Jenkins: Entertainment isn't all Bad

            While a little more densely written and laborious in making his points, Jenkins walks a line very similar to Postman. They both see how the technologies of entertainment are being amassed against the thinking individual. Technology is a trap; a highly attractive distraction that can be enjoyed but carries with it the potential to imprison our minds. Much like The Matrix film series and convergent media project, we run the risk of becoming slaves to our technologies, so enthralled by the flashing lights and buzzing whistles, we are as likely as not to completely miss our own incarceration.

            Where Postman is looking broadly at the elements of television (and by extension the elements that exist in modern media) that keep us coming back, Jenkins delves into the realm of social media, examining how these amusements have become central to the creation of online communities. Through examinations of television phenomenon like Survivor and American Idol, Jenkins is able to argue that the community is as important a part of the viewing as the show itself. Survivor gave rise to “spoiling” communities, groups of people who combined their knowledge and time to attempt to guess the winner of the game. As Jenkins says: “What holds a collective intelligence together is not the possession of knowledge, which is relatively static, but the social process of acquiring knowledge, which is dynamic” (Jenkins 64). This is the glue that holds the spoiler community together; it’s not that anyone of them or even all of them are experts in any particular way, but that they all desire to learn something unknown, in this case the “survivor”. The search for this knowledge forms a community, fostered by the powerful communication potential of the world wide web.

            Jenkins restates all too often his points, making reading his work a little tedious. After the first couple of chapters, I felt as if I were being told many, many things I already knew. Of course Survivor and American Idol are wildly successful shows; they draw in the masses by making them feel like a part of the show. Of course The Matrix doesn’t make sense. I knew all that, if only in a vague way. What Jenkins does, and it took me some time to realize this, is say it so often and in so many different ways that it becomes impossible to ignore. Media are converging; different forms are meeting and blending together. Our habits are changing: because of this, the way we think about and form communities are changing too.

            This is a point Jenkins leaves me with most thoroughly. While I had always just written those television shows off as more bad TV, I had failed to notice how strong the community of followers were. Utilizing the Internet to generate virtual communities, formed around a central interest (in these cases entertainment programs) is a powerful new marketing tool. While there are those who will go on and on about the virtues of a connected world, corporations are wasting no time in turning this connectivity into profitability.

            So while we all enjoy the benefits of the Internet, there is still the looming presence of corporate America tossing ads at us. Even as I write this, my Facebook page is open with ads along the right margin. And my last Google search features “sponsored links” at the top of the list of search results. This corporate sponsorship may allow the Internet to operate under our capitalist system, but as we become desensitized to the constant stream of advertising and marketing we risk losing sight of the benefits of convergent culture. Jenkins makes this point plain in his closing chapter with the True Majority example: “True Majority’s goal was to get these ideas into the broadest possible circulation” (Jenkins 225). The Internet and the culture that is forming around it are about just that; utilizing any and all forms of media to make one’s message or art or music or interests known to the world, were these things can be admired, discussed, built upon and otherwise benefit society.

            Jenkins is telling us through repeated examples that our media are meeting, blending and becoming something new. No longer does a movie need only exist in that 120 minute span inside the darkened theater. We can log on to learn more about the movie, find fan fiction, tweet about what we like and dislike, become immersed in a gaming world set parallel to the events in the film and so much more. Media experiences are becoming larger, grander and more in depth experiences, all the while filtering us past numerous forms of advertising. This is a relationship that, while not really different than past means of getting at entertainment, has the potential to give voice to so many more individuals. Companies that produce convergent media are opening a door to fans and critics, giving them all an opportunity to participate, dissect and continue to enjoy the media they already love.

            This message is what I see as Jenkins’ lasting impact. While Postman poignantly makes us aware of how much influence and control entertainment has on our lives, Jenkins goes to great lengths to demonstrate how powerful newer entertainment technology can be in creating and maintaining communities of vastly separated individuals. Even if these people are coming together to deepen their entertainment experiences, they attest to the immense potential the Internet contains for building community. This is perhaps the great benefit of entertainment that Postman was unable to see in 1985: while entertainment is thoroughly distracting it also holds the potential to form diverse new communities. This kind of community building holds the key to democracy’s survival in an ever increasingly corporate world. If the average person is going to make themselves heard, producing fan fiction and participating in online debates are where they will learn to do so.