertism) and the emerging environment (collective intelligence) in digital fandom.  Media consumers used to be engaged individually, with a few users serving as experts, based upon knowledge they gained independently through their personal studies and/or experiences. 

Media users today, however, are embracing convergence, which is “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 2). Likewise, these consumers are creating a new, “participatory culture,” where fans move from being “passive spectators” to interacting with each other to develop their knowledge-base through mutual engagement.  Collective Intelligence is a term coined by French cybertheorist Pierre Lévy to describe this new culture (Jenkins, 2006).  With collective intelligence, “None of us can know everything; each of us knows something, and we can put the pieces together if we pool our resources and combine our skills” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 4).

The digital fan bases of the popular reality shows Survivor and American Idol are prime examples of how users utilize various mediums to gain insight surrounding the shows’ contestants; how they share information and research clues together; how they present speculations which are expanded upon and critiqued by fellow users; and ultimately, how they decide they shows’ outcomes ahead of the producers’ schedules.  Conversely, in the old paradigm, viewers would have merely tuned in, discussed possibilities with family and friends, and then waited until the next week to repeat the same sequence.

Spoilers: Brats or Skilled Media Consumers

When the most hard-core fans of reality shows flock together in an online frenzy to determine the show’s outcome ahead of time, the phenomenon is called spoiling (Jenkins, 2006).  

This ritual is a common activity for college students for two primary reasons:  1) College students represent a diverse community, and with diversity comes different perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and thus, knowledge bases; and 2) “(Spoiling) allows (the students) to exercise their growing competencies in a space where there are not yet prescribed experts and well mapped disciplines” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 52). 

While many consumers from the old paradigm might see spoilers as malicious brats who just want to ruin the shows for the rest of us, the reality is that spoilers have invested their energies to become experts collectively, while developing research and communication skills, as well as other skills like deduction, presentation, and observation.

Practical Applications for Collective Intelligence

Aside from spoiling, there are other practical applications for collective intelligence.  As mentioned in my post on Knowledge Communities (Knowledge Communities), Paul Levinson speaks about the most popular collective intelligence model, Wikipedia, in his book New New Media (2014).  However, he also addresses other mediums that I believe can also be considered as collective intelligence pools, such as Twitter.  Here, the difference is that with Wikipedia, authors share detailed and lengthy explanations on subjects, while other authors compound the works with their own contributions or corrections.  Whereas with Twitter, authors offer character-limited gems of information, which are passed along, supplemented, challenged, or refuted by other users.  (Note: Some use Twitter merely as a tool to gossip or share entertainment news, but many Tweeters use the service to gain valuable insights and information.  For example: this Twitter link combines sources of political information surrounding Benghazi: Twitter Link on Benghazi.)

Another arena in which collective intelligence is effective is the workplace.  Employees are evolving from being individual contributors to being collaborative team-members, who tackle challenges across many mediums.  For example, to implement improvement of a product, employees from across the globe can present and discuss ideas through instant messaging and virtual meetings, then disburse to conduct research on the Internet, then share their findings on restricted web data-bases for further review and revisions.  During this process, various team-members share the roll of “expert.” Afterwards, the marketing or public relations personnel may update the company’s social media sites to include the new product features.  Then, consumers will offer their comments and may create their own fan communities to promote the product amongst other, like-minded consumers.

Utilizing Collective Intelligence in Converged Communications

As practitioners of Converged Communications, how can we effectively use collective intelligence to enhance our situated user communities?

First, we need to become familiar with the existing knowledge communities encompassed within our field. How are they organized, and who are their internal experts?  By what means to they gain their knowledge?

Next, we need to determine the appropriate level of involvement we might have with these communities.  How can we contribute to them, influence them, or expand them? 

Furthermore, we need to explore through what means can we create other media avenues to attract new collective intelligence participants; and what can we learn from their new perspectives?  (For example, Project Natal .)

And last, we need to assess how can we shape or direct the future convergence for our participants.

References

Jenkins, H. (2006).  Convergence culture.  New York, NY: New York University Press.

Levison, P. (2014).  New new media.  New York, NY: Pearson.

Knowledge Communities

A Basic Definition

A knowledge community is a group of people who come together to seek and share information, to solve problems collaboratively, or to support a cause or effort.

For example, college students may form a group (knowledge community) to share information about their class during the course of a semester.  

                  

This might include:                                                           

•  lecture notes,
•  questions about assignments,
•  reminders about deadlines,
• invitations to join study groups,
• insights about course content, and/or
• support for upcoming tests and assignments.

Henry Jenkin’s Knowledge Community Perspective

In Convergence Culture (2006), Henry Jenkins elaborately describes knowledge communities from a perspective gained through insights developed by French cybertheorist Pierre Lévy. Most importantly, knowledge communities share a “collective intelligence,” which is “the ability of virtual communities to leverage the combined expertise of their members” (p. 27). Furthermore, “(m)embers may shift from one group to another as their interests and needs change, and they may belong to more than one community at a time.  These communities, however, are held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge” (p.27).

