Amy Unrau's Midterm

Amy Unrau
Comm 405
10/15/09
Professor Conway

Coinciding Themes Between Conway, Galewski and Jenkins

Conway, Galewski and Jenkins all have pieces of writing that reflect upon how involved people can be with today’s media. Conway and Galewski focus more on the participation of making the media, and Jenkins focuses more so on how involved people become with the media they see that is produced by someone else. Their focus deals with many aspects such as location of the participants, age, and also what kind of cultural groups they belong to. All of these factors lead them to agree that people are involved with media in a greater way than ever before in history.

Conway and Galewski wrote a piece called “Not the Voice Coppola would expect: Microcinema and Its Challenge to Publicness”. Throughout the piece, they discuss the main focus or goal that a producer of microcinema has. On page two of the printout, they begin to discuss how Jurgen Habermas believes microcinema has an artistic goal to be rational and become a form of mass media. On page four, the two authors of the piece argue against that with an example called “How To Be An Influential Woman”. They state that the piece is clearly trying to be ironic.

The authors discuss an argument with Sherman Alexie, Joel S. Bachar, and Francis Ford Coppola on the first page of their article. The three believe that absolutely anyone can make a movie, which will change the meaning of microcinema as we know it. Conway and Galewski go on to argue that this is not true.

One way to give respect to all authors who are involved with this article is to use YouTube as an example. Many people watch videos which are posted on the site for a form of entertainment. Also, everyday, more and more users are uploading videos that they have made. The ability to produce videos is becoming more readily available to “the average person”. Many people, however, are not what you can call “the average person”. There are people in very low social classes who have a very large inability to come in contact with equipment and time needed to produce videos. Monetary factors are a big influence in who can produce microcinema.

In the article, the authors provide an example of a fat girl from Ohio who can make art from her daddy’s video camera. Conway and Galewski argue against the opposing authors that people are not trying to convey a meaningful message and be the next winner of a prestigious film contest. When you look at many of the videos on YouTube, you find they have very poor quality and quite frequently have no meaning other than to make a person laugh. People do not browse YouTube for an artistic form of media. Therefore, under Conway and Galewski argument, Habermas’ definition of microcinema would not work.

The first chapter of Convergence Culture is entitled “Spoiling Survivor: The Anatomy of a Knowledge Community”. In this part of the book, Henry Jenkins explains how involved the average person is becoming with participatory media. Spoiling is the act of revealing information about a particular show before it airs on television. On page twenty-five, Jenkins goes on to describe a certain situation with the show Survivor . A man called “ChillOne” is a very dedicated spoiler who is right about most of his spoils.

Convergence Culture’s main point of reasoning is that media consumers are becoming more and more active in participating with all forms of media. Also, producers of today’s media are having a tough time keeping up with the changing times. On page thirty-eight in “Spoiling Survivor”, Jenkins mentions the struggle that the producers of Survivor have with spoilers. He mentions that Mark Burnett of CBS and other producers had to tighten up security of information because there were leaks of certain information which only people who are involved with the production process would know. This trickle of information then gets blogged and the show does not have as much dramatic surprise that the producers wanted.

Survivor is not the only show that has been spoiled. I have been guilty of participating in the spoiling community. I have not done actual spoiling, myself, but I have tried to figure out what will happen in the next episode. One of my favorite shows is NBC’s “The Office”. I am a huge fan who religiously watched every new episode when it airs, or if I am unable to watch it that night, I record it to watch sometime the next day. Through many years of watching the show, I have become attached to the characters and want to know everything that is going to happen in the future. I go to sites like OfficeTally.com, SpoilerNews.com, or even Wikipedia.org. All of these sites give people like me inside information that we would otherwise not find out until the actual show airs.

People can also become participants with media in more ways than just blogging. There is an example that happened during the Social Implications of a Technology Society class. Many times the class gets sidetracked on different tangents that are partially influence by the class discussion. If there is a show brought up that we all are fans of, we start conversing about our favorite characters and what we want to happen in the future episode. People want to talk about what they care about. In today’s world, media is a large way of communication, which in turn sparks other forms of communication between individuals.

On page fifty-eight, Jenkins mentions says, “… we will come to understand how entertainment companies are reappraising the economic value of fan participation.” This suggests that producers of shows will change their marketing and ways of viewer interaction to fit the needs of people who feel the need to spoil the next episodes.

Since the beginning of mass media, producers have constantly changed their ways of involving viewers. If you go to NBC.com, you can find ample amounts of ways that viewers can become closer with their favorite show. Under the show The Office, you can find links called “Pam’s Video Blog”, “Exclusives”, and “Visit DMI (Dunder Mifflin Inc.). All of these links give the viewers more ways to become closer with their favorite show.

Conway, Galewski, and Jenkins all argue that the general population is becoming more and more involved with participating in the production and interaction of various forms of media. The arguments are very different from each other, but have the same central idea. Media is expanding and “the average person” is involved with it more than ever. As time goes on, the concept of personal involvement with media will continue to expand.

Works Cited
Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New
York University Press.
Conway, Kyle and Elizabeth Galewski. “Not the Voice Coppola Would Expect: Microcinema
and Its Challenge to Public-ness.” Bad Subjects 74 (2005). URL: bad.eserver.org/issues/2006/74/congalew.html