Two Quotes for Today

For the first part of class today, I want us to consider two quotes from the Henry Jenkins book Convergence Culture.

The first one actually is from historian Michael Schudson who is quoted in the book on page 226. Schudson says:

Monitorial citizens tend to be defensive rather than pro-active... The
monitorial citizen engages in environmental surveillance more than
information-gathering. Picture parents watching small children at the community
pool. They are not gathering information; they are keeping an eye on the scene.
They look inactive, but they are poised for action if action is required. The
monitorial citizen is not an absentee citizen but watchful, even while he or she
is doing something else... [They] are perhaps better informed than citizens of
the past in that, somewhere in their heads, [while] they have more bits of
information, there is no assurance that they know at all what to do with what
they know.

That is an interesting comment and something Andrew Shelffo should be able to talk about first hand today.

The other quote comes from the very end of Convergence Culture. Jenkins writes:

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

A pretty powerful ending and a call to action. What do you think?

The Power of Gossip

In Chapter 2 of his book Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins tackles both the historical and more recent role of gossip in society.

He writes:

The specific content of gossip is often less important than the social ties
created through the exchange of secrets between participants -- and for that
reason, the social functions of gossip hold when dealing with television
content. It isn't who you are about but who you are talking with that matters.
Gossip builds common ground between participants, as those who exchange
information assure one another of what they share. Gossip is finally a way of
talking about yourself through critiquing the actions and values of others.

It is especially interesting to me that Jenkins focuses on American Idol in this chapter of this book. This season marks my first year as a viewer of that wildly popular show. And what blows me away about the whole phenomenon is the life the show takes on after everyone has left their TV screens. There is water cooler chat, but beyond that it dominates media coverage and the conversations on the Internet are endless.

Take the latest controversy -- or gossip: the steamy photos of contestant Antonella Barba that have been flying around the Internet. As a result, Barba (and American Idol) has been one of th biggest news stories of the day today. Web sites from major news outlets are all over the story. Watch what TV news does with it tonight and newspapers tomorrow. And bloggers are all over it is well.

Check out this post at NJ.com of this one from PhillyBurbs.com. And just dive into those comments at both places. Wow. Yes, Henry Jenkins is right on the mark.