BubbaNub 3/4

Media convergence and participatory culture is a tricky subject. It is quite apparent that the trends go both ways, but it also raises the question who has the more dominant control over constructing these metanarratives, the media or the public? From all the videos we watched on YouTube it is clear that they are drawing from the media constructed narratives, but in doing so are making statements that are quite different, ones that I believe more accurately represent the public mindframe. The media likes to say that they are merely a reflection of the publics interests, and yet if you carefully analyze what this participatory culture is saying, the majority of the time they are (the only way I can think of describing it) "Participatorally Resisting" contemporary culture. They are using satire and irony in order to reflect at the ridiculous infatuations with metanarratives themselves, like mixing Star trek with Cribs.

Jenkins tells us that "as more and more amateur works have entered into circulation via the Web, the result has been a turn back toward a more folk-culture understanding of creativity" (556). This is definitely true, but I feel that Jenkins must be careful as to how he defines amateur. In most cases, the potential intellectual and even cinematographic quality is of a higher calibur than anything put on cable television. Why would this be? Because it is constructed by the public for the public, it is what media strives to do in one mass mindframe which is impossible. Who better to connect with the viewers than people that have been consuming and viewing media themselves since they were conceived into this digital era? The Internet has provided us the opportunity of broadcasting individual perspectives, which in turn corners niche markets. The totalitarian mindframe mass media has long struggled to maintain is becoming a thing of the past because people are beginning that they can not only find what they want, but they can also make what they want. As networks such as iTunes discovered, there is more profit to be found in niche markets than in the top 100 MTV trash artists anyways. As we continue farther and farther down this path, I think that we will see not only a higher quality of programming, but perhaps even a heightened sense of awareness of being able to use the tools of the media against them.