The Most Common Knowledge Community

Today, the largest and most-recognized knowledge community is Wikipedia.  In fact, it is so vast and representative of today's "new, new media" that Paul Levinson devoted an entire chapter of New New Media to this resource.  In this community, “all Wikipedians are equal, but some are more equal than others” (Levinson, p. 71).  Everyone can contribute their knowledge on a given source, however this knowledge is reviewed, edited, corrected, revised, and/or deleted by other authors.  Appointed administrators act as regulators and mediators of content and disputes.

Pinterest as a Knowledge Community

Pinterest is my favorite knowledge community because it is very diverse and has mass appeal.  Here, anyone can be an author and can share information, ideas, and solutions with other members of the Pinterest community.  

This site is often thought of as a crafting site for stay-at-home white women, but if you dive into the content, you will find more than how to make glitter embellished nightlights and chocolate cake.  Rather, there is a vast range of shared information, from:

• how to create a budget to how to manage a blog; 
• from how to stop bullying to how to create a complete fitness routine; and from how to maintain your vehicle to how to lay tile in your bathroom.  

On the downside, there is little verification of the information provided, however users are able to make comments, and they are quick to point out inconsistencies.  

Conversely, if a user finds information to be valuable, the information can be shared by reposting/re-Pinning the entry or by emailing or texting the link to another person.  

Furthermore, Pins can be organized into Boards; and authors can post links to their Pins on other forms of media, such as in a their blogs.  Users can also chose to follow their favorite Pinners.  This doesn’t always mean that the Pinner (being followed) has superior knowledge; rather, it may mean that they provide more valuable or popular Pins.  This allows each Pinner to develop a unique community around his/her interests, and he/she may participate in multiple sub-communities at the same time.

Visit this link for a sample of Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/doanyelle/

Characteristics of Knowledge Communities

Based upon the Pinterest model, a knowledge community: 

• typically interacts online;
• has technical support and frequent updates to maintain its online site;
• allows anyone to be a contributor, as long as the contributions have value;
• is fluid, meaning that members may come and go at will, or as their needs arise and ebb;
• has some measure of accountability for content; and
• shares common likes and interests, while often exploring new ideas and concepts.

This is different than mass culture, as mass culture is “broadcast or otherwise distributed to individuals instead of arising from their day-to-day interactions with each other.  Thus, mass culture generally lacks the unique content of local communities….” (Cheg.com).

Final Thought…

More and more, we rely on each other as sources of information, because we recognize that when we pool information, we are more likely to gain more knowledge (minimally) and we have more influence by being part of the community (maximally).  Thus, by sharing your insight and perspectives on knowledge communities as part of this post, we can begin to create our own knowledge community!

References

Jenkins, H. (2006).  Convergence culture:  Where old and new media collide.  New York, NY: New 

     York University Press.

Levinson, P.  (2014).  New new media (Second edition).  New York, NY: Pearson.

Mass Culture (definition).  Retrieved on July 11, 2016 from

http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/mass-culture-47

Postman’s Huxleyan Warning

In Neil Postman’s (2005) final chapter of Amusing Ourselves to Death, he proposed that our culture could best be described by the Huxleyan theory- that “culture (has) become a burlesque.”  Essentially, his argument was that public discourse had become diluted by factors of entertainment and technology, which was grossly augmented by television consumption.  

Furthermore, Postman urged that we must not fail to recognize that we cannot just make the “problem” go away.  Instead, we must embrace the fact that we have two choices for addressing this matter:

• First, we could turn television programming into a mockery so that people would recognize the foolishness of their unending devotion to its flashy content.  (However, Postman quickly acknowledged that this idea would never work, because to create and relay the actual parodies, we would have to use the very medium that we would be trying to mock); or

• Alternately, we could utilize the education system as a means to teach reform of the way we approach television watching, or to teach correct/responsible media consumption from the start for younger students (Postman, 2005).

I believe that Postman demonstrated an eerie prescience in his predictions surrounding the diminishment of our critical thinking abilities, our disregard of relevance, and the lack of our effectiveness in communicating ideas.  

Throughout the last three decades, these declines appear to be inversely correlated to the increases in our usage of technology.  I also think Postman’s idea to use the school system to re-educate the population regarding responsible media use could be effective- just not in America. As seen in Terms and Conditions May Apply, the Japanese currently incorporate lessons about responsible internet usage in their curriculum, but as Postman noted, “(American" schools have not yet even got around to examining the role of the printed word in shaping our culture" (Postman, 2005, p. 162). Plus, there tends to be a habit in American society of twisting our educational means and lessons to meet our current needs and views. 

 As someone who is extremely leery of media content, and as a result, is very conscientious regarding its use, I am very pessimistic when considering that there’s any hope that Americans will return to the days when critical thinking, thought-provoking rhetoric, or the willingness to challenge others was part of our standard discourse- even though the waning of these concepts was already prevalent when I came upon the Earth in the 1970s.  At this point, I believe “there’s no going back.”  I think that gathering face-to-face and holding lengthy and informed conversations will soon be a “kitchy” thing that old people, odd people, hipsters, and die-hard scholars will do to pass the time.

Reference

Hoback, C.  (2013).  Terms and Conditions May Apply.  Retrieved from: 

            http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Terms-And-Conditions-May-Apply/70279201

Postman, N.  (2005).  Amusing ourselves to death:  Public discourse in the age of show business.

            New York, NY: The Penguin Group