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Convergence Culture

KCB201 Virtual CulturesDr Axel Bruns

a.bruns@qut.edu.au

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The Future of Culture?

“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.”

(Jenkins p. 2)

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What’s Happening Here?

‒ Key aspects of convergence culture:• flow of content across media platforms, channels, contexts• flow of content between professionals and amateurs• active, productive audiences, users, produsers• loss of control over intellectual property• unexpected repurposing, new uses

∘ new commercial opportunities?∘ more conflicts between creative industries and creative users?

‒ Key cultural shifts:• participatory culture – all users may be active as content

creators• collective intelligence – widespread sharing and collaboration

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Henry Jenkins

Authors@Google, Cambridge, Mass., 5 Nov. 2007(warning: may offend some Star Trek fans)

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Key Models

‒ Two streams:• data information knowledge wisdom

∘ individuals developing their own knowledge

• information communication collective intelligence∘ collectives sharing knowledge and resources

finding evaluating sharing

‒ Convergence culture is what follows if this happens on a large scale:• collaborative communities creating content• development and sharing of new ideas (information and creative work)• more knowledge for individuals and communities• fundamental changes to traditional industry / audience relationships

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The Future of Culture?

“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.”

(Jenkins p. 2)

So what happens next?