03 August, 2007

Convergence cabin

I am almost finished reading Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. I know, I know, it was on everyone's reading list last year, but I am a latecomer to all of this!

The book is an exploration of the rapid change in our media landscape brought about by two competing and hopelessly intertwined forces, what Jenkins calls "the top-down force of corporate convergence and the bottom-up force of grassroots convergence" (p. 169). If you read my earlier post on Dewey, you might recall the phrase: "the times are out of joint."

Anyway, as I am reading this book each night, I am telling my husband Ron, "You really need to read this!" I sense that Jenkins' thesis will have some relevance to Ron's line of work as a director of a major branded network web site.

Well, while I only read about convergence culture, Ron is living it. He just sent me the link to his site's newly launched section, DIY Blog Cabin 2007. While perhaps not as sexy as the American Idol, Survivor, and The Matrix examples presented in Convergence Culture, Blog Cabin truly is a study in media convergence down to the series' tagline, "Watch DIY Network build what you blogged."

Henry Jenkins, take note!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well you left me in the dust. I guess I'll have to find this book and get with the program. Thanks